27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.
The chief weapon of the world is both displayed and overcome in this simple instruction. Do not regard anything or anyone with fear. Fear is the whip that drives us, the bludgeon that numbs our senses and the chain that binds us over the tormenting fire. When we give in to fear, we always suffer far more loss and harm than any feared event itself could ever produce. Fear is an insidious creeping plague, something that is never made real in truth, but which always steals even more than it threatens. Never satisfied, fear continues to claim us bit by bit until we no longer have anything left for it to take. Fear consumes hope, it devours peace, it destroys life and does it all in the dread of the merely possible. A potential harm that fills us with a kind of dread certainty; however that certainty itself is a lie, born from the darkness of the fear, and not from fact.
This is why Paul commands us to NOT be frightened in anything by our opponents. Fear is their weapon of choice: fear of possible sickness, fear of loss, fear of difficulty - fear is the coin of the realm. It is traded by media, passed by late night clowns, minted by leaders and echoed by talking heads, pundits and empty-minded fools - and every single word they utter is a lie! However, for those who are found in Christ, fear is toothless old lion. Powerless when faced and empty of any ability to harm; for fear's greatest threat is death itself, but death is nothing to those who are in Christ. "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" This is the cure for fear, the antidote for its lethal venom. This is the power of Christ in us… the grave holds NO terror for those who know that it cannot hold us in its grip! We will rise again to eternal glory, purchased in the triumphant cross of Jesus Christ!! Stand therefore in the power of truth, and do not ever again bend the knee to fear. In Christ you are more, in Christ you are safe, in Christ you are fearless!!
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