GREATEST BATTLEFIELD OF LIFE The world has recognized, and set aside for memorials, some battlefields such as Gettysburg, Waterloo, Bull Run, Little Big Horn and the Alamo.  But Christians are engaged in a different kind of war.  Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world, else would my servants fight.” (John 18:36)  In Ephesians 6:16 the apostle Paul   said, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”.  The battle we are fighting is not against governments, and people but it is a spiritual battle against the forces of evil led by Satan himself. For most of us it is relatively easy to find and fight the forces of evil we see around us, but the hardest battle and greatest battle is not carnal.  Remember the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: . . .” This is our battlefield, our hearts, minds and will.  This is a battle we must win. “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” Jesus said in John 8:32. There is nothing else that can do this.  But truth cannot make us free until it is known.  Only when we hear the truth can we believe it and live by it.  The gospel of Christ is “the power of God unto salvation…”.    Paul wrote to the Romans in 10:17 and said “so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”  If we win the battle against lack of knowledge, it will be by hearing the Word of God.  For most of us it isn’t easy to read the Scriptures and quickly understand all that we would like.  It takes diligent study and effort.  “Study to show thyself...” Paul stated in 2 Timothy 2:15.  When we apply ourselves to learn His teaching, we can.  I love the words of Jesus in John 6:45 when he said “It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God.  Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.”  He clearly stated the order:  hear, learn, come.  If anyone would come to Christ he must seek to know His will.   Another battle that we must fight to win is the battle against immorality.  Murder, lying, cheating adultery, stealing are more than social ills.  They are problems that each of us may face at some time.  Paul lists the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21 and he adds “that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”  John gives another list in Revelation 21:8 and says they “. . .shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone:  which is the second death.”  Once we become children of God, this does not give us a license to sin.  But how can we overcome temptation and find the way of escape the Lord has promised in 1 Corinthians 10: 13?  It is still a battle for the heart.  The greatest battlefield against these sins is the heart.  Read Matthew 5:21: -28.  Sin begins in the heart, and that is where our battle must be won.  Jesus in talking to the Pharisees said “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?  For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”  Again the wise man Solomon said in Proverbs 4:23 “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”  Immorality, in every form, begins in the heart.  “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.”   (Proverbs 23:7)  When we fill our hearts with evil desires, an evil life results.  When Paul name the things worth thinking on in Phillipans 4:8 he added “…think on these things.”  It is a rough battle against immorality but we can win. The last battle I want to mention is the battle against wrong attitudes.  Wrong attitudes lead to sinful actions, as we learn in the battle against immorality.  Many people fail to recognize wrong attitudes as sinful, whether followed by sinful actions or not.  In Galatians 5 among the works of the flesh Paul mentions “hathed, wrath, malice and strife.”  Further in Colossians 3:8-10 Paul shows that anger, wrath, malice and lying, belong to the “old man of sin”.  The gospel of Christ is to change people, and that change begins in the heart.  As attitudes change, the life that results will change also. Too often people hide behind the idea that we “cannot help the way we feel”.  That is not true.  Hate is sin; love is a command.  If we couldn’t help the way we feel we could not be held responsible for either.  Peter said in 1 Peter 1:22 “love one another with a pure heart fervently.”  Paul stated it clearly in Ephesians 4:31-32 “let all bitterness, wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”  We need to obey the commands of our Lord “Love your enemy” (Matthew 5:44)  The writer of Hebrews in 10:24 said “consider one another to provoke unto love.”   As James wrote: “Purify your hearts”  (James 4:8) then our lives will be pure, in both word and deed. Oh, how much better we are, as well as the Lord’s church, if we had a strong knowledge of the Word of God, and use it to fight the many battles that we have to fight daily against Satan and his forces of evil.   Bill Young