The Way of the Warrior: An Ancient Path to Inner Peace

by Erwin Raphael McManus

This is the highest expression of wisdom—to live our lives for others rather than ourselves. The fool lives to consume all they can take from the world. The wise live to create a better world. The way of the warrior is to choose the path of nobility. The warrior also understands that wisdom is gained not in a moment but in an endless number of moments in which choices must be made. The path toward wisdom is not taken by steps but by choices. When you choose to take, you choose the path of the fool. When you choose to give, you choose the way of the wise.

The warrior never fights out of anger; they fight only out of honor. They never fight to conquer; they fight only to liberate. The warrior fights against evil so that good may prevail. Wisdom is revealed by what a person fights for. If you fight for yourself, you have given yourself to too small a thing. The warrior fights against injustice, against poverty, against despair, against depression. The wisdom of the warrior establishes both their enemies and their battles. Only the fool fights battles not worth fighting or even worth winning. Because of their wisdom, the warrior does not engage in battles that should not be fought. And at the same time, they do not shrink back from battles that must be fought. This is the true wisdom of the warrior. The warrior can win the battles where even the strongest have known only defeat. This is why the warrior is never powerless. You can try to take all their earthly weapons, but you cannot take their wisdom. And because the warrior has learned the way of wisdom, they are never powerless.

I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded. The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.21

Solomon is described as the wisest man who ever lived. But the one thing he was never able to know was what his wisdom would have looked like without his wealth and power and status. His wisdom would always be seen through the vantage point of his stature. Solomon understood the power of wisdom when combined with wealth and position and power. Here in this moment, he was able to see the power of wisdom stripped of any advantage. Here Solomon saw the power of invisible leadership.

Can you imagine saving a city with nothing in your hand except the wisdom you’ve gained and stored in your heart?

What seemed to bother Solomon the most was that nobody remembered that poor man, which might explain why he remains unnamed.

It’s almost as if he were invisible: no one saw him, no one heard him, but no one could deny what he had done.

what Solomon was discovering is that wisdom has its own power.

someone, you will inevitably have conflict and disagreements. Wisdom understands that it is less important to win a fight or a point than it is to win the person. Wisdom knows that you should never fight against people; you should fight for them. What’s the point of winning a fight if you lose the person? When you love someone, the real fight is to keep winning that person.

This is the way of the warrior—not simply that wisdom is better than strength but that wisdom is our strength. To strike a sword as a fool is only to add to the violence. Wisdom never seeks to wound except to heal. Wisdom never longs for war but for peace.

The most dangerous thing in the world is to put weapons in the hands of fools, and the most powerful force in the world is the wisdom that makes us drop our weapons.

The fool feels powerful because they have a weapon in their hand; the warrior knows they are powerful when their hands are empty.

Though the way of the warrior is a way of peace, you will have many battles to fight. Each battle will require different skills and weaponry. The one weapon you must always take with you is wisdom.

Wealth cannot secure your victory, and poverty cannot prevent it. There is no more powerful situation than to be poor with nothing but wisdom as you engage to save your city. A rich fool is not more powerful than a poor sage. Never let your lack of resources justify your lack of ambition. Never allow the measure of your wealth to be the measure of your life. Solomon was a man with both great wealth and great wisdom, but now he could see clearly that only great wisdom ensures the best future.

lack of resources must not limit the battles you fight.

while the warrior is informed by the past, they are not formed by it. The warrior is not formed by what has been done and what can’t be done; the heart of the warrior is formed by what must be done.

the impossible never surrenders to the possible without a fight.

The warrior knows that every great endeavor comes with great opposition.

This is the power of wisdom—to fight the battles that matter most so that we never have to fight another war again. If we study war, it is only to find our way to peace. Solomon described this poor man as having the greatest wisdom he had ever seen, not because he went to war, but because he found a way to peace.

There are some who fight meaningless battles against lesser opposition simply to confirm their own sense of greatness.

