We live in strange and dark times, don’t we? We stay mostly in our homes because of the virus pandemic. Businesses are closed. Many people have lost their jobs or had their pay reduced. Several cities are besieged by rioters and looters.
And the normal trials of life still continue: people get sick or injured, loved ones die, and tragedies happen.
Since we are used to getting out and doing things, staying closed up at home has an effect on us. Some are angry, some are sad. Some are depressed, others are consumed by apathy or boredom.
Christians are not immune to these things. In fact, though you should have more time for the spiritual disciplines, you may have succumbed to apathy and spend your time binge watching television. A recent survey showed that only 7 percent of people read their Bibles daily during this time.
How do we handle these times? I think Paul’s words to the church in Ephesus, recorded in Ephesians 6:10-18 are timely for us today.
This passage was Paul’s last exhortation to the church in Ephesus. In the prior verses, he wrote about our life in Christ, our life in the church, our life in the family, and our life in the workplace, all as God intends for it to be.
But Paul knew that Satan opposes everything that God purposes. So, when Paul began this passage with the word “finally”, he was saying, in light of all that I have written about God’s will for us in these areas, be prepared to fight for them against the enemy that will attack them. Every Christian is involved in the spiritual battle and must equip himself or herself for it.
Paul’s instruction is for us to be strong in the Lord, relying on his strength. (10) We must cover ourselves in the full armor of God. We must do this to stand against the schemes of the devil and his demons.
That is because we do not have the strength within ourselves to defeat our enemy. Paul deed our enemies as the devil with his schemes. Paul saw this first hand in Ephesus when the seven unbelieving sons of Sceva the priest tried to cast a demon out of a man. Instead of coming out of the man, the demon empowered the man to beat all seven of the sons. This story is recorded in Acts 19.
The Bible tells us Satan was created as a beautiful and powerful angel. And angels in general appear to be more powerful than humans in this age. Satan is, therefore, a powerful enemy. His agents are rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, and spiritual forces of evil. (12) And he has schemes to defeat you and the church, just as he had schemes to defeat Jesus.
Remember, for example, his scheme in the wilderness to defeat Jesus, recorded in Matthew 4. He first did this by tempting him to turn loaves into bread. He did this when Jesus was physically weak after fasting for 40 days. Then, he offered him all of the kingdoms of earth in return for his worship, which would allow him to avoid the suffering of the cross. Those were powerful temptations at a time of weakness and exhaustion.
Here is the bad news; he has schemes for you, too. He would love to make every Christian fall and become ineffective for the kingdom. He may appeal to your weakness in suffering illness or loss. He may appeal to you in pride after you have succeeded at something. He will use different methods at different times. He may appeal to your boredom, offering things to you for excitement that lead to sin.
God is, however, more powerful than the devil. God is the creator. The devil is a creature subject to God’s power and authority just as we are. That is why the devil had to get God’s permission to attack Job. It is why Jesus was able to cast out demons from possessed people.
Christianity is not a religion of Dualism. Dualism holds that good and evil are equal forces, that God and the Devil are locked in a battle of equals. That is the underlying theology of the Force in the Star Wars movies. But the Bible tells us no one is God’s equal, there is none like him. God cast the Devil from heaven, as pictured in Revelation 12, and He will send the Devil into eternal punishment when it is time, as shown in Revelation 20.
Since we are weak, but God is strong, we must rely on the strength of the Lord to prevail. Paul tells us how to do that, by putting on the armor of God. He is probably thinking of the gear of the first century Roman soldier and uses these items as metaphors for the things Christ gives us to be victorious. Paul wrote this letter while in confinement, guarded by a Roman soldier. Some of these things are also pictured in Isaiah’s vision as being worn by the Lord when he comes in victory and judgment.
First Paul says, we must put on the belt of truth. Jesus called himself the truth. (John 14:6) We must always be centered in the truth of Christ and his gospel, without watering it down and without redefining it to fit the times. Jesus said no one comes to the Father except through him. We must know the doctrines of the faith in order to defend them.
We must put on the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate protected the heart and other vital organs from attack. We have received the righteousness of Christ through faith. When Satan accuses us of not being good enough or worthy of salvation, we deflect his arrow by standing on the righteousness of Christ.
Having received Christ’s righteousness, though, we strive to live righteously. When we do so, we are much better equipped to fight the enemy that when we are weighed down by our own sin.
Next, for shoes, we put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. (15) Because we have the peace of God, and peace with God, we are ready to fight the devil as our common enemy. If we are at war with God, we do not have this peace and cannot fight the enemy. It would be like running into battle barefoot. Instead we are ready to take the gospel to our city, our country, and the world. Every soul converted is a victory for Christ and a defeat for Satan.
In all circumstances, we must have the shield of faith. (16) The Roman battle shield was large enough to protect the whole body of the soldier. When the Roman troops marched into combat, they held up their shields and deflected all of the arrows shot by the enemy. You can see this enacted in the movie “Gladiator”.
When the devil shoots his arrows of doubt, fear, anxiety, or confusion, we deflect them with the shield of faith. Believing in Christ, his salvation, and his protection, we rely on him and our faith is stronger than Satan’s attacks. We know and believe that Jesus will never leave us, or forsake us, and no one can snatch us from his hand.
We also put on the helmet of salvation. (17) In Isaiah 59:17, the Lord wears the helmet of salvation when he comes to defeat his enemies at the end of the age and judge them. Our salvation includes eternal life and the promise of a future where all of God’s enemies, who are our enemies also, are defeated. You can face every battle with Satan in this knowledge.
Finally in addition to these defensive weapons, we have an offensive weapon, the sword of the Spirit. That sword is the word of God empowered by the Spirit of God. It is our weapon.
Going back to the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, we see Jesus defeated all three temptations of the Devil with scripture, the sword of the Spirit.
So, how do we fight this battle? First, clothed in God’s armor, we stand. That word appears 3 times in this passage. The Greek word refers to a soldier taking a stand to fight the enemy and not retreating. Or in my geeky “Lord of the Rings” way, you stand like Gandalf in the face of evil and say “you shall not pass”. You do not cower or retreat, you stand and face the enemy in the power of the Lord.
Second, you wield God’s word as a sword. That means you read it, study it, memorize it, all in preparation to use it in battle. The Spirit will then bring the word to mind as you fight the evil one. Again, the example for us is Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4, as well as Peter and John before the Sanhedrin in Acts 4 and Stephen in Acts 6.
Third, you pray in the Spirit continually, or at all times. (18) You pray for your own spiritual strength, but you also pray for all the saints. You pray for Christians under persecution in China, in North Korea, in Nigeria and every place they are persecuted. You pray for churches in California who have been told they cannot meet. You pray that our church will stand strong for Christ and preach the gospel to our city.
Fourth, you stay alert with perseverance. Instead of succumbing to apathy and abandoning the spiritual disciplines, let’s double down on them. Spend more time in the Word and in prayer than before the pandemic. Contact your fellow believers and encourage them. Ephesians 5:16 says “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, make the best use of the time, because the days are evil”.
You cannot put on the armor of God if you have not received Christ as Savior. The second chapter of Ephesians tells us that if you have not been saved, you are spiritually dead in your sins and under the dominion of the devil. But, by placing your faith in Jesus, believing he died to pay the penalty for your sins, you can be saved from your sins and clothed in the armor of God to resist the devil.
If you have never done this, I urge you to receive Jesus as savior and lord and commit your life to him today.
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