Equipping for the Fight

Ephesians Chapter Six... The Armor of God

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

Paul makes the point:  You must be strong in the Lord and put on His full armor, so that you may stand firm against the enemy. (vs. 10,11)

He begins the verse with “Finally” which means, “for the rest,” and shows that these passages are built on preceding chapters. Paul is saying, “Based upon your glorious position in Christ (chapters 1-3) and in light of the worthy walk to which you are called (chapters 4-5, plus 6:1-9), I want to conclude my encourage to you by explaining the serious conflict in which your faith engages you.” Because you are fighting in the Lord’s army…

You must be strong in the Lord.

Paul piles up words for strength in verse 10, using three of the four words that he employed in 1:19-20. There he mentioned “the surpassing greatness of His power toward those who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.” 

Also, in 3:16 Paul prayed that God would grant you … “to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.” As in that verse, the verb in 6:10 is probably passive, meaning, “be strengthened in the Lord.”. In other words, we are not strong in ourselves, our strength comes from the Lord.

Yet, at the same time, I think that there is an active (Greek, middle voice) sense to the verb, in that we must take the initiative to be strong in the Lord. This is illustrated in the life of David. While he was on the run from Saul, David had wrongly allied himself with the Philistine king and was about to go into battle against Saul and the forces of Israel when God intervened. David and his men were sent home from the battle. But they arrived to find their city burned with fire and their wives, children, and possessions taken captive by the Amalekites. At that point, David’s men were so embittered that they were talking about stoning him.

Then, in the middle of the verse, there is a great hinge that turned things in a new direction (1 Sam. 30:6b): “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” What a dramatic turnaround! David was almost down for the count. God’s promise to make him king seemed null and void. “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” The Lord graciously directed David to pursue the raiders and recover all of their families and goods.  He did, his men followed him and all turned out well.

That same strength is available to every Christian. You may be at your lowest point feeling God is far off from you. You may be discouraged by circumstances you cannot change. It may seem that God’s promises are not true. But no matter how much may seem to be against you, you can “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” You can strengthen yourself in the Lord your God. 

More to come on this topic in next week’s installment.

Standing Strong, Standing Firm.

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13

General Dwight Eisenhower once said, “War is a terrible thing. But if you’re going to get into it, you’ve got to get into it all the way.”

There are mountains of evidence to suggest that many Christians are defeated in their Christian lives because they are not seriously engaged in the warfare to which we are called.  J. C. Ryle saw this in the 19^th century. He wrote... “The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity.” He went on to say that they go through the motions of attending religious services each week. Then he added... “But of the great spiritual warfare,--its watchings and strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests,--of all this they appear to know nothing at all.”

Perhaps they came to Christ under a false “sales pitch.” They were told, “Jesus will solve your problems. He will give you peace and joy. He will give you a happy family life. Come to Jesus and enjoy all of these blessings and more. He promises you abundant life.” And so they signed up for what they thought would be a wonderful life of peace and happiness.

All of those claims are true, but they’re only half of the picture and almost always misunderstood. Jesus promised to give us abundant life (John 10:10), but He also said that He was sending us out as sheep in the midst of wolves (Matt. 10:16). That picture might not fit your idea of an abundant life. Jesus promised peace, but in the same breath He said that in this world we would have tribulation (John 16:33). He assured us of His love, but He went on to say that the world would hate and persecute us (John 15:12-13, 18-21). In Ephesians, Paul has just shown how the Spirit-filled home is a glorious picture of the loving relationship between Christ and the church (5:18-33). But he continues by telling us that the Christian life is nothing less than warfare against the hideous enemy Satan the Devil... “the prince of darkness.”

It is vital for your survival as a Christian that you realize that when you became a Christian, you were drafted into God’s army. Daily you are engaged in a battle with an unseen spiritual enemy that seeks to destroy you. Otherwise, when trials hit, you will think that something is wrong. You will wonder why God has allowed this. You won’t understand the reality of your situation.