The warrior never fights for themselves; they fight only for others. They never use what they do not have as an excuse, they never use the overwhelming nature of the challenge as an escape, and they are never surprised when faced with unexpected and undeserved opposition. The enemy that we tend to expect is like the powerful king who came and seized the city. The enemies we rarely speak of are the ones within us—those that would cause us to live in fear and so paralyze us that we would rather live a life of oppression than pay the price for freedom. We would expect an enemy king and his soldiers to fight against our revolt. The stories that are rarely told are the ones of the very people we are trying to set free, people turned against us because we are endangering the status quo. I have come to know the painful truth in life: most people would rather live in the predictability of captivity than risk the uncertainty that comes in a fight for freedom.

When you somehow find yourself in a life you never wanted, it has a paralyzing effect. It becomes a subtle version of Stockholm syndrome, where you develop an unhealthy relationship to your captor and disdain for anyone trying to set you free.

The poor man’s wisdom would not only have to overcome the military prowess of this conquering king but also have to set his people free from the crippling power of oppression and the fear that must have overtaken their hearts. When a people are conquered, they do not simply lose their land, homes, and freedom; they also lose their hopes and dreams and future. The poor man would have to overcome despair with hope and convince the people that there was a future worth fighting for. The first siege work that would have to be broken is the one that held them captive in fear. Before they would fight for freedom, they would have to choose to live free. We see it only in the aftermath of this man’s life, but the way of wisdom never seeks fame, even while living for greatness. This man was unknown before the story began and unremembered after the story was over.

For Solomon, fame was inseparable from greatness. But for this poor man who was wise, for this man who had set his entire city free, to be known seemed unimportant. And we must ask ourselves, do we seek to be known more than to be worth knowing?

My grandfather could walk in and out of a room without being heard. The poor man walked in and out of history without being remembered. The greatest warrior cannot be heard when they strike, cannot be seen when they move. When all is said and done, the warrior is not known for their weapons but for their wisdom. And while the poor man was quickly forgotten, what he did was never forgotten. Solomon could not find his name, but his fingerprints were everywhere. The warrior lives their life to leave a legacy and live their legend.

When we are young, we are drawn by the fight far more than compelled by the training. We love the sound of victory far more than the grind of discipline. When you understand that wisdom is your greatest strength, you do not neglect the work necessary to sharpen your edge. It is Solomon who also reminds us that “if the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill...

We must embrace the power of one person with God. At some point or another, we will feel as if we are underresourced for the challenges ahead. We must lean into the unlimited resources of the God who calls us. If not all of us, certainly most of us will wonder if we have the necessary position or power to accomplish our greatest challenges. It is then we must embrace the power of influence. In the end, most of us will wonder if what we’ve given ourselves to has been worth the fight, especially if no one remembers our names. And that’s why we must never forget that what is done for ourselves will one day be forgotten but that what we have done for others will be remembered for eternity.

When you are a novice, you cut away at the tree, never taking the time to pull back and sharpen the ax’s edge. Frankly, when you are inexperienced, you don’t even notice that the edge has become dull. You do notice that the tree becomes denser and every inch of progress becomes harder and harder. If you’re not paying attention, you’ll simply think that you’re losing strength or that in some strange way the tree is gaining strength. It takes a more seasoned lumberjack to make you aware that you are increasing your effort but decreasing your result. The fool just keeps striking and striking without paying attention to the quality of the edge. The wise know that if the edge is unsharpened, more strength is needed. The warrior understands that behind one strike of their sword are ten thousand hours in which they have wielded their sword without an enemy present. It is no different in life, that we are not pulling back bows or swinging swords or carrying the weapons of conventional battle. Every life is a series of battles, of conflicts, and of wars, and of course the war we speak of is the one that rages within. You cannot win the battle for your soul if you choose to live the life of a fool, neglecting the health of your soul and not taking time to refine who you are. The battle may look different for each of us, but the battle line is the same: it is at the intersection of our passions and desires. Solomon tells us to love wisdom. He knows that in the end we become what we l...

There are certain markers you can look for to know you’re chopping at the right tree. Some of them are more concrete, and some of them are more intuitive. One marker is who you are as a person. Your gifts and talents are at least a starting point for which battles are yours to fight or yours to walk away from. When you lack the natural gifting to do something, even when you care about it, you will always find yourself at a deficit. You have to look in a mirror and ask yourself the hard question,

Was I created to ...

