A review of Every Man’s Battle.

Yesterday, I was looking for a relaxing afternoon spent reading. I saw Every Man’s Battle sitting on the shelf and I thought I might at least read the introduction. It has been popular for a few years, and with the multitude of spin-offs and all the marketing and hype surrounding the book, I was expecting a wishy-washy, pop-Christianity piece of fluff. I ended up reading the whole thing in less than 24 hours. To be honest, the writing wasn’t spectacular, and most of the content was stuff I had heard before. However, the thing I appreciated about the book was the fact that it took a pretty hard-line stance on holiness and left no room for sin to survive. I was pretty surprised to find, in our ‘nobody is perfect’ generation, a book that stressed Ephesians 5:3-5, which tells us to not even have a hint of sexual immorality.

Let’s take a closer look at this verse, “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” Can you believe the legalism here? Paul is actually saying that people who are sexually immoral have no inheritance in the kingdom of God! What happened to all that “it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” stuff that I liked a few chapters back? This is what happens when a particular teaching gets blown out of proportion and then twisted by the flesh. God saves us by his grace, but that doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want. He has a pretty high standard that is set for our own good, and he demands obedience. Paul is not saying “those who go out and have affairs will not inherit the kingdom of God.” He is telling us that God demands absolute sexual purity.

One of the things that I like best about Every Man’s Battle is the fact that the book is not addressing porn addicts or people caught up in affairs. The book mostly addresses the ‘little’ stuff that is not so little in the eyes of God. The personal example that the author uses from his own life is peeking at the lingerie ads in the newspaper every week. Satan captures us on these things and we think we are fine. However, God is still demanding obedience and we are totally ignoring his standard.

One of the biggest problems in the Church today is compromise. I am so tired of Christians being a lame version of sinners. We don’t have the courage that it takes to really pursue our sin so we simply do little bits of it, but we also don’t have the courage to step up and live a holy life. The world isn’t impressed by us and neither is God. If you are going to watch the R-rated movie and get turned on by the sex scene, why don’t you just go rent a porn flick? If you are going to make out with your girlfriend why don’t you just go all the way? You are just watering down God’s standard so that you can live in a ‘little’ sin. You are in the worst place imaginable, you have made yourself an enemy of the world by rejecting total debauchery and you have made yourself an enemy of God by continuing in your sin. I have to admit here that I was in this place for a long time, but I exhort you now to choose this day whom you will serve. You are either a son of God or a slave of Satan, pick one or the other.

The other thing that I like about this book is the fact that it gives men practical advice in the battle that faces them. There are brief psychological and medical explanations for why certain things are temptations without falling into the victim mentality of “my body made me do it.” The book then proceeds to give practical advice on how to live out a commitment to total purity. It doesn’t get caught up in theological questions like “am I a Christian if…” but rather takes a practical look at how we can be as holy as possible. I would recommend this book to anyone, despite the cheesy Christian trappings surrounding it.