The Christian in Complete Armour - Gurnall - XX - Direction Fourth

Required reading
The Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Direction Fourth.

My summary

This week we study the fourth direction from the text: 'Stand therefore'.

Gurnall outlines three duties that are imported in the command:

(i) Satan in his temptations is stoutly to be resisted, not in anywise to be yielded unto;

(ii) it should be the care of every Christian to stand orderly in the particular place wherein God hath set him;

(iii) the Christian must stand and watch, as opposed to sleep and sloth.

What grabbed me

I liked the reminder that it is safer to resist than flee: 'The Christian's safety lies in resisting. All the armour here provided is to defend the Christian fighting, none to secure him flying. Stand, and the day is ours. Fly, or yield, and all is lost. Great captains, to make their soldiers more resolute, do sometimes cut off all hope of a safe retreat to them that run away. Thus the Norman conqueror, as soon as his men were set on English shore, sent away his ships in their sight, that they might resolve to fight or die. God takes away all thought of safety to the coward; not a piece to be found for the back in all God's armoury. Stand, and the bullets light all on your armour; flee, and they enter into your hearts. It is a terrible place, Heb. 10:38, 'The just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.' He that stands to it believingly comes off with his life; but he that recoils, and runs from his colours, as the Greek word imports, God will have no pleasure in him, except it be in the just execution of his wrath on him. And doth he not make a sad change, that from fighting against Satan, engageth God as an enemy against him? There is comfort in striving against sin and Satan, though to blood, but none to lie sweating under the fiery indignation of a revenging God. What Satan lays on, God can take off; but who can ease, if God lays on? What man would not rather die in the field fighting for his prince, than on a scaffold by the axe, for cowardice or treachery?'

Never turn your back on Satan!

Next week's readingRead First General Part of Direction Fifth

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.