Ephesians 12
We are nearing the end of our discovery of Paul’s letter to the Ephesian Christians and have arrived at verse 10 of chapter 6 where he writes: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” Paul suddenly changes his approach in this final section of his letter. Until now he has been speaking about the walk of the Christian, but now he starts to speak about the Christian’s warfare. I wonder why this sudden change? I think perhaps I know. He realises how real is our enemy and how fierce is the spiritual warfare we are engaged in. Life in every part is something of a conflict, but the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has a very special battle to fight. Let us try to discover just what Paul means when he writes about this.
He writes first about our enemy. He says in verse 12: “for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Our real enemies as believers are not just people and things in this world, but they are spiritual forces of evil that are opposed to us and to God. What does all this mean? The Bible describes the evil and sinful forces in this world and in the heavenly realms as personal in character. They are beings in rebellion against God and all that is good and holy. They are demons, described as the powers of darkness, and the spiritual forces of evil. Their leader is Satan and he is the one who rules them all. In his first letter chapter 5 verse 8 the apostle Peter describes Satan, or the devil, as “a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” He says that we need to be alert and on our guard against this fierce enemy. Paul is saying the same thing to the Ephesians in these verses. When we are opposed or persecuted as Christians it is not the people but the evil powers moving them that we are fighting against. Satan and his followers have to be reckoned with.
In his first letter to the Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 18, Paul writes of Satan hindering him. Again, in the second letter to the Corinthians chapter 11, verse 14, he speaks of Satan transforming himself to appear as an angel of light so as to deceive with his lies and falsehoods. So, you see, the devil was very real to Paul. He speaks right here in these verses of the devil’s schemes, his cunning wiles and methods. So this is our enemy who will do his utmost to turn us away from living a holy life, and will try to hinder us in our service and witness for Christ. We must always remind ourselves, though, that this enemy was defeated at the cross of the Lord Jesus and his ultimate fate is sealed.
But though the enemy is real and the warfare is fierce, yet God has provided all the enabling power we need to win the battle. Paul commences this passage with the words, “Be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” So the first step in this battle is to take for ourselves the strength that Christ provides for us. We are to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might, for we have no strength of our own sufficient to face the enemy. Paul has already shown in the previous chapters of this letter that if we are to live our lives in accordance with God’s will then our relationship with Him must be right. It is the same here. If we are to appropriate the power available to us in Christ then we must be truly right with Him; there must be nothing between, no disobedience, no barrier. We must continually exercise true faith in Him for all we need in this spiritual warfare. When the tempter comes we submit first to God then we resist the devil, and the Scripture assures us that he will flee away. As we draw near to God in this way so He will draw near to us. Read this in James chapter 4 verse 7. This is using the power of the Lord to overcome. More often than seems believable, people have died of starvation with no heat in their homes, when all the time they had money enough hoarded away which they have never used. Just as money is no help unless used, in the same way it is no use just believing with our minds that the Lord has power, unless we use our faith and take the power He has for us.
Then Paul says we have to put on the whole armour of God. What does all this mean? The armour mentioned is the usual armour of the soldier of the day. Paul uses it to illustrate the kind of protection the Christian needs in his spiritual warfare. In reality the armour is the experience of the Lord in our lives.
First, he speaks of the belt of truth. The belt of the Roman soldier held all the armour together and kept it in place. This left him free to use both arms in battle because he was not always needing to make sure that his armour was in place. Truth is like this. It means the truth about God as well as the truth God has declared. It means the truth about ourselves. Contrary to what many people think today, there is only one truth. There cannot be more than one truth, and that truth is revealed to us in God’s Word, the Bible. Being certain concerning the truth and trusting in what God has said gives us confidence in the face of the enemy. The Christian soldier must also be truthful, honest with himself and others. This belt of truth will help to keep all the other pieces of the armour in place.
Then there is the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate covered the vital parts of the body, the heart and the lungs. The vital parts of our spiritual lives are our desires and emotions, and our wills. It is essential that these are always guarded. If the enemy attacks us in these areas and we are not protected then we will fall. Our emotions, desires and wills must always be subject to the rule of the Holy Spirit so that we live in a righteous way. But this also means that when the enemy accuses us we can counter him with the fact that we are forgiven through Christ’s death and reconciled to God. It means much more, though. It means that the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Himself is imputed to us and God sees us as clean in Him. This protects the inner thoughts, will and the emotions of our hearts. As we keep right with the Lord and his love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we are kept inwardly protected.
The next part of the armour is the shoes. One version of verse 15 puts it like this: “put on the readiness to announce the good news of peace as shoes for your feet.” Shoes in the Roman soldier’s equipment enabled him to move quickly in the battle. He also had to march long distances and so they had to be durable. Christians are in a great spiritual warfare and have a great commission to preach the gospel of peace wherever and whenever we can. Notice that word “readiness.” It means being prepared at all times to be faithful witnesses of our Lord Jesus. We carry the battle to the enemy as we proclaim the truth that through the death of Christ there is peace and forgiveness for sinners. We carry the battle to the enemy as we declare the resurrection of the Lord Jesus by which He has defeated for the believer the one who has the power of death - Satan.
The next words sound the note of victory! Verse 16: “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” Flaming arrows were a common method of attack in early days. It was not very easy to defend yourself from them. This was one of the advantages of the huge roman shield. It was big enough to cover the whole body and the arrows could not penetrate it. This is a good description of the way the devil sometimes attacks believers. His attacks seem like fiery darts. They come against our minds with evil thoughts; against our desires through impure urges; and they can come through tragic and hurtful events. But God has promised that the shield of faith shall protect us against them all. This shield is our sure trust in the power of the shed blood of the Saviour that cleanses us. It is the certainty that we are children of God by faith in Christ and nothing can alter that. In the King James Version of the Bible the phrase at the beginning of verse 16 is : “Above all take the shield of faith.” The words “above all” show us that the shield can cover every situation, that it is for all circumstances, and that it is the most important part of the armour. How wonderful that all through life we can have this protection against all that our great enemy can do against us.
We have not finished with the armour yet. There are still two more pieces but we must leave those until next time. Make sure that you have the whole armour on and that you are strong in the Lord Jesus to fight the battle.