The Company of Two Armies

(The Pastor's Letter March 1973)

My Dear Friends,

Numerous are the lessons that the children of God must endeavour to keep ever before them as they are called to live out their Christian lives upon this earth until the Lord should see fit either to call them one-by-one to be with Himself, or else, to appear in His time-appointed to gather up the remnant of His elect still left upon the earth.

One of the most vital lessons for our souls – which would seem to be always in season – is the remembrance that when a man, or a woman, is born again of the Spirit of God there is implanted within them an entirely new nature which they just didn't possess before, and that, alongside with that new nature, the old nature is left to exist, although not to run rampant as it was able to do before the person's rebirth by the Spirit. The fact that these two opposing factors then come to be operative in the life of a child of God immediately turns that believing life into a veritable battlefield, and the believer in Christ is time and time again forced to emerge from the spiritual onslaughts that such a situation creates to the ever-fresh realisation that there is such a situation in the first place.

The young Bride in the Song of Solomon expressed the sentiment of the Church of Christ for every generation: “What will ye see in the Shulamite?” She asked of Solomon, “as it were, the company of two armies.” Even a casual read of the Song of Solomon will show what she was getting at: Solomon was her Bridegroom and steadfast in his love towards her; she was his Bride, but her love very much ebbed and flowed. Yet, in spite of that, Solomon continued to shower his love upon her. In the light of that, what could he possibly “see” in her – “What will ye see in the Shulamite?” because in her own estimation there must have been “two armies” – one eager and willing to love and to obey her faithful Bridegroom, the other, eager and determined to draw her away and cause her to walk in unfaithfulness.

The picture is all too clear; it is the story of the heart, and the mind, and the life of every believing child of God; for whereas, it is the desire of their hearts to “run after” Christ continuously, nevertheless, they feel their feet dragging and even turning aside into another path which is far from becoming of those who name the Name of the Lord. What is the explanation? There is “the company of two armies.” So that the believer in Christ is not only a “soldier” of Christ but he is a battlefield, as well, where the conflicts for the glory of Christ are so often fought out by these two mighty opposing forces.

The apostle Paul names two of the most active battalions in these two armies in that famous seventh chapter of his epistle to the Romans; “I delight in the law of God after the inward man,” he says there, “but I see another law,” he goes on to say, “warring against the law of my mind.” Lined up in full array within the believer's life – the Law of God; but bristling with the impatience of disobedience – Another Law – stretched out to oppose that Law of God at every wheel and turn. What a discovery that can be to the newly-born child of God. In that first flush of new life, when God implanted the joy of His Word within our hearts and minds, it seemed as though heaven was in us before we were in heaven; the very mention of Christ's Name was a joy to the soul. And then came a temptation out of the ranks of the Law of Sin; it moved around the heart and mind, it struck home to the soul, a battle ensued, and like the one that raged between Joshua and Amalek, sometimes the Joshua prevailed, and sometimes Amalek prevailed. Then, came that realisation: “I find another law.” There was the “company of two armies,” and each would strive for mastery and domination until the final blast of the last trump at the appearing of Christ.

It will do us good to remember who it was that uttered these words, and at what time he uttered them. They were spoken by that, almost unique man, the apostle Paul, the one who was “caught up into the third heaven” where he saw things “unutterable.” And the time in his life that he found this “other law” so operative was when he would “do good!” “I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me.” It's when the law of God begins to operate in our lives that the law of sin becomes so active and launches its worst offensives. You endeavour to speak for Christ, and it's as though a swing from the devil's broadsword cuts the very tongue right out of your mouth at that precise moment you approach the Word of God very often so that a certain line of reasoning might find rest on the revealed truth of God in the Word, but it's scarce possible to see because of the dust from the battle even the place of prayer, which ordinarily promises a retreat and a place of refreshing can be turned into a running battle to gain even so much as the concentration of the heart and mind for a few brief minutes. “The company of two armies!” The Law of God and the Law of Sin.

The apostle Paul goes on to show his reactions to the offensives of these two battalions from those two factors that he finds at work in his life; “With the mind,” he says, “I myself serve the law of God; but, with the flesh, the law of sin.” Both armies, as it were, offer “promotion” for good service in the conflict, and the two “natures” now existing within the believing child of God respond to these “enticements” according to their leanings. The new nature – the spiritual nature – within the believer strives after the joys of knowing and keeping the things of the Lord; but, the old nature – the fleshly nature – naturally turns to gratify itself with the rewards that the law of sin can set before it. So the conflict continues.

We can break the two armies down, not only into battalions, as it were, but into regiments, or companies, or patrols, or even individuals, according as to how the fight develops and is waged within each of our individual hearts and lives. There is “Assurance” on the one side, and “Doubt” on the other. At one time it appears to be the most natural thing in the world to put to flight the armies of the alien by standing up and declaring, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth;” while at another, we smell the very courtyards of Doubting Castle itself where Giant Despair loves to parade the spoils of his warfare. There is “faith” and there is “Sight”, and each is a force that can do exploits, either for our spiritual good, or our spiritual detriment. And there is “the Earthly” and “the Heavenly”, and we might be sure that when the Earthly gets a foothold of advance within us, the “Sight” gains the day, and “Doubt” is soon running up the victory flag on behalf of the old nature.

How vital, then, to constantly remind ourselves that this is the situation that exists within us. To deny it, on the one hand, leads to a form of hypocrisy, where a man or a woman only establishes a “peace peace, where there is no peace;” but to use it as an excuse to “deny ungodliness and worldly lusts” etc., is to be but a traitor to Him who has called us to be “holy in all manner of conversation.” No, to hold the truth in all practical vitality for our souls is to be truly aware of the situation it presents us with, and to strive to be truly aware of the situation it presents us with, and to strive to feed, and drill, and supply that army of the spiritual man, and to cut-off the lines of supply and communication of the carnal, fully coming to terms with the fact that the struggle is one that we will have for life.

One thing must be uppermost, however; the battle may be waged within the soul, but it is not for the soul! That was settled, once and for all, when the great Captain of our salvation entered into “the strong man's palace” and led out a multitude that no man can number to form them into a people that would learn to “look forth as the morning, clear as the moon, bright as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” The Word of God fair rings with the noise of the battle; “Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ;” “no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath called him to be a soldier.” The toils of the conflict are invariably lightened when we view them in the light of this – that it is to “please him” who has called us to be soldiers – aye, and battlefields, too – that we endure hardness and fight the good fight of faith.

Yours Sincerely,
    W. J. Seaton