A good follow-up question to ask yourself is,

Am I prepared to do this?

You may have the natural talent, but you haven’t paid the price to develop the ski...

This may mean that it’s the right tree but the wrong timing. There are battles you will fight later in life, but right now it’s boot camp, and you’re still in training.

Another marker to help you know if you are spending your strength in the right place is your passion and energy.

If you are passionate about the process and not just the outcome, that’s a marker that you are on the right track. If you are energized by the hard work and not simply its promise of success, that’s a...

An external marker can be the impact that your action...

You may get sick every time you are invited to be a public speaker, but the influence you have on the audience is undeniable. Oftentimes I have seen highly talented people who are terrified by the callings that are on their lives, and the only thing that keeps them swinging the ax is a sense of responsibility for the good that is being accomplished in the lives of others. This for me is one of the most altruistic and noble reasons to be motivated to create wealth. For some, their responsibility is not simply to have a job but to create jobs. It’s not enough to simply gain wealth; they must create wea...

Although life may not have yet brought you wealth or position or power, there is no poverty that can stop you from fulfilling God’s intention for your life when you are walking in wisdom. This is why it matters who you walk with as well. When you choose to live your life in concert with others who are willing to pay the high price of pursuing the greatest challenges and developing their full potential and capacity, it shapes who you are. Lean in to those who refuse to leave you the same. Stay close to those who see you as more than you are in this present moment. Never forget that the rebuke of a friend is of greater value than the kiss of an enemy.26 Wisdom knows that the way of the warrior cannot be walked alone. And while you may find yourself at some point to be a solitary source of hope needed to bring an entire city freedom, the wise know that wisdom was never gained alone. They also know that we were never meant to do life alone. Solomon reminds us, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they...

The warrior lives in the paradox between service and greatness. The warrior is always first a servant. Contrary to popular perception, a life of service does not diminish the pursuit of greatness. The warrior must learn to walk with both humility and ambition. The warrior does not serve because they cannot lead; they know that a person cannot lead if they do not serve. Every day for the warrior is a pursuit of excellence. In the warrior there can be no hint of apathy or complacency. The warrior has too much honor to give anything less than their very best to their master. Every day is a competition against who they were yesterday. The warrior is indifferent to fame while at the same time is relentlessly pursuing greatness. They see fame as what you do for yourself and greatness as what you do for others. Greatness is not the absence of humility; it is the absence of apathy. Just as you can be famous and not be great, you can be great and not famous. Although the warrior may gain great fame, it is never their ambition. Let fame be the food of lesser men. The warrior pursues their legend. The warrior pursues the life they must live, the battle they must fight, the sacrifice they must make. To the warrior, greatness is not the product of ego but of service. If you live for yourself, you can settle for less. If you live for others, it requires all of who you are. This is why the warrior never envies the greatness of others but in fact honors and admires it. The life of the war...

without competition, we lack the necessary context to push ourselves beyond our own capacities. Competition, when understood properly, makes you better, makes you more, makes you stronger. My response to Shane was that it is not wrong to be competitive, an answer he wasn’t expecting to hear. He said, “So is it okay for me to look around the room and compare myself to others?” I responded to him, “I thought you wanted to be the best?” A little bit insulted, he responded immediately, “I do want to be the best.” I said, “Well, when you are the best, there is no one to compare yourself to. So rather than comparing yourself to others, why don’t you compete against you, who you are today. That way when you are the best, you’re still competing against the same person: who you were yesterday.”

When you’re the best, you don’t compare yourself against others; you compare yourself against the impossible.

Jesus, though, didn’t inspire a conversation about a particular application of greatness but about the essence of greatness itself. The disciples were not asking who was the greatest at a particular feat; they were asking who was the greatest in the eyes of God. This is a question only Jesus could inspire. His greatness was not the outcome of his talent or a particular ability; his greatness was about the totality of who he was as a person. Jesus epitomized what it meant to be human. He was the sum total of everything the disciples aspired to be. One of the particularly beautiful things about true greatness is that it leaves no room for envy. Jesus did not come to diminish the greatness in others; he came to awaken it. Even when he confronted the disciples about their conversation and their desire to take the seat of honor, he did not tell them to stop aspiring to be great; he simply redirected them so that they might succeed in their pursuit of greatness.

