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Title: The Armor of God, Part 1
Intro:
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against [f]flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
“Finally”
Paul is clearly drawing his letter to close and leaves both his biggest challenges and his biggest encouragements for the last 14 verses of his letter to the church at Ephesus.
“be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might”
We are told to be strong, not because WE are strong, but because HE is mighty. In fact, in truth, here is the reality: The same force that is the ultimate power in the universe, in fact, created the universe, and all creation answers to Him daily, THAT force, is the one that not only created you, but then called you, specifically, to be his ambassador. And he is ACTIVELY backing our mission!
Paul, therefore reminds us; this is not a job of timidity. We are not to be timid, but bold. (Psalm 27:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?)
However, I’d argue that a problem arises when the Church (both historically and right now in Ashland Ohio) thinks that boldness means “no grace necessary” and then, that version of boldness is also tactless.
What does tactless boldness look like?
Why is it counter productive?
“put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the Devil…”
Some reflections:
- We put on armor because this is a war, and we need protection.
(What does it look like when a Christian goes into battle without armor?)
2. We put on armor because there are ACTIVE schemes of the Devil, seeking to injure us, and derail our mission.
1. What might these active schemes of the Devil look like and how do they injure us and derail our mission?
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
At it’s most basic, Paul offers us a reminder that this war is not always what it seems, it goes well below the surface of what’s visible, and involves powers and entities that are not always seen. This is a reminder that there is a spiritual realm that we can sometimes sense, but cannot discern as well as things in this world. But it is very real, very powerful, and never dormant.
Piper’s conclusion to this verse:
So, here’s my conclusion about what Paul means when he says, “We don’t wrestle with blood and flesh.”
First, he means that there is no such thing as a merely human adversary of the gospel; they don’t exist. While this world is under the sway of the evil one — “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19) — unbelieving humans are always influenced by and in step with the devil. We don’t wrestle against mere human forces because there aren’t any.
Second, I think he mentions blood first in the pair — “we don’t wrestle against blood and flesh” — because he’s drawing our attention to the fact that this warfare is not like the ordinary battlefield warfare among people, marked by blood and gore. That’s not what he’s talking about, in other words. We don’t fight like that. It’s not a matter of chopping off arms or heads and blood and flesh. Our warfare is always fought at a level that includes the supernatural.
Here is my closing question: Knowing and being reminded of these truths that this is a spiritual (and often unseen) war, how do we go about our days differently? How does this information change us?
Pray/Q&A