Christ’s Athlete Is Never Without a Battle

As long as the athlete of Christ is in the body, he never lacks a victory to win in contests. The more he grows through triumphant successes, the harder the kind of struggle that confronts him. For when the flesh has been subdued and conquered, what swarms of foes, what hosts of enemies are stirred up by his triumphs and rise against the victorious soldier of Christ! This happens so that the soldier of Christ will not relax his efforts in the ease of peace and begin to forget the glorious struggles of his contests, grow slack through the idleness that comes from being out of danger, and be cheated of the reward of his prizes and the recompense of his triumphs. So if we want to rise with ever-growing virtue to these stages of triumph, we too must enter the battle in the same way, and begin by saying with the apostle, “I fight in such a way, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection.” Then, when this conflict is over, we may be able to say with him once more, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places.” Otherwise we cannot possibly join battle with them, or deserve to be tested in spiritual combats, if we are beaten in a fleshly contest and struck down in a struggle with the stomach. And the apostle will rightly say of us, in words of blame, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man.” [a]