Don’t Fight the Wrong War

Christians are at war.

Where does your mind go when you read the above assertion? It’s Christmas time. Do you think about the so-called “war on Christmas” and get angry about Starbucks renaming their classic “Christmas Blend” to the boring “Holiday” alternative? Or perhaps you imagine fighting for the right side in a great cultural conflict that neatly divides along the partisan line separating Republicans from Democrats?

I recently received a letter in the mail that began like this: “Our country and state are in a war to maintain conservative and Christian values.” We’re so used to hearing such rhetoric that few who prize conservative and Christian values dare to question it. We don’t have time to debate worldviews when we’ve got an urgent culture war to win!

I’m a person who prizes conservative and Christian values. If you gave me a conservative values test, I predict I would ace it. As a Christian, I value marriage the way God designed it. I believe God created us male and female. Because each human being is created uniquely in the image of God, I abhor abortion and euthanasia. I value family and church and want my children to grow up in a culture that also champions these irreplaceable institutions. When I vote, I exclusively support candidates who live out these values in their personal lives and commit to them through sound policy agendas.

With that said, I reject the framework that Christians are at war to maintain conservative and Christian values. In fact, adopting this worldview may cause us to lose the real war God calls us to fight.

The Bible certainly calls Christians to war. However, the battle lines never place Christians on one side against secular enemies in the culture. Our primary war is against our own passions (1 Pet 2:11). After that, we put on God’s spiritual armor to fight against “the schemes of the devil” (Eph 5:11). James tells us that the “world” is our enemy and that we should resist friendship with it, but here too the target of our attack is the “passions at war within you” (Jam 4:1-4). Paul even explicitly denies that our war is against “flesh and blood” (Eph 5:12) and forbids “waging war according to the flesh” (2 Cor 10:4).

Does this mean that Christians should withdraw from politics and be unconcerned with cultural values? Absolutely not. We “seek the welfare of the city” where we are exiled (Jer 29:7). Jesus’s call to neighbor love certainly includes working toward a just society wherein human beings can flourish according to God’s good design. Faithful Christians must enter the public square to bear witness to Christ and his ways. We advocate for truth, goodness, and beauty for the benefit of all. Practically, we should vote our values and seek policies that align with God’s character and design.

However, as we advocate for truth and righteousness, we must remember that our real war is never against flesh and blood. Our enemies are not the people who vote differently and contradict our values. If those people do become our enemies—if they actively resist and persecute us—then we must love them: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:43-45).

It’s exciting to imagine life as war. It gives us purpose and a mission. When life is war, we wake up each day trying to gain new ground for our cause. We forge camaraderie with our fellow soldiers who join us on the battlefield. We fill our days studying strategies to outflank our enemies. We sacrifice our lives to the cause.

But what if you’ve been fighting the wrong war? What if the Culture War is a diversion tactic from your true enemy and you’ve allowed him to outflank you? What if you’re feeding the “passions at war within you” rather than defeating them by stirring up hatred for other people? What if you’ve made the world your friend in the name of making the right side win? What if you’re so locked into the “war to maintain conservative and Christian values” in our country that you’ve already lost the war against your own passions? What if the intensity of your hatred for the other has overcome your desire to see them redeemed in Christ?

Don’t fight the wrong war.