“Beware of no man more than yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us,” wrote the powerful Baptist preacher/pastor/soldier for the Christian worldview, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

I came across this Spurgeon zinger in a book recommended to me by a former pastor of mine. The book, a simple but not simplistic book, is Farrar’s Finishing Strong.

Another zinger from the book is this one from the great American military officer George S. Patton, Jr. Patton wrote, “Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.”

Satan is wickedly smart. Crafty is the better adjective. He is crafty and wicked. His motives are demonic and he is a liar and thief by nature. He knows how to sabotage us and is determined to shipwreck God’s people. Therefore, God’s people must do battle with the wicked one but by fighting the wise and right way. That wise and right way, of course, is God’s way:

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God (Psalm 20:7, ESV).

It was not David’s wisdom and strength that slew Goliath, after all, but God’s. David, after all, went from hero to zero, in many ways. He was anointed king but when he should have been a wise and humble king, he made shipwreck of his testimony in many ways via his sins against Uriah, Bathsheba, his own nation’s armies, and most fundamentally, against God.

In Psalm 51, we see David’s brokenness:

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment (Psalm 51:4, ESV).

Recently I came through a process where I was highly emotionally invested. I had written papers, studied, read dozens of books, taught scores of students, etc. but I was being questioned by a panel of people who held the exact opposite worldview as I. I believe the God of the Bible. I believe that people bear the imago Dei (the image of God), as recorded in Scripture. I believe that we are created either male or female. I believe marriage is a covenant between one man and one woman for life. I believe we’re to marry and raise children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

All of these things are so fundamental, so overt in Scripture, so self-evidently wise that it’s pure folly to kick against their wisdom. But the panel was peopled by three-out-of-four who denied those truths. They rejected the biblical worldview and me as a follower of that worldview.

And I had to come to terms with my rejection. I held a view that simply cannot be tolerated by the secular Left. There’s to be no tolerance for those with biblical values. And this is yet another example of what the Bible means when the 66 books of Scripture illustrate and teach on spiritual warfare.

Believers are told up front that we will be hated:

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’ (John 15:18-25, ESV).

But we’re also told to rejoice:

Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their father did to the prophets (Luke 6:22-23, ESV).

Encouragement: We were told up front, fellow pilgrim; we were told we should not be surprised (1 Peter 4:12). So let us be faithful, trust the Lord, and know that ultimately truth wins.