{"id":90719,"date":"2021-03-11T18:22:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T23:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/weapons-of-righteousness\/"},"modified":"2023-10-30T01:07:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T05:07:16","slug":"weapons-of-righteousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/weapons-of-righteousness\/","title":{"rendered":"Weapons of Righteousness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201c<strong>As servants of God we commend ourselves in\nevery way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; . . . in\ntruthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the\nright hand and in the left<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>2 Corinthians 6:4, 7<\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">All people are born into a world war of good against evil.\nThe good side\u2019s battle plan, God\u2019s Word, reveals that, while this war is fought\nin many arenas, our fight is ultimately \u201c<strong>not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against\nthe authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the\nspiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>Ephesians 6:12<\/strong>).\nNormal, physical weapons are of no avail in such a battle. We need weapons of\nrighteousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Christians, by God\u2019s grace, have the privilege of fighting\non the winning side (<strong>Revelation 20:7\u201314<\/strong>). As we know, \u201c<strong>it is not by sword\nor spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord\u2019s<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>1 Samuel 17:47<\/strong>).\nWe are trained and equipped by God to complete our assigned missions in that\nbattle (<strong>Psalm\n144:1<\/strong>; <strong>Ephesians 6:10<\/strong>). Paul refers to the instruments\nGod equips us with as \u201c<strong>weapons of righteousness<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In what way are the weapons linked to \u201c<strong>righteousness<\/strong>\u201d? God told the Israelites\nthat their power to defeat the evil nations in Canaan was not due to their own\nrighteousness (<strong>Deuteronomy\n9:4\u20136<\/strong>), nor our own (<strong>Philippians 3:9<\/strong>). In fact, it is all about the\nrighteousness of Jesus Christ: \u201c<strong>God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him\nwe might become the righteousness of God<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>2 Corinthians 5:21<\/strong>). To enter a\nbattle without God\u2019s righteousness assures defeat (<strong>Numbers 14:42<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">There is no \u201cneutral\u201d side in the spiritual war. All people\nmust choose to join one side or the other, for \u201c<strong>no one can serve two masters<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>Luke 16:13<\/strong>).\nJesus declared, \u201c<strong>Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me\nscatters<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>Luke 11:23<\/strong>). &nbsp;Paul commands, \u201c<strong>Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For\nwhat do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can\nlight have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or\nwhat does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there\nbetween the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God<\/strong>\u201d\n(<strong>2 Corinthians\n6:14\u201316<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Second Corinthians 6:3\u201310<\/strong> provides the context of\nPaul\u2019s reference to weapons of righteousness. Here Paul describes the tough\nlife of a devoted warrior for Christ. The hardships he faces are of every\nkind\u2014spiritual, emotional, and physical\u2014and they are continuous. That\u2019s why he\nmust always carry his \u201c<strong>weapons of righteousness<\/strong>\u201d in both hands\u2014right and\nleft are equally balanced and engaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">God has equipped us for the battles we face. \u201c<strong>For though we live\nin the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with\nare not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to\ndemolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets\nitself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to\nmake it obedient to Christ<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>2 Corinthians 10:3\u20135<\/strong>).&nbsp; Here are God\u2019s primary weapons of\nrighteousness:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li><strong>The\nBible.<\/strong> All God\u2019s words are true and righteous (<strong>Psalm 119:160<\/strong>, <strong>172<\/strong>) and useful for \u201c<strong>training in\nrighteousness<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>2 Timothy 3:16<\/strong>). That makes the Bible an effective\nweapon for Christians. \u201c<strong>For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any\ndouble-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and\nmarrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>Hebrews 4:12<\/strong>).\nJesus used God\u2019s Word to defeat Satan\u2019s temptations (<strong>Matthew 4:1\u201311<\/strong>). The word of the\nLord has power to strike down the nations (<strong>Revelation 19:15, 21<\/strong>). <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li><strong>Faith.<\/strong>\nThe Old Testament tells of heroes \u201c<strong>who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice,\nand gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury\nof the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to\nstrength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies<\/strong>\u201d\n(<strong>Hebrews\n11:33\u201334<\/strong>). Jesus revealed that even a small amount of faith has\nenough power to move mountains (<strong>Matthew 17:20<\/strong>). &nbsp;The Apostle John testified, \u201c<strong>Everyone born of\nGod overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even\nour faith<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>1 John 5:4<\/strong>).