Then Jesus confounded them with words that have become well known across the world: “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”29 I am convinced that these words of Jesus have been terribly misunderstood. They have been heard over and over again as an admonition against the desire to be first. But in actuality he never discouraged the disciples from wanting to be first; he just told them what first looks like in his economy: If you want to be first, then you must be last. If you want to be first, you must become the servant of all. He didn’t try to diminish their ambition; he tried to redirect their intention. Jesus wasn’t trying to replace greatness with servanthood; he was trying to give us a new definition of greatness, which is servanthood.

No one had ever called their leaders to serve. All of the disciples saw the greatness in Jesus and assumed that his posture of servanthood was a short-term strategy. Yet this call to servanthood is not for everyone. It’s actually very specific: it’s a callout to whoever wants to become great. The call to servanthood finds its power only when it is received by those who are on the pursuit of greatness. It is not wrong to aspire to greatness. The warning here is to be careful to never confuse fame with greatness. Otherwise, you may be aspiring to what is not really greatness at all. Fame is what you do for yourself; greatness is what you do for others. Jesus has unveiled to us how greatness is achieved in his kingdom. To be great, you must serve. So don’t give up on your ambition to be great; instead, change your definition of what it means to be great and how greatness is achieved. Most important, though, we need to change the why behind our drive. The question is not whether we should be competitive; the question is not whether we should pursue excellence; the question is not whether we should pursue greatness. The question is why we are pursuing it. Paul told us, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”35 If you are to do all things for the glory of God, then there is nothing you should do where you are not aspiring to do your best, be your best, and, yes, even be the best. It is in service that your greatness will be found. Jesus pre...

It has always fascinated me that the words samurai and deacon have the same core meaning. They both mean “servant.” The samurai were known as the greatest of warriors, yet they did not live for themselves. Their highest honor was to live lives of service for the one who was their lord. Too often we have confused humility with powerlessness. Humility cannot be achieved from a posture of powerlessness. As long as we see ourselves as victims, humility does not come from a position of strength. True humility can be experienced only when we have come to know our power and use it for the good of others and not for ourselves. When Jesus was asked which was the greatest of all the commandments, he responded that we are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength.38 We rarely focus on the last aspect of that commandment, to love God with all our strength. God assumes we have strength and that it will be used only for his ultimate good when that strength is fueled by God’s love. Maybe a good exercise would be to sit down and make a list of all your strengths. After all, you can’t take mastery over what you are unaware of. Your intellectual capacity is a strength. Your physical health is a strength. Your emotional intelligence is a strength. Your ability to influence is a strength. Your ability to create wealth is a strength. Your resilience and determination are strengths. And the list can go on and on and on. You need to know your power, and you need to...

How strange that this would be the way of God: “Unless I wash you, unless you let me serve you, unless you allow me to do this that is beneath me, you will never know the full measure of my love for you.” We understand that Jesus came to save the world. I think it’s harder for us to accept that he came to serve the world. He is the Savior of all because he is the servant of all.

This is the way of the warrior: to serve is to sacrifice. To serve is to give oneself for the good of others. Jesus used his power to serve, and in this moment of servanthood, we see his greatness.

Goliath was, of course, the giant who taunted both God and the armies of Israel, knowing there was not one warrior in all Israel with the courage to fight him. David was at the battlefield that day only to deliver cheese. He was an errand boy. No one thought of him as a warrior. When the people looked at David, they saw only a servant. When David offered his services to King Saul, the man tried to dissuade David, telling him, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”44 David responded to King Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep.”45 David’s understanding of himself was that he was nothing more than a servant. But listen as he describes what it means to be a faithful servant: “When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.”46

Now, that sounds like a warrior to me, but David seemed to be pretty sure this was just a normal part of being a servant. He explained further, “Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”47 David had one posture: servanthood. Because he saw himself as a servant, he was a shepherd like no one had ever known.