“Abram armed his trained servants” and conquered the enemy. I believe there is a special need for Christians in the present day to be “trained” and “armed.” What is the training, and what are the arms for us? I ask my own heart, as I see some that have been carried away by the enemy, “Am I well armed?” And I ask, Are you disciplined and armed, so that you are not in danger of being carried away by some device of the enemy? This is the question for us. We must see to it that we are armed; Lot was not, and many Christians are not. The Ephesians were exhorted by the Apostle Paul to take the whole armor of God. Peter also warns the saints, “Forasmuch as Christ also hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind” (1 Peter 4:1). And why do we need these exhortations, if we are already armed? The answer brings before us the key to the whole matter. The One who trod this earth before us, to whom Peter refers, is the Lord. Never did the enemy get an advantage over Him or turn Him aside from a right path. We are to be armed with the same mind. What mind was in Him? Philippians 2 reveals it to us. He would obey, and He would serve; He would do only the will of God. Only by giving up my will can I be like Christ, for Christ did God’s will. Both obedience and submission must be true of us if we are fully to follow Him.
Lot is an example of one who was carried away a captive to his own will, and thus he was in the hands of the enemy (though doubtless unknown to himself) long before the occasion of Genesis 14. He made a deliberate choice of what was easiest to nature in chapter 13. But there came a special time of trial to Lot and his house which brought it all out. God allows such special trials to come, for our profit.
The Apostle Arming Timothy
It is very touching to notice the tender solicitude of the Apostle Paul, the aged servant of the Lord, toward those he was leaving behind. He was putting off the armor himself. He said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” He was training and putting the armor on Timothy. He says there must be self-restraint and endurance. “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.” We must not stop fighting; giving up in this conflict will cause us to become entangled in the world. “Hold fast the form of sound words.” “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.” “Study to show thyself approved unto God.” “Flee also youthful lusts.” “Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” “Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned.” Concerning others, he said, “From such turn away.” “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season. ... Watch thou in all things.” These are passages that form a continual training or drill which clearly show the object of the Apostle in this epistle. He is arming the man of God as one who knew well the subtle power of the enemy and the value and necessity of such armor. Without this armor no one can be a man of God, “throughly furnished unto all good works.”
Like the Lord Jesus
The Lord Jesus has gone through this scene before us, triumphantly “spoiling” the house of the enemy, and delivering his captives out of his hand. Do you desire to go through this world like Christ? Then you must be like Him. Whatever others may do, you must crush by the power of the Spirit as taught in the Word every movement of your own will that rises up in opposition to your calling as a Christian. You must suffer; you must be “trained” and “armed.” Without these things you are only providing the enemy with a means and a weapon against you, which sooner or later he will use. But inasmuch as we are like Christ, He will not only use us, but also continue to preserve us, to the glory and praise of His holy name. But the battle is not over yet, and “let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off” (1 Kings 20:11).
The Christian Friend