The Art of Wrestling

As many of us know, recently a pastor in Alberta, Canada named James Coates was arrested for opening his church. This event mirrors countless other instances of tyrannical overreach the likes of which we have not seen in the United States. I reached out to a friend of mine that ministers alongside James Coates in Alberta and he said, “Pray that there would be more unrest about the state of this [tyranny] within the church and that we would fear the Lord more than death and more than what others might think of us." I would like to contrast this event with what I understand to be one of the primary missions of GCCA. 

In a recent sermon, my pastor preached on Ephesians 6:12,

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

The focus of the following will be on the first portion of this text, ‘For we do not wrestle...’

Paul in context here is giving a clear picture of what we are up against as Christians who are in union with Christ. The text indicates a clear expectation that Christians must wrestle because there is a real enemy - an enemy who thinks, wills, and strives against us. The apostle Paul understands this truth and gives a very relatable way for us to engage the enemy. Being imminently aware of the sport of wrestling as observed in the Olympics, Paul uses this analogy to display quite a few different aspects of the Christian task. One of which is the idea of striving against your opponent and making use of all of your energy and efforts to do so; making use of the entire body in a way that is strategic and calculated. 

Before this can take place effectively, there are necessary precursors to understanding our tasks set before us so that we may not strive in vain. Just like in wrestling, there is conditioning and training that must take place for a person to be successful. Elsewhere, Paul instructs us to discipline our bodies to keep them under subjection. This is very important, but contextually there are far more immediate elements that God does to prepare His people, long before one’s focus is on self-discipline. 

God instructs fathers to train their children in the nurture in the admonition of the Lord. Once again, the concept of paideia becomes paramount to understanding the command to wrestle. As one must use all of their faculties - heart, soul, mind, and strength - to achieve victory in the sport, one must likewise approach the task of spiritual wrestling to build the kingdom of God with even greater vigor. This war is not against flesh and blood; it requires far greater effort and consideration...and training. This is a very important aspect to understanding the concept of paideia. We are to instruct and train students in the whole counsel of the Lord, training them to utilize all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength to build the kingdom of God. No stone should be left unturned because, as Abraham Kuyper famously said,

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

Schools dedicated to Christian education like GCCA desire to train students to understand that all truth is God's truth, and give them an opportunity to wrestle with the deceptive philosophies of this world so that they may go out together and restore civilization. 

George Herbert in his Outlandish Proverbs said, “That which two will, takes effect." Our unity is found in striving after the standards that God has laid before us. The first half of Ephesians does this very thing. It lays out the foundation for unity in Christ, then ends with various commands and instructions for Christians to build out the Kingdom for the purpose of unity. The immediate context that precedes the Christian duty to wrestle is that of training (Eph. 6:4). Since the Enemy will use every facet in his attempt to throttle our ministries, we must receive training in the whole counsel of the Lord so that nothing takes us by surprise. This is the high task of Christian education. 

This task will not be easy and will perhaps be very ‘unsafe’. After all, we are called to lay down our lives...to die! We are training our children to be arrows. Not to sit in their quiver unscathed by the battle before us, but to be about the task of restoring civilization. And what a mess we have before us. However, we do not go at it alone. We have promises that are given to us to believe, hold firm, and appropriate. 

Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…”

Philippians 1:6, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Our children are not our own, and God has sovereignly selected them for such a time as this. They will wrestle - perhaps they will do it badly - but at this juncture the impetus is on parents, and primarily fathers, to see to it that this does not happen. We must give our students a true sense of confidence and courage that they will not find within themselves so that they will understand that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7). This way they will go into the fray with eyes wide open knowing that whatever enemy they face will be ill prepared. 

I encourage you to seek out examples of this done well that we are seeing right now. James Coates in Alberta, Rory Wilson in Moscow, or Gabe Rench with the psalm sing that happened a couple of months ago. 

Right belief will always lead to right action, and we need to get to work!

By Mr. Joshua Taylor, GCCA Headmaster