Fighting for the Wrong Side

1 Samuel 29:4

And the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him; and the princes of the Philistines said unto him, Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us: for wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master? should it not be with the heads of these men?

One mistake David made in his life was when he thought that Saul would kill him, he switched sides to “save his life.” The Philistines were the enemy of Israel. In fact, David’s first battle was against the Philistines when he fought Goliath and killed him. Now, because of a battle with Saul, he thought he needed to switch sides. David never thought that spending time with the Philistines would influence him, but it did. You may recall when David wanted to move the ark of the covenant to the city where he lived that he copied the way the Philistines carried the ark, to the detriment of the life of one man.

The sad part about this story is that the lords of the Philistines recognized that David did not belong with them. They wanted David to go back home because they were fearful that he would change sides in the battle. They remembered the songs that were sung about David in verse 5. They remember the ladies sang, Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands? The enemy knew David did not belong on their side and that he needed to be on the side where he truly belonged, and that was on the LORD’s side.

Sadly, many today seem to be fighting on the wrong side. We see someone make a stand for truth, and instead of encouraging them and standing vocally with them, we are either silent, or we criticize them for causing division. Instead, many stand with deniers of the KJB, virgin birth, and the deniers who don't believe the blood of Christ is necessary for the atonement for our sins. You can run to the other side, but you will find that you don't belong on the other side.

Moreover, many who stand on the other side against their Pastor who preaches they need to be faithful to church, go soul winning, live holy lives, and be involved in ministry. Instead of fighting to spread God’s truth across their city, they sit at home on Sunday and Wednesday nights, they are hit-and-miss in their church attendance, they are worldly in their living, and they don't care that they are this way. Many of these who stand on the other side don't realize that they are being influenced with the slop of Satan’s doctrine, and with the mire of worldly living. You may not think you are being influenced, but slowly, the influence of false doctrine and worldly living is changing you. What is even more sad is that you are exposing your children to something that you never wanted them exposed to, and they will go completely to the other side to your heartache.

Let us not be guilty of fighting for the wrong side. Let us stay on our side and fight for the truth of God’s Word. Every day we are on the wrong side is one day we cannot use to influence the lost for Christ. We are in a battle, and we are turncoats if we spend one day on the wrong side of the battle. There is no excuse for compromise. God is powerful enough to protect you while standing for truth even when it seems the whole world is against you. Let’s stay on our side and fight for our side, for our side is God’s side.