Evil and Kingdom Authority

Gruesome headlines. Heartbreaking stories. Unfathomable pain. How are we Christians supposed to use our God-given authority to respond to the evil in this world?

Prisoners in the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, a photo by Marion Doss on Flickr.

When confronted with pain and hatred we probably long to hear Jesus say, "Get active, pray down strongholds, turn the world upside down; you can get the evil ones out of here!" But he said "love your enemies" (Matthew 5:43-48). What did Jesus do when confronted with hatred and evil? He walked away at first (Luke 4:16-30), then later returned to be killed on a cross and said, "Father forgive them" (23:34).

Even the King of the Kingdom with all authority didn't seek to destroy all evil in the world. Remember the parable of the wheat and tares—let both kingdoms grow together until the appointed time. All of this will be overturned later, in a new age, but until then the two kingdoms should coexist, evil and righteous in the same world.



We can see in Luke 4 that Jesus was not exempt from dealing with Satan, and neither are we. Right after His temptation Jesus proclaimed that He had been sent "to proclaim release to the captives,/And recovery of sight to the blind,/To set free those who are oppressed,/To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord" (vs. 18-19). In spite of this world's evil and cruelty He came to set the captives free.

Let's look back at Matthew 16:17-18. Harbor Fellowship is a little piece of the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are told that the gates of Hell will not be able to stand against us. How many of us woke up this morning planning to bust open the gates of Hell? It sounds like this is what we should be doing. We are here on earth to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and set the captives free!

Gate, a photo by treehouse1977 on Flickr.

Now we know why we aren't saved and automatically zapped out of this evil world (John 17:13-15). There are still captives beyond the gates of Hell. God is not going to call us home as long as His people remain behind bars, and Jesus has given us authority to pass through the gates of Hell.

Matthew 6:13 says, "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil." We are in an evil world, so we'd better be praying for protection from the Evil One. 2 Thessalonians 3:3 and Romans 12:21 tell us that we have the authority to stand against evil and the power to overcome it. Our motto should be no man left behind. Humanity is our family, here and in Hell, and we are called to rescue our family from the chains of slavery. James 4:7, 1 Peter 5:6-8, Ephesians 6:10-18, and 2 Corinthians 10:1-5 are full of the language of warfare.

We are no better than Jesus. He had to face this and so will we. We will be protected from the Evil One, He prayed as much we pray it still. We are equipped to stand firm against the fiery arrows and overcome with tactics of the spirit. This is what we have authority to do.