Taking seriously the enemies of our soul
In my parents’ and grandparents’ generation, Christians were frequently reminded that they were ‘not of this world.’ Holiness meant being different from those around them. In some extremes, it was often marked by bizarre ideas of separation from the culture — no dancing, no cinema, no engagement with any activities labelled ‘worldly.’ It was a faith often defined by its fences.
My generation reacted against this otherworldly distinctiveness in many ways. We took a more positive view of the world, looking for bridges rather than boundaries. We enthusiastically searched for common ground, eagerly erasing any sharp lines between faith and culture. But in our readiness to engage, something was almost lost. At least in part, we stopped listening to the biblical call to holiness, the deep truth that we are in the world but we are not of it. We failed to heed the warning that C S Lewis expressed – when the boat is in the water, that’s good; but when the water gets into the boat, there’s a problem.
If you think I exaggerate, consider when was the last time you heard someone preach clearly about worldliness.
This is the backdrop of what was perhaps John Mark Comer’s most timely book. Many of his writings focus on spiritual formation practices, but this one placed those practices in the context of spiritual warfare. He treads carefully, steering clear of culture-war rhetoric. But his message is clear and compelling: our spiritual formation into Christlikeness does not happen in a neutral space. It takes place on a battleground.
Ancient Enemies for the Modern World
Comer dusts off ancient, biblical truths and reframes them for today’s context so they resonate with the contemporary reader. He names the old foes of which Scripture warns us, and for which earlier generations of Christians were part of their familiar vocabulary. They are the world, the flesh, and the devil and they still wage war against the soul.
Drawing mainly from the words of Jesus in John 8, he points out, firstly, that the devil’s chief weapons are lies and deception. He is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). Comer refers to these lies as ‘deceitful ideas’ and paints a vivid picture of how they can worm their way into our minds and take root in the wider culture.
He then goes on to show how these lies get into us because they appeal to what Scripture calls ‘the flesh.’ Drawing on Augustine’s insights, he shows how these lies align themselves with our ‘disordered desires’. At the core of sin is our deep, human tendency to allow good desires to become disordered and distorted when they are placed above our primary desire for God. Even good desires can become idols when they displace the one who gave them. We must learn the vital truth – ‘our strongest desires are not our deepest desires.’ Deep within, our longing is for relationship with God.
But the battle doesn’t stop there. Over time, these ‘deceitful ideas’ are absorbed into society, into the air we breathe. They become ‘normalised’ in the culture. Cultural slogans like ‘follow your heart’ or ‘be true to yourself’ or ‘the heart wants what the heart wants’ sound innocent enough. But Comer shows how they reveal a worldview that resists the ways of God and does damage to our souls and to society.
A Wake-Up Call
When I first read this book about three years ago, it felt like a wake-up call to a sleepy church. At a time when Christians were quietly being moulded into the world’s patterns—its ideas, its appetites, its definitions of what is “good”— Comer sounded an alarm. I am glad to say that I sense that things are beginning to change. Many Christians are beginning to awaken. Something is stirring in the church and in the culture. And Christians are beginning to take seriously again the call to holiness. But there is an enemy who will push back against this and we need to know how to stand against him. To follow Jesus is to engage in a fight, and Comer gets very practical about how we can do this. He calls us back to ancient practices: immersing ourselves in Scripture, fasting to reorient our desires, confessing to break the hold of sin, and — a vital and timely reminder — committing to a local church.
This last point cuts against the grain of modern individualism. We are tempted to imagine that we can follow Jesus solo, free from the frustrations and limitations of community. But Comer reminds us that the local church, for all its messiness and brokenness, is a school of Christlikeness. We need each other if we are to resist the pull of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Not everyone will resonate with Comer’s writing style, but there’s no denying the depth of his thought and the clarity of his message. He has read widely, thought deeply, and written accessibly on issues that are central to our discipleship in this cultural moment. This book is more than a good read – it’s a reality check. It challenges us to recognise the battle we’re in. To name our enemies. To recover practices that will keep us rooted strongly in Christ and help us stand firm against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
I can’t recommend it highly enough.
I liked it so much that I have written a LifeWord Summary of it. Ideally, read the book itself, slowly and carefully. But if you want to get an overview of its ideas and insights, and read some key quotes, to begin with, take a look at my summary here.
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