Ephesians 6:10-20
Paul’s letter to the Church in Ephesus is the blueprint of how God brings us into living the wonderful, simple, free, and full life in Christ.
It is very clearly divided into three sections, which we can call Sit, Walk, and Stand. In our Christian walk, we need to know firstly where we sit. Just as a building sits on its foundations, the whole first half of Ephesians (chapters 1-3) shows us what this foundation is.
In these chapters, astonishing claims have been made; God unites everything in the universe through Christ (Ephesians 1:10) and has put everything under his authority (1:22).
God has created a new humanity out of the old animosities (2:14-16). We, chosen by God before creation (1:4), have not only been raised with Christ but already have been seated with him in the heavenly realms (2:6).
Once we are sure of our foundation, then we can walk with Jesus through life. Paul tells us how we are do this walk, in chapters 4 and 5. Last week we saw that on this walk we need to be careful how we live. We spoke about what is means to live this wonderful life wisely.
Today we look at the last part of Ephesians that shows us, when we have our sure foundation in Christ and we are living wisely, how we stand in Christ when life throws chaos our way. Paul says in v.13, when you have done all you can do, just stand!
We can’t stand unless our foundation is in Christ and his amazing promises, and are walking a wise, loving life.
One might conclude from the wonderful claims made in the first half of the letter that there is no more struggle against evil, either in the world or within ourselves. Of course, we have ample evidence from daily experience that such is not the case.
Paul tells us that this “struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (v.12).
Even before chapter 6, Ephesians has been clear that evil spiritual forces, though defeated, are still active (1:21, 3:10). God’s victory cannot be snatched away, but the enemy has not surrendered yet.
In today’s passage, the church, the gathered people of God, is enlisted and equipped to stand on God’s side in this continuing conflict.
The enemy referred to is of course, the Devil or Satan, and his helpers. Now, whenever we talk about the devil or the existence of evil, it’s easy to fall into one of two traps. Most people tend to try and ignore these forces of evil altogether and pretend they don’t exist.
The other trap, equally as dangerous, is to take an unhealthy interest in everything demonic and see demons where they don’t exist, forgetting that to God, Satan is less than an ant is to an elephant.
Now how we stand against this present darkness (which we have been living in ever since we were disobedient on the Garden of Eden), is to put on the armour of God.
Now we the church are mere infantry, front line soldiers that don’t really know much about the whole larger battle going on the spiritual realm, but we do know that our battles in life are part of a much larger war.
Now the weapons involved in putting on the full armour of God are mainly defensive weapons that equip us to withstand attack and still be standing at the end of the day.
The belt, the breastplate, the shoes, the shield, and the helmet all enable us to remain safe under attack. Only the sword is capable of attacking. But first, let’s take a very brief overview of these defensive weapons.
The primary thing about the message of Christ is that it is true! The message of Christ is the good news that we call the gospel. So the first weapon is claiming the sheer truth of the gospel. It is the belt that holds everything else together.
The second thing that protects us is, that because the gospel is true, when we become a believer we enter into a righteous relationship with God. That means our sins are forgiven, and we are right before God. We put this righteousness on like a breastplate.
Now the word Satan, means Accuser and a major form of attack from the enemy is to somehow say to us, ‘you call yourself a Christian, yet look at you still sinning.’
Our breastplate of righteousness means that that particular attack fails because we know we are right with God, who know we still separate ourselves from him but has forgiven us all our future sins as well and nothing can change our “right” relationship with him. We belong to him.
This righteousness means that through that truth of the gospel of peace, we have peace with God, with peace with each other. Now the enemy will do all he can to knock us off our feet, but holding fast to this message of peace allows us to stand upright, like good strong walking boots when walking over a broken path.
Now our very faith itself, that is belief in Jesus as the risen Lord and utter loyalty to him will extinguish the flaming arrows hurled at us. These arrows can take the form of doubt or despair, adverse events in our lives, acute temptation to do something that will burn us up if we let it catch fire on us.
Remaining loyal and true to our faith extinguishes all of these things.
The final defensive weapon is the helmet of salvation. It protects our minds and psychological health. We put on, like a helmet, the amazing truth that we know that we truly belong to the family of the risen Christ and our salvation is assured by his shed blood at the cross.
This leaves the one offensive weapon available to us. The weapon that repels and drives back evil in our lives, and that is the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.
The ‘word’ referred to hear is the same as used later in v.26, and it means the word of the gospel through which God accomplishes his powerful, cleansing work in people hearts and lives.
When we claim the truth of the gospel as our own and live a life that through actions, words and prayer, proclaims this truth visibly in our lives. Our life becomes a testimony of what Jesus has done for the world. Revelation tells us that Satan is defeated by the blood of the lamb and the testimony of the saints.
Now Pauls final instruction to us this morning is to “pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication” (v.18). Supplication is asking (or begging!) for something very earnestly and humbly.
So prayer is not so much a weapon, or even part of the armour, but rather the means by which we are armed and engaged for this battle. Nothing can happen without it.
To put on the armour of God is to prepare for battle. Prayer is the battle itself, with God’s Word being our chief weapon we use to protect ourselves and banish evil, and ultimately, to witness its final defeat of evil.
There is much to say about this spiritual battle, this spiritual warfare, that is raging around us in the spiritual realm. If I have said anything that upsets you, or makes you worry, or that you think you don’t quite understand, please talk to me about it.
What I really want us all to take away from this morning is that, although there are dark powers eager to draw all believers from a life of faithful love, the very armour of God empowers, protects, and ultimate will defeat all the powers of this present darkness.
That once we believe in the sufficiency of Jesus in every part of our lives, God makes us his own and will never leave us or forsake us, no matter what. Let’s pray.