10 of those

A Hope-Filled, Honest, Book

You know a Christian book has achieved its purpose when it makes you uncomfortable. ‘Know Your Enemy’ reminded me of my sinful nature, and how sin presents itself in me and my life. I was reading thinking ‘goodness me, how am I going to turn from all this, and implement all this biblical advice, by myself?’… …But that’s the thing! We don’t do it by ourselves. Graham Beynon, in a way that reminded me of J.I. Packer’s ’Knowing God’ ends each chapter with the gospel: the amazing, incredible, relieving, praiseworthy news that Jesus lived the perfect life we couldn’t and died in our place. While sin brings death, Jesus brings life. HE is the One who helps us turn away from sin. He breaths new life into us. He enables us to walk in godliness. What a relief we don’t do it alone! We CAN’T! (We could try but we would fail, end up despairing of our sinful state, and likely give up. This book reminded me of that and therefore made me rejoice afresh in the gospel.) ‘We are in a much better position if we tell ourselves, ‘I am weak and easily misled. Satan is cunning and has got me worked out. This world is enticing and encourages me towards sin…So I need to watch out, and I need God’s help and the encouragement of his people.’ ~ Graham Beynon We are still in a battle with sin, and we’ll fail. But Jesus’ grace is sufficient. Hallelujah. Let’s remind ourselves daily of the gospel, and grow in love for Him. From that love may everything else flow.

Lydia

Know Your Enemy

Know Your Enemy will help to equip and enable you to be tackle the sin within your life. Satan’s desire is to captivate you with the fleeting riches of this world, yet Graham Beynon helps to provide useful answers, illuminated by Scripture, to battle against the destruction Satan seeks to bring to your life. Sin is something that each and every one of us must battle and contend with. We cannot endure and run the race set before us without ever needing to deal with temptation in our lives. The Lord himself was tempted, yet did not fall or succumb to it. If we are to lead lives that glorify Him, then we need to discipline ourselves in such a way that avoids the entanglement of Satan’s schemes. This book will help you to see how God’s love is far more valuable to us than the temporary pleasures the world offers.

Stuart King, Free Church Books

Know Your Enemy

Right at the beginning the author preps the reader’s mind with a warlike mentality when it comes to sin. The author introduces the reader to a classical war manual, ‘The Art of War’ (a must read), suggesting that we too as christians need to have tactics and strategy when it comes to fighting against sin in our lives. Like in ‘The Art of War’, the author has set out to provide strategies for fighting in a biblical battle that rages within us. This book provides a great introduction to that battle, acting like a pocket christian equivalent. The author refers to christians throughout history who have engaged in this battle and have left wisdom behind for us to learn from. Ranging from believers in the early church like Augustine, to Puritans like John Owen and more recently C.S Lewis. Filled with examples and analogies combined with a practical approach, these make it easy to read and follow. Graham helpfully summaries each chapter, making it simple and quick to refer back to as needed. In being practical, the author hasn’t sacrificed on detail, delving into areas such as human nature and viewing sin in two different ways. Thus making the reader think and understand what they are up against. It doesn’t lay out a step by step list of how to fight sin in your life, but the author does go right back to the heart of the problem. ‘Know Your Enemy’ is a refreshing, helpful read that will provide some practical advice for christians in their struggle with sin.

James, Insane Theologian

Know Your Enemy

This book is a call to holy living by resisting temptation. The focus is on the enemy operates and how to counter this. Every time we sin, we put our faith in Satan’s lies. Instead, we should remember the better promises of the Gospel. Beynon helpfully brings out the distinction between deliberate and negligent sins. The former are sins we choose to do and the latter are the good things we fail to do. Other ways he expresses the difference are overreach (wanting to be like God) and opting out (failing to be like God); vandalism and negligence; vanity and sloth. A respectable evangelical can avoid the former but fail to tackle the latter. The root cause of sin is loving ourselves rather than God. Thankfully in the Gospel God gives us a new heart that enables us to love him and others, meditating on his great love for us in Jesus Christ helps us to grow in our own love for him and strive to avoid sin. Beynon also causes us to see beyond the sugar coating to see the poison that sin is – “Reminding ourselves that sin kills is one the greatest ways to combat it.” Idols too must be identified for what they are – anything other than God that we believe essential for our happiness. Once again, the abundance we have in Jesus Christ helps us to smash these idols. Embracing that abundance and all the good things we have in Jesus Christ will help us to see how sin is “spoiled goodness” C.S. Lewis. There are some strange omissions: the armour of God, the indwelling Holy Spirit. The conclusion could be more upbeat, pointing us to the victory over sin we have in Jesus Christ and the Gospel. Nonetheless it is a very helpful book calling us to take sin seriously.

Stephen Ayre