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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Pitching
And Defence Wins Ask most life-long
baseball fans and they will tell you that pitching and defence wins
baseball games. Yes, we love
it when the clean-up hitter smashes the ball out of the park, but
statistics remain true. If
the defence consistently allows runners to cross home plate, the team is
likely to lose the game. Earl
Weaver, the 1980's hall-of-fame manager of the Baltimore Orioles
correctly said: "Pitching, defense, and the three run homer wins
the game." The 2021
Toronto Blue Jays prove that to be true.
In most offensive stats, the Jays lead the league, but, due to
poor pitching, something they are now rectifying, they're
only a couple games over five hundred in the win column.
The defensive posture as
noted in baseball is a natural universal law.
The best way to survive any opposition, whatever that may be, is
a good defence. Proper food,
clothing, exercise, and right living, builds up a healthy immune system
that thwarts the viral attack. The
same applies to our lives as Christians, as seen in James 4:7.
"Therefore, submit to God. Resist the
devil, and he will flee from you." Much can be said about this short verse,
but I will only comment on the words "resist the devil"
because we often think of our conflict with Satan as being an
aggressive, offensive fight. James
says otherwise. The Greek word "anthistemi" is
translated as "resist" in James 4:7.
This Greek word consists of "anti," meaning
"against," and "histemi," meaning "cause to
stand." We derive our
English word "antihistamine" from this Greek word, which is
appropriate to what James was writing.
Anthistemi or resist in this context means to rise up and stand
against Satan. Merely
standing strong is not an offensive posture.
It's defensive, as in defence wins.
The apostle Paul, in Ephesians 6:10 and
following listed the spiritual armour that is able to cause us to stand
strong against satanic attack. If
you read this passage you will note that all the armour listed is
defensive in nature. Even
the sword, which you might think is offensive, is a Roman short,
knife-like sword that is likely a defensive sword, as seen in the Greek
text. The word
"stand" is used four times in this passage, confirming that
Paul had defence in mind and not offense.
Paul does not say that we can kill Satan, bind him or send him to
prison with any offensive tactic. Jesus
will do that, as seen in Revelation 20:10.
Until then, our defensive stance will cause the devil to flee, or
become a fugitive from us, as the Greek word "pheugo" that is
translated as flee means.
I'm not ruling out any offense in our
battle with the satanic world, assuming our offense is not humanistic in
nature, which it often is. What
I am saying is that without an effective defence that builds up our
spiritual immune system, the devil will not flee from us.
As in baseball, the best offense is a good defence.
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