So Peter lops off the ear of one of the men who come to arrest Jesus. What was he thinking? He wasn’t. At least he wasn’t thinking spiritually. He was thinking and acting in terms of human strength and human wisdom. His battle was against flesh and blood. But that’s not where our battle lies. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

We are in a spiritual battle. There is a titanic struggle between good and evil, the forces of light and the forces of evil, between Jesus and Satan. We know how it ends, we know that Christ has defeated evil, and we know that “in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

Still, we are tempted to see our battle as against people, organizations, political parties, and other earthly and worldly systems.

We must remember that Christ has defeated all “the world forces of this darkness.” For us then, we are to live like it. Put on the whole armor of God. Stand firm as a Gospel proclaimer and a peacemaker. Let your life be held together by the truth—Jesus is the Truth, sent by the God of Truth, and the Spirit of Truth lives in us. Protect your mind and all that you think with the whole of salvation, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, letting your mind dwell on all that is good. Daily, clothe yourself in the imputed righteousness of Christ, but obey Him so that His righteousness becomes righteous thoughts, words, and deeds. In faith, trust in His power alone to protect you from all evil that assails you. And use the most crucial weapon of this warfare, God’s Word. Study it, know it, live it, and breath it.

Our greatest asset is godliness. This is the spiritual transformation that the resurrected Christ produces in our lives as we live by faith. This is our armament; this is our protection.

So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:6-11

The Apostle Paul changes the metaphors of spiritual armament for spiritual battle from Ephesians 6—the breastplate and helmet are different. But the effect is the same: spiritual virtues and disciplines in Christ give us victory in the battle that lies before us. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.”