Sunday September 30, 2018 | Greg Boyd
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world's darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
In today’s sermon, Greg gives us one strategy for outrageous, radical Kingdom hospitality: engage in spiritual warfare to resist Satan’s designs to hold grudges with one another and destroy healthy relationships.
Greg spent some time reminding us that Christ died for every person. We all have immeasurable worth, and as we learned last week, “we are called to see everyone as God sees them. We should see every single person as someone Christ has died for and who is welcomed into God’s family. Hospitality is what it looks like when we live out of this truth.” When we do this we welcome the stranger as one of our own, even if disagree with their beliefs and lifestyle.
The enemy, Satan, desires to bring accusations and mistrust to our relationships. Us/them, right/wrong, insider/outsider are all languages of division. As Kingdom people we speak peace and unity by saying, “you belong here”.
To get to this place though, we need to view a common enemy, which is why Greg spent sometime teaching Ephesians 6:12 — “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
In this passage, Greg shows us that we have a common enemy that keeps us from opening our lives and hearts to people who are different than us. What would it look like if we chose to take the fight to the right person, Satan, and not other people? It would be like Kingdom people engaging in hospitality warfare, because people who are made in the image of God, and are loved with an immeasurable, cross-shaped love, are never the enemy.
When the world feels like it’s unraveling, when it’s messy and full of division, we can reclaim hospitality as a powerful act of resisting the forces that divide us and strip us of our dignity. We get to live out the new Kingdom reality that everyone is on the inside.