Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13:30

Spiritual warfare is inevitable for Christians, and one of the ways it makes itself evident is in what is currently called the culture wars. Each side tends to demonize the other and think that the other side epitomizes the evil tendencies in our time and in our socio-political life. But the great pitfall of engaging in such wars is that the focus may shift from the spiritual prize to flesh and-blood enmity, and the conflict may shift from fighting in the spirit to fighting in the flesh. “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,” (Ephesians 6:12).

The funny thing about the darkness and the light, the flesh and the spirit, is that all human beings have both of them. To paraphrase Alexander Solzhenitsyn, it would be nice to separate the good people from the bad. But it’s not so easy because the line dividing good from evil cuts, not through the sides of the culture wars, but through the heart of every human being.

The Gospel of Jesus which relates the parable of the wheet and the weeds is more practical in the long run than today’s cultural wars. Let the good and the bad co-exist like wheet and weeds in a field (Matthew 13:30). They will be separated on the day of judgment by the Lord. Our responsibility is to behave like good wheet, and to fight the spiritual war against all forms of evil in society.

John Kennedy, Author of Jesus, His Eternal legacy