The Enemy we Easily Overlook

In Gospel ministry it’s easy to get obsessed with the enemies out there. We can feel helpless before scheming false teachers and imagine they are our greatest enemies. But I think we forget the two greatest enemies of our ministry, Satan and ourselves. It’s good for us to think of how to counter false teaching but we need to be careful we are not missing the one who is behind it all. The cult leader looks like the biggest threat so we get obsessed at how to deal with him. But we miss his master who is at work in others seemingly closer and more friendly to true Gospel ministry. We miss the real enemy as we spend all our time fighting his frontline soldiers. We forget that such are only a few of his several pawns in this devilish chess game.

But I think we miss the greatest enemy of them all. We forget if there’s someone who could really make a shipwreck of our faith and ministry it’d actually be ourselves. The greatest threat to my ministry is not the false teacher across the road or the secular world around me. It’s me. It’s my uncontrolled passions and desires. It’s my sin and pride. It’s my desire to fit in rather than be the odd one out. So you can imagine what happens when all our moves concentrate on the pawns and leave the King exposed in this chess match. Almost without a fault the enemy will use us against ourselves.

In this sense, we are playing a game where we are already disadvantaged because we are our own worst enemies. But that’s not all, most of the time we are the enemy we most overlook in our offense strategy. As we look out there and fight our external enemies we forget the sin that dwells within us. We forget our own idols. Our blindspots and the fact that we are still a work in progress. When you think about it you realize just how the odds are against us. That our chances of winning are near impossible. But praise be to God that he works within us by his Spirit as much as he works through us. The one miracle we forget every day we wake up is not just that we’ve seen another day but that we haven’t made a shipwreck of our faith and ministries. If you are looking for evidence of God’s work in your life and ministry I’d say don’t look too far away. You are a miracle.

It’s important and biblical to try to save those who are perishing because of false teaching, see Jude 1:22-23. But do make sure you don’t miss the real arch-enemy who is Satan and sin in you. If you do, you’ll find both your diagnosis and prognosis are always wrong and your true enemy will always be ten moves ahead of you. By all means warn others and be careful you are not deceived yourself. But be even more afraid of the harm you can cause yourself and those around you. Paul gives a good warning in 1 Tim 4:16 which I consider a good motto for life and ministry:

Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. NIV

If we heed this advice our perspective will be more biblical and our weapons of war more spiritual. Be careful not to fight a spiritual war with human weapons otherwise you’ll have no chance at all. Be a man of the word and prayer and treat yourself as much of an enemy as you do the enemies around you.