Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Welcome to a new week of the Daily Blade, so happy to have you guys here. So I've told people before that I'm essentially a walking billboard for four things One, the gospel of Jesus Christ, two, jiu-jitsu. Three, eating meat. And four, christian metal. Okay, so a couple of weeks ago, like any normal well-adjusted Christian man, I was listening to some very loud, screamy, angry Jesus music. Then I got on a little bit of an old school kick so I landed on an album that was put out by a Christian metal band on the metal label Solid State Records back in 2003. It was the album Failure On by a band called Beloved. So it was the band's only full-length album that they released on a major Christian label, and then the band essentially disappeared. You know they popped their heads above water with an EP and a few performances here and there, but for all intents and purposes, their 2003 album was the only art that that band left for humanity.

Speaker 2: 1:13

So I'm listening to this album, enjoying it, feeling overwhelming nostalgia. I can literally see and smell my senior and high school self in my stinky bedroom listening to this album and trying my best to, you know, do a solo mosh pit, and then I get to track four called Death to Traitors. So this was a big time fan favorite because it had a very intense crowd participation line. So this band was unique because it had two vocalists. So the clean vocals were done by their front man and then their screaming vocals were actually done by their drummer. And about three minutes and 30 seconds into the song, all of the instruments except for one guitar cuts out and the drummer screams we were born for battle. Like I can't do it very good, he did it amazing. And all of you christian metal heads can hear it in your heads right now. And if you can't, that means you have terrible taste in music and you need to go listen to it right now. So, like any self-respecting human would do in an obligatory fashion, I scream that part along with the drummer and then continue banging my head, but for some reason that line kind of stuck with me for the rest of that day. So not like in a, you know, I just can't get this song out of my head kind of way, but you know just the line itself.

Speaker 2: 2:24

I was truly pondering it and because I'm constantly scanning the horizon for ideas for Undaunted Life podcast and for the Daily Blade, I began thinking about it in the context of Christian men and without bending my mind too much, I was just reminded that we as Christians, as men, were indeed born for battle. Now, you know, battle can take many forms, but we were born for battle nonetheless. So this week on the Daily Blade, I'm going to focus in on different parts of Scripture. That will help many of us remember that fact, regardless of if we act like it or not. So the first Scripture I'm going to cover is 1 Corinthians, 16, 13, and it's this be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Now we're running short on time and Jobie has a men's book coming out in the next few months. It's fantastic. I was able to read it about a month ago. It's called Stand Firm and Act Like Men. So I'm not going to try and take any of his thunder, but I do want to point out just a few things.

Speaker 2: 3:21

So this verse comes towards the end of the Apostle Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth. So the English Standard Version names this ending section of scripture final instructions. So in a letter that addresses, you know, different factions and immorality and the resurrection and other important topics, this section is his final salvo, if you will, to the members of this body of the body. So verse 13 is part of a concise call for these followers of Christ to be spiritually alert and to persevere. So again, 1 Corinthians 16, 13 says be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

Speaker 2: 3:56

So let's actually break that down. Be watchful, so essentially, don't fall asleep while on watch. So remain awake and alert from a spiritual sense. So this is how you can prevent yourself from falling into sin or falling for false teaching. Stand firm in the faith. Basically, plant your feet firmly onto the foundation of the capital T truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Anything else will leave you, as Francis Schaeffer would say it, with your feet firmly planted in midair. Act like men, so conduct yourselves courageously, be brave, be mature. Don't become enamored with or attracted to every whim or dictate of culture or bad doctrine. And then be strong. So the verb here is actually passive, so it's saying that the strength comes from an external source. So for us as Christians, this means that we are to rely on God and the finished work of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. Come back tomorrow and we'll dig into another passage of scripture that tells us we were born for battle.

Speaker 1: 5:10

Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.