Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
Ephesians 6:10-11 ESV
You don’t have to be a general to be “out-generaled.” You don’t have to be malicious to aid the enemy’s cause.
In June of 1862, the Confederate Army under the command of General Robert E. Lee launched a brutal attack on Union Forces. The conflict would be known as the Seven Days Battle. Union troops lost 1,734 men, more than 8,000 were wounded, and another 6,000 missing or captured.
The leader of the Union forces, General George B. McClellan complained bitterly that the defeat should be blamed on Lincoln and the politicians in Washington. If they only had given him what he needed! Assistant Secretary of War Christopher Wolcott counted McClellan’s charge with one of his own:
“[McClellan] was simply out-generaled.”
What Paul is telling us in Ephesians 6:11 is that our enemy has an arsenal of tricks at his disposal. He’s smart--too smart! If we don’t wear the armor of God, we are going to be “out-generaled” by this master of disguises, this prowling lion, this crafty snake called Satan.
I realized this afresh in the two-minute drive from my office to our home. I had the radio tuned to a Country station when Miranda Lambert’s captivating and melodic voice caught my attention. Miranda was singing Don Henry and Phillip Coleman’s ‘All Kinds Of Kinds,’ the fifth single from her album Four The Record. The song highlights a circus of characters including a cross-dressing congressmen and a pill-popping pharmacist:
Thomas was a congressman with closets full of skeletons
And dresses that he wore on Friday nights.
Phyllis was a pharmacist, a dab of that, a pinch of this
Concocted to suppress her appetite.
When the children were fiddlin' she'd slip 'em some Ritalin
And wait for Thomasina to arrive.
Cause ever since the beginning to keep the world spinning
It takes all kinds of kinds.
All kinds of kinds.
Playing to the popular theme of diversity and acceptance, Country music critic Billy Dukes notes, “This song’s story is as far from country Main Street as you can get,” and yet for Miranda, it is a statement piece. 'All Kinds of Kinds' is the first song in the album. The last stanza of the song tells us what she believes:
Now some point the finger and let ignorance linger
If they'd look in the mirror they'd find.
That ever since the beginning to keep the world spinning
It takes all kinds of kinds.
All kinds of kinds.
All kinds of kinds.
Read the last lines closely. If you differ with Miranda—you are ignorant.
In other words Ariel Castro’s behavior is not evil, just an alternative. And it’s okay to lust after your neighbor’s wife or even take her to bed. Sell your country’s secrets to the enemy? Have sex with your dog? Well, “it takes all kinds of kinds”!
Aiding and abetting is legal term for assisting a criminal in carrying out his crime. We can dance with the devil – we can aid and abet – when we fail to listen critically, when we buy the lies of a lyric because we are infatuated with a melody or captured by the musical harmony, or taken to pleasant places by a singer's voice.
The truth is that ever since the beginning, the One who keeps the world spinning, has been taking all kinds of kinds. God has been adopting a mosaic of misfits into His family of faith through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The schemer wants to confuse us about this. We must not help him.
________________
Notes:
The Seven Days Battle … Figures from
Team Of Rivals
by Doris Kearns Goodwin, p. 443.
Miranda Lambert, ‘All Kinds of Kinds’ – Song Review
by Billy Dukes
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June 10, 2013 5:00 PM