16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:16-17 (NASB)
If we are effective warriors in the Truth War that means we will also come under attack from directions other than on the battlefront. These attacks are sinister and come from some that most would think should know better than to fall into being a tool of our enemy….
The first fundamental is that this war is not about us. We make mistakes. We blunder. We make foolish decisions. It is vital that we do not compound our error by attempting to cover it up by going hard after those who have exploited it or exposed it. Instead, like Peter when Paul contended with him about his hypocrisy, we should humbly repent and move forward with our Lord in His light.
I have noticed that some of those who should be contending earnestly for the faith spend way too much time either defending themselves from these sorts of attacks or they are being consumed with nit picking with others to the point of distraction. I am in no way suggesting that all professing Christians should be automatically considered our brethren, however, if the faith of a brother or sister in Christ is solidly grounded in Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, justification by faith alone, and Sola Scriptura, then I am most certainly not going to contend with them over things that the Bible does not make clear enough for that. We must contend for the essentials, the non-negotiable parts of our faith only. On the other hand ecumenicalism is always out there and ready for us to make the foolish mistake to compromise.