We have all known church leaders, pastors/elders and evangelists who think that because they are serving the Lord, God should bless them by keeping them from conflict and personal attacks. When that “shield” of protection does not come, and when they are criticized or slandered or when problems hit their families or their churches, they run from the battle. They don’t understand that when God blesses a work, the enemy will increase the attacks against it. 

When a man’s ministry is effective, the enemy will work overtime to bring him down. It may be through internal problems in the church or through key leaders who turn against him or through discouragement or through temptation to moral failure. When Paul was in Ephesus, he wrote (1 Cor. 16:9), “for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” He did not say, “but there are many adversaries,” but rather, “and there are many adversaries.” Adversaries go along with open doors for effective ministry!

So the apostle Paul closes his letter to the Ephesians with this great section on the Christian’s warfare.  The text falls into three sections: (1) The explanation for the fight (6:10-13); (2) The equipment for the fight (6:14-17); (3) the effecting of the fight (6:18-20). 

Beginning next week, we will examine each of these perspectives on Christian warfare.

Until next time... prepare yourself for battle!

Is the Christian life boring?

There are many misconceptions about the Christian life, and one is that it is boring. The truth is the Christian life is where we find true joy and lasting peace, hope and contentment. These things, like all good and perfect things, come from God (James 1:17). The difficulty is that, if you’re not a believer in Christ, you truly don’t know what you’re missing.

This is not to say that the Christian life is easy. One writer describes growing in the Christian faith as being “on a never-ending downward escalator. In order to grow we have to turn around and sprint up the escalator putting up with perturbed looks from everyone else who is gradually moving downward.” Christ never deluded anyone into thinking it would be easy to follow Him (see Matthew 10:34-39). It’s not easy, but the hardships help prevent boredom.

Those who believe the Christian life is boring have never taken God’s invitation to “taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8). Instead, they selfishly pursue whatever they think will make them “not bored” or happy or content. The problem is, the things of this world are temporary and can never truly satisfy. The Bible tells us that sowing to please our sinful nature will surely lead to destruction (Galatians 6:8). King Solomon, the wisest and richest person who ever lived, had everything a person could possibly want. He said, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure” (Ecclesiastes 2:10). Solomon had it all, but he concluded that it was “meaningless” and likened it to “chasing after the wind” (v. 11). In other words, he had everything this world had to offer, and he was bored.

Sometimes, a new Christian is surprised that his new life is not “more exciting,” as if the Christian life is supposed to be a thrill-a-minute extravaganza. No life is that. Boredom is something we must all overcome. Everyone stands in line at the grocery store, gets caught in traffic, or is given jobs he’d rather not do.

Part of the problem may be how “boredom” is defined. Is it a lack of excitement? Nothing can stimulate perpetual exhilaration. Is it inactivity? If so, then the key is to find something to do. Is it lack of interest? If so, the key is to be more curious. Is it a lack of “fun”? In that case, “fun” needs to be defined, since “fun” is itself a highly subjective concept.

Some people assume that being a Christian is boring because they’ve heard that Christians have to give up all the “fun” things in life. It’s true that Christians give up some things, but it’s not the fun. Christians give up their sin, their self-destructive behavior, their addictions, their negative attitudes and their ignorance of God. In return, they receive “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). They “live as children of light” in a dark world (Ephesians 5:8). The mistakes of their past no longer have a stronghold in their lives. They no longer live for themselves but for the One who died for them. They serve others and make a difference (Romans 14:7; Philippians 2:4). They are becoming everything that God created them to be. It is virtually impossible to be bored in such a life.

The only thing in this world that has eternal value is a relationship with Jesus Christ. A growing, committed Christian will find that life is never boring. There’s always another step of faith to take, another relationship to build, another person to serve.

Is the Christian life supposed to be “boring”? Absolutely not. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).