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Study Guide: Mixtape: Luke 10:2-11, 17-20

Sunday September 6, 2015 | Greg Boyd

Focus Scripture:


Brief Summary:

In this final installment of our Mixtape series, Greg Boyd explores the theological and practical ramifications of spiritual warfare in the lives of the earliest followers of Jesus and how that applies to our lives today. We find critical principles for lifestyle warfare in the account in Luke 10:1-18 that provide practical ways to live out the beauty of the Kingdom of God in everyday life encounters.


Extended Summary:

The focus of this final week in our Mixtape series is the powerful description of the work of the earliest followers of Jesus in Luke 10:1-18. Greg begins the message by detailing his encounter during the previous week with a couple of people riding their bikes erratically on the road and forcing him to swerve his car to avoid them. Greg is then confronted by the man on the bike who was accusing Greg of trying to intimidate and frighten the man’s wife. While this man was obviously intoxicated the discussion became more heated when Greg attempted to explain that he was merely swerving to avoid hitting the couple. The exchange was moving towards violence when the man threatened to fight Greg, but Greg informed the man that as a follower of Jesus he was not allowed to use violence to fight back so it would not be a very interesting fight. This de-escalated the situation and the man and his wife went away disappointed.

What becomes obvious in this encounter is that you have multiple ways to view this story from the perspective of the New Testament. On the one hand you have a pair of intoxicated bike riders who are frustrated at feeling like they are being cut off, but on the other hand you have a battle raging in the spiritual realm that Paul notes in Ephesians 6:12. We are reminded that in any difficult and potentially violent situation we are ultimately being tempted to see the other person as our enemy rather than focusing on the real enemy in the evil principalities and powers. To the degree that we can be reminded of our true identity in Christ in these matter then our eyes are opened to being aware that we are getting played by the powers. The real enemy is Satan and he is always trying to play us off to see other flesh and blood as the enemy. We need to fight the real enemy and stop fighting others as our way of revolting against the principalities and powers.

This truth applies to every area of our life since every area of life is filled with an enemy attempting to divide and separate us in our relationships. Spiritual warfare is about more than just about specific demonic encounters and exorcisms, but is more about our day-to-day lifestyle rooted in the truths of Jesus. Luke 10:1-18 will be the text used to describe what this “lifestyle warfare” looks like on a day-to-day occasion. It is as a result of these principles of lifestyle warfare that we see Jesus announcing the Kingdom perspective that “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). The first lifestyle warfare of these earliest disciples is their evangelism. Speaking the truth about the Gospel is warfare and has an effect on the spiritual realm. Unbelief is rooted in an intentional blinding by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4) and evangelism is a confrontation towards the one doing the blinding.

The second lifestyle warfare principle is rooted in the Hebrew concept of peace (Luke 10:5) where we are called to use our unique Kingdom authority to call down blessing on all those we encounter in every situation. We are called to look beyond our normal grid of judgments and agree with God’s opinion of all humanity as we see them through the lens of God’s love on Calvary.

The third lifestyle warfare principle is rooted in the repeated command of Jesus to “eat whatever is put in front of you”. This has two possible ramifications. The first could be that Jesus is commanding his disciples to be polite in the midst of the variety of food options you might find in social settings. Don’t be too picky about what is put in front of you. The second, and more challenging implication of this command, is most clearly seen in the context of the ritual purity laws that these earliest disciples would have been familiar with as orthodox Jews (Leviticus 11 & Deuteronomy 14). Jesus is calling his disciples to see that building relationships with people in order to invite them into the Kingdom is more important than your very legitimate religious convictions and rules. Relationships should trump rules in an effort to expand the Kingdom and this is warfare in the spiritual world. True holiness is not about obeying the right rules, but is about non-judgmental relationships that open up avenues of influence to manifest the beauty of God.


Reflection Questions:

  1. Are you living like a soldier in battle (2 Timothy 2:4) or like a hedonist on vacation? Are you aware that there is a spiritual war going on and that there is a lot at stake in how we live our lives?
  2. Our call is to be blessing machines wherever we go. Who is the hardest person to imagine blessing in your world? What could you do this week to move towards this call?
  3. Where are you most tempted to act like a wolf against a wolf rather than to remain a lamb in a wolf world?
  4. How could you serve your most difficult to love and serve neighbors in practical ways this week?

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