Put on the Full Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10-17
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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. 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. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
There’s a lot going wrong right now. We’re struggling against each other. We’re struggling against Covid. We’re struggling with work or with joblessness. We’re struggling with what to do with our kids. As Christians, we’re struggling while living in a world that hates Christ.
And though it’s a struggle, we’ve got this, right? We’ll figure out how to get along. We’ll defeat Covid eventually. We’ll adapt to work-from-home or find a new job and make ends meet meanwhile. We’ll find a way to take care of our kids in extraordinary circumstances. We’ll even bear the cross living in a world that hates our Savior. These are all natural problems we can overcome.
The Holy Spirit reminds us through the Apostle Paul that these are more than just natural problems. He says, “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.” The problems we see as natural, fighting between human beings, disease, worry about work and kids, even hate from the world, are actually attacks from supernatural powers.
If we only had to face natural enemies, we could find a way to defeat them, either on our own, or as people working together. But if our struggle is against the rulers, authorities, and powers of this dark world and against the “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), that is, the devil, we are powerless to defeat them even if the entire world would band together against Satan and his legions. He is more powerful than we.
How, then, can we stand? Paul tells us, “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. … 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.” God tells us that we will continue to stand, “’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6).
To stand against the attacks of the devil, God gives us his armor. He gives us the belt of truth, so that we can stand against the devil’s lies (John 8:44). He gives us the breastplate of righteousness, so that Satan’s accusations don’t stick to us (Revelation 12:10). He fits our feet with the gospel of peace, so that we can withstand the war the devil wages against us (Revelation 12:12). He gives us the shield of faith to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16). He places the helmet of salvation on our heads so that the Prince of Darkness cannot drag us down to eternal death with him (Hebrews 2:14). He gives us the sword of the Spirit, the very Word of God, which our Savior himself used to defeat the Tempter (Matthew 4:1-11). It is not by our might or by our power that Satan lies crushed, but by the power of Son of God himself (Genesis 3:15), who lived and died to defeat the devil (1 John 3:8).
The attacks of the devil will continue on until the end of the world comes. They will come in many forms: disease, strife, persecution, hardship. God doesn’t tell us we can stop him. But he does say that by his power, we will stand. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38,39).