What Are We Fighting For?
Recently, a friend posed simple question to me about Intentional Warriors that led to very thoughtful analysis on my part and has resulted in a subtle, yet significant, change in the the tagline for the movement.
Previously, the tagline had been “fighting for purity and freedom in a sexually saturated society.” The line was shortened at the top of the blog to simply: “fighting for purity and freedom.”
The question was simple: “Are you really fighting for purity?” At first it seemed a strange question. But my friend went on to explain that in his view purity — while a good thing for sure, and something to be desired — was the result of a person living with a heart that has been set free.
He didn’t quote the verse, but the scripture that immediately sprung to mind for me was Ps. 119:32, where the psalmist says: “i run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.”
My friend went on to share some of his thoughts on what purity really means in practice, which perhaps i will describe in more detail at another time.
As i thought about the Intentional Warriors tagline i started to realize that what my friend was suggesting was actually closer to the reality of what i believe and practice, and what i train other men to believe and practice. So making a change in the tagline to “fighting for free hearts,” only made sense.
So what difference does that actually make?
To fight for free hearts in a sexually saturated society is to focus on living in the new covenant that Jeremiah and Ezekiel speak about. In Jeremiah 31: 33-34, God speaks and tells the prophet that He is making a new covenant with His people in which He will put His law in their minds and He will write it on their hearts.” He goes on to say that the result of this is that His people will all know Him as a result.
In Ezekiel 36:24-29, God says that He is going to sprinkle clean water on His people to cleanse them from all of their idols; He will give His people a new heart; and He will put His Spirit in them, which will move them to follow His ways.
Free hearts are those which are pursuing and living in this new covenant. Living from the free heart changes everything, which is what the psalmist was saying in Ps. 119:32.
This is something to fight for and pursue in a world where many things bind our hearts and hold them captive. And it’s a bigger mission or story than simply fighting to keep our noses clean a/k/a fighting for purity.
The fight is not so much to “not sin,” although not sinning is good. Rather, it’s a fight for freedom at the deepest level of our lives. Because we could all immediately stop watching porn and masturbating, but that wouldn’t necessarily mean that we were free. Nor would it necessarily mean that we were drawing our life from God under this new covenant, becoming whole and holy people.
As we say all the time at Intentional Warriors: Porn use is a sign that your heart and soul are in bondage, but there are lots of ways your heart and soul can be in bondage that have nothing to do with porn. The life God has for us is freedom in all dimensions of our lives.
We are fighting for free hearts because everything else flows from that.
Intentional Warriors 
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