Each of us fall into sin every day. We can try our hardest to be good, but we will always fall. It should be a daily reminder to us that we cannot do it by ourselves. But, we can equip ourselves and know our enemy.
In this short book, Know Your Enemy, Graham Beynon calls his readers to live holy lives. He does this by exposing sin for what it really is. Each time we sin we put our faith in the lies of Satan instead of trusting in the promises of the gospel. Here’s what Graham says about the book and why it’s important to know your enemy;
“I’m not going to overpromise here, but I am going to say that if we know our enemy, we’ll be tripped up by him slightly less often. If we know how he works, we’ll be able to win a few more fights. The battle will continue, but the battle lines can move forward.”
The book helpfully unpacks the danger of sin over six short chapters and helps the reader understand what’s going on in their Hearst when they sin. I like that the book covers deliberate sins and sins of negligence. Graham also helpfully drops in some of the questions that he uses when counselling people in their fight against sin.
I think that this book is helpful and will encourage people in their fight against sin. But I do have two criticisms and one further comment;
- There is little mention of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit
In a book about fighting sin, I would expect to read more about the power of the Spirit in the life of a believer to stand firm in the truths of the gospel. I am not doubting that Graham believes this, but I thought it was strange to not be included much in the book.
- There is no mention of the Armour of God
There was no mention of Ephesians 6 and the armour that God has given His people to stand firm in the fight against. Again, I thought this was a strange omission that would have given the reader more Biblical material to encourage them, as they fight every day against sin.
One final comment, whilst I thought that the book was good, it is not what I was expecting. Based on the title I was hoping to read a book, by an evangelical and based on the Bible, about Satan. He is our enemy and Christians would do well to know more about him. I was hoping that this book would focus on Satan, or at least a little bit, instead of only focusing on sin. When I saw the title ‘Know Your Enemy’ especially with a snake on the cover (it’s a lovely cover!), I thought the book would be about Satan and how Christians should understand him and his role in the world more.
Even though I think that there are omissions in the book, I do think that it is a helpful book for Christians to understand sin and to know how to fight sin in their day to day lives. Pick up the book here and let me know what you think.
Graham Beynon is pastor of Grace Church Cambridge, and also Director of Independent Ministry Training at Oak Hill Theological College. He is the author of a number of books including Planting for the Gospel: A Hands On Guide to Church Planting.
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