Sin is a problem. But, one of the great psychological tragedies of the West is a misunderstanding of sin. We turned it into a legal category — a list of infractions — and lost what the word actually means: missing the mark. The ancient Church didn’t start with sin. It started with the passions — the disordered desires that pull us off target before we ever act. When we misunderstand the reality of sin, it makes it much harder to overcome the passions—which are the real problem.
But, make no mistake, we are at war. The Church Fathers knew this. They trained for it. They built entire traditions around it. As St. John Chrysostom put it, “Our warfare does not make the living dead, but rather makes the dead live.” Powerful.
And then we forgot. Or worse, we’re ignoring the battle we’re in.
Like any good father, Justin Marler—former punk guitarist turned Orthodox monk turned author—wants the best for his children. Leaning on the legacy left by the Church Fathers, Justin has provided his children—and us—with a survival guide for life with his book The Art of Unseen Warfare: Ancient Teachers for the Modern Fighter.
In this episode of A Commitment to Reality, Justin and Dave cover such issues as why monks are the real punks, why trying actually matters, why the virtues are skills you practice and not feelings you have, why God wants progress and not perfection, why suffering is a gift and not a problem to solve, and what happens when you stop asking “Am I saved?” and start asking “Where am I right now — heaven or hell?”
Thank you for joining A Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff. Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube for full episodes + clips: https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality
(Timestamps below.)
0:00 — Intro / Unseen Warfare: A Guidebook for Life
1:45 — From a punk to a monk
5:45 — Life in a monastery
7:55 — The education of everyday monasticism vs “traditional” modern education
10:35 — Practicing detachment while also embracing the beauty of life
17:00 — Having a healthy discomfort with the world
23:45 — The difference between the passions and sin and the baggage with the way so many people perceive sin
30:45 — The world is soul-sick and the Church is the hospital
33:45 — The purpose of life is to become a saint
36:45 — We need to try in life, to work out our salvation and become what we were created to be
41:20 — Why is it necessary for Christians to have the mindset of a fighter in battle?
45:55 — The modern book of virtue—we don’t talk enough about the virtues
51:30 — Trying to understand the will of God is all about developing a relationship with God
56:30 — The virtues are something we practice like anything else we want to get better at
1:00:45 — The problem with apologetics
1:08:35 — Should Christians spend time online?
1:10:15 — The reality of the unseen realm
1:12:45 — Suffering is a gift
1:17:40 — The reality of spiritual warfare
1:21:45 — We don’t talk enough about guardian angels
1:32:30 — You don’t earn your salvation, but you do work for it
1:34:45 — Salvation is a living process, you can experience heaven and hell on earth
1:38:55 — Where are we most eager to look away from reality?
1:40:15 — In a world that feels increasingly unreal, what feels most real?
We are living through one of the most disorienting periods in human history—leaving many to wonder: What is reality? As artificial intelligence accelerates and institutional trust erodes, our shared sense of what is real continues to crumble.
A commitment to reality is a dedication to discerning what is true and developing the discipline to live in alignment with that truth—with reality. This podcast is an apologetic for reality—each episode serving as an intentional act of grounding our existence together as we commit to what is beautiful, good, and true.
Subscribe to A Commitment to Reality on YouTube for the full episodes + clips, and follow wherever you get podcasts.