<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li><strong>Prayer.<\/strong>\n\u201c<strong>The prayer of a\nrighteous person is powerful and effective<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>James 5:16<\/strong>). &nbsp;Summarizing the time of the judges, <strong>Nehemiah 9:27<\/strong>\nsays, \u201c<strong>When they\nwere oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your\ngreat compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of\ntheir enemies.<\/strong>\u201d <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li><strong>Goodness.<\/strong>\nWe are instructed to \u201c<strong>overcome evil with good<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>Romans 12:21<\/strong>). It may seem that evil\nis more powerful, or at least more prevalent, but it is only temporary. One\nbeliever, taking a stand on the side of goodness, can turn back much evil. It\nis important that we \u201c<strong>add to our faith goodness,<\/strong>\u201d which empowers us to\ndefeat the evil without and within (<strong>2 Peter 1:4\u20135<\/strong>).<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li><strong>Love.<\/strong>\nAll our other weapons of righteousness are worthless without this one, the\ngreatest commandment (<strong>Mark 12:30\u201331<\/strong>); it is even greater than faith (<strong>1 Corinthians\n13:1\u20133<\/strong>), the fruit of the Holy Spirit (<strong>Galatians 5:22<\/strong>). \u201c<strong>For the Spirit God\ngave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline<\/strong>\u201d\n(<strong>2 Timothy 1:7<\/strong>).\nLove empowers Christians by giving us understanding, encouragement, and joy (<strong>Colossians 2:2\u20133<\/strong>;\n<strong>Philemon 1:4\u20137<\/strong>).\nGod\u2019s love will protect us from evil (<strong>Psalm 17:7<\/strong>; <strong>52:8<\/strong>; <strong>61:7<\/strong>) just as surely as it cleansed us from sin\nand defeated Satan\u2019s plans against us (<strong>Psalm 103:10\u201312<\/strong>; <strong>John 3:16<\/strong>; <strong>Revelation 12:10<\/strong>).<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">War is marked by death. Our Savior conquered death, then\ngave to us that same power over death and all other threats. Therefore, \u201c<strong>we are more than\nconquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor\nlife, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any\npowers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be\nable to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord<\/strong>\u201d\n(<strong>Romans 8:37\u201339<\/strong>).&nbsp; Live victoriously!&nbsp; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAs servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; . . . in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left\u201d (2 Corinthians 6:4, 7) All people are born into a world war of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[534],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Weapons of Righteousness - Grace Evangelical Free Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Weapons of Righteousness - Grace Evangelical Free Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cAs servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; . . . in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left\u201d (2 Corinthians 6:4, 7) All people are born into a world war of [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/weapons-of-righteousness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grace Evangelical Free Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-11T23:22:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-30T05:07:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tony Raker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tony Raker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/weapons-of-righteousness\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/weapons-of-righteousness\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tony Raker\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/#\/schema\/person\/6785bcea471ae92fb3660d811c5c74ef\"},\"headline\":\"Weapons of Righteousness\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-11T23:22:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-30T05:07:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/weapons-of-righteousness\/\"},\"wordCount\":1010,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Life\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/weapons-of-righteousness\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/weapons-of-righteousness\/\",\"name\":\"Weapons of Righteousness - Grace Evangelical Free Church\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-11T23:22:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-30T05:07:16+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/weapons-of-righteousness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/\",\"name\":\"Grace Evangelical Free Church\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Grace Evangelical Free Church\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/gefc-logo-full-color-rgb.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/gefc-logo-full-color-rgb.svg\",\"width\":514,\"height\":259,\"caption\":\"Grace Evangelical Free Church\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/#\/schema\/person\/6785bcea471ae92fb3660d811c5c74ef\",\"name\":\"Tony Raker\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/author\/pastor_admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Weapons of Righteousness - Grace Evangelical Free Church","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Weapons of Righteousness - Grace Evangelical Free Church","og_description":"\u201cAs servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; 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