The Two Souls
“Two souls, alas, are housed within my breast,
And each will wrestle for the mastery there.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust
It’s no secret that fallen man’s heart is a battlefield. The issues differ from combat zone to combat zone, but all of Adam’s damaged children know the pain of living with a civil war raging inside. We yearn to be valiant, noble and gracious, but even in the midst of minor victories we know that the treacherous self within has not been finally vanquished. The drunk who remains sober today, knows that he will face the foe again tomorrow. Just when we congratulate ourselves upon finally having tamed our tongue, we find ourselves secretly delighting in “dainty morsels” of gossip which the “whisperer” is so eager to share (Prov 18:8). We yearn for greater Christlikeness but all too often the enemy within betrays us. And the enemy within has powerful friends, like the skilful advertisers who normalize perversion, the trashy filmmakers who glamorize corruption and the postmodern educators who wage war upon traditional values.
But there is good news. The good news is that although he is embattled, the Christian has the equipment to defy and defeat the enemy. He can starve the foe by saturating his mind with scripture (Psa 119:105) rather than with the values of Hollywood. He can choose to dwell upon the things that are “pure” (Phil 4:8) rather than upon the soap opera values of a society which has forgotten God. He can choose to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17) rather than to worship the cult of self which is the stock in trade of the pop psychologist. In short, the child of God can choose to defy the world and drain the enemy within of his power by putting on the full armour of God (Eph 6:11ff). God has supplied the armour – but we must resolve to put it on.