The Bible often speaks in analogies and imagery. For example, Jesus often used farming imagery such as: parable of good soils (Luke 8:4-15; Matthew 13:1-9; Mark 4:1-20), wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-30), faith of a mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32), vine and branches (John 15:1-17). God in his infinite wisdom has ordained to use everyday ordinary things we can see, touch, and relate to, to help convey great and glorious spiritual realities in a way to help them sink in and take root. 

When it comes to the depiction of the Christian dealing with sin in our own lives, the Biblical imagery is not gentle and flowery. It is deadly serious and graphic:

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:12-13, emphasis added). 

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:3-5, emphasis added).

We can gloss over passages like this without feeling the full effects of the imagery, and thus a passage may not land with its full weight. When the Bible gives the imperative to “put to death” our sin, it is using the gory, brutish, and gruesome means of first-century warfare – the sort of bloody, hand-to-hand combat with a sharp object and either thrashing it or plunging it deep into the chest of the enemy until the body is lifeless. That’s the imagery – it's bloody and gruesome. Evidently, despite this imagery being perhaps foreign to our 21st-century comfortable lives, it is the appointed means that God has ordained to communicate how we should go about attacking sin in our lives. There is no sin management or coming to some sort of peace or compromise. No, it should be put to death.

Pastor John Piper puts it bluntly: “Conflict with [sin] is not a peaceful affair…if we’re faithful, every time we meet this quivering power [sin], we meet it with a sword. No truce! No compromise! No prisoners! To the death! You’re playing games, otherwise.” Centuries earlier, Reformer John Owen in his book Mortification of Sin urged: “be killing sin, or sin will be killing you….be at it every day and cease not from this work.”

But how should the Christian go about mortifying sin in their lives? To be sure, this is a spiritual battle which is Spirit-empowered. No self-help here. I want to focus on one particular aspect, of several, given in Ephesians 6, where Paul writes to the Ephesian church concerning the means of this spiritual battle:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, (Ephesians 6:10-17, emphasis added).

There is a lot to unpack here about the various tools we have in our arsenal, but for the sake of this article, I will just hone in on one: the “sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.” Notice, of all the tools listed, this is the only offensive weapon in the mix. All of the pieces of the Armor of God have their place – the shield of faith is helpful to absorb spiritual attacks (flaming arrows) that the enemy may lob at us. This is extremely helpful, but not complete - we don’t win battles with defense. We need to take the fight to the enemy for a decisive victory over sin. 

Here is the bottom line: like someone going into a war zone expecting to fight, we need to wield a sharp sword. In other words, when the spiritual battle comes to us that gives rise to our sin, we need to know our Bibles and have passages of scripture that can be at hand to be thrust into the vitals of the allure of sin.

It might look this:

• When constantly bombarded with consumerism and are tempted to find our joy and satisfaction in possessions, we extinguish the flaming dart of discontentment and then stick the sword of the superior promise of Psalm 16:11 into the sin of covetousness: “…in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” 

• When offended or hurt by a Christian brother or sister - deploy a dagger into the chest of the sin of anger and pride with the Biblical command and promise of 1 Peter 3:8-9: “…all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.” 

Veritas, I don’t think it can be overstated that our life as a Christian is war. The language of the Bible makes that very plain. Every day we go into battle with an enemy whose main strategy is to influence, allure, assist our bent to sin, and attempt to blind us to the superior pleasures and promises of the Gospel. It would be foolish to go into battle without a weapon. Therefore, we need to know where the enemy might attack you and titillate your sin: lust, the love of money, anger, pride, etc. Then have in your arsenal an appropriate offensive weapon – a promise, truth, or warning from scripture - that directly attacks those temptations from the enemy, and be relentless at killing sin.