It was the late Dr. Frederick G. Sampson who opened one of his sermons with these words: “We stand helpless before the towering mystery of evil’s tragic dominion, feeling our helpless inadequacies and the grim fact of sin and chaos and man’s inhumanity to man. In the realm of Spiritual Warfare, we must acknowledge this struggle.”
And it was the African Apostle Paul who, after surveying the landscape of his life’s work and the first century’s critical crisis under the dominating cruelty of the Roman Empire and its megalomaniacal Caesars, wrote these words: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Understanding Spiritual Warfare is crucial for confronting these challenges.
What Dr. Sampson and the Apostle Paul recognized is that faith is a fight.
They saw with crystal clarity that the struggle for justice, equity, compassion, empathy, and the demonstration of unconditional love embodied by that African revolutionary from Nazareth, Jesus Christ, is itself spiritual warfare.
It is a battle between darkness and light. That is why Jesus told the poor peasant audience in his Sermon on the Mount, “You are the light of the world…let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
What good works, you ask? The same good works that Jesus demonstrated during his earthly sojourn. He fed hungry people at no cost. He healed the sick and disabled without asking for insurance cards. He took a primary and special interest in those whom the wealthy politicians and religious elites of his day chose not only to exclude but also to burden with overwhelming debt, societal shame, and social stigmatization.
Jesus showed preference for those at the bottom of biblical Palestine’s society. For that, he was hounded and hunted by those in the upper ranks. He was eventually crucified by the Romans because he dared to defy the emperor’s demand to be worshiped as a god. Crucifixion was the lynching tree of the first century—reserved for those who dared to defy the domination dictates of Rome.
The African Apostle Paul, following those same justice- and equity-minded spiritual principles, faced hardships and harassment from the same class of elites as he spread the good news of Jesus throughout Europe.
What Dr. Sampson, the Apostle Paul, and Jesus demonstrate to us in the 21st century is that the true work of authentically loving people is spiritual warfare.
Their lives teach us that before you can minister to the souls of people, you must first meet the physical needs of people. Before you can pontificate on principles of piety, you must first address the political policies that oppress. Before you talk about heaven, you must first be concerned about the physical, economic, and educational health of people. And finally, they teach us that one’s citizenship should never take precedence over the humanity of others.
That, beloved, is spiritual warfare.
Far too many today think spiritual warfare means praying, tarrying, and speaking in tongues behind church walls on Sunday, while having no programs, no outreach, and no consistent commitment to meeting the needs of the poor—or speaking truth to oppressive powers through the preaching and teaching of the faith of Jesus of Nazareth.
That is why the true Christians of this country, like that lion of liberation Frederick Douglass, once declared: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
That’s spiritual warfare.
It is also in the words of the great Anna Julia Cooper, who said, “Only the Black woman can say, when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me.”
That’s spiritual warfare.
Be authentic, be encouraged, and stay woke. Uhuru Sassa!
The Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.” Contact the church by email at [email protected] or by phone at 219-944-0500.