Dear Brothers and Sisters,

You are invited to come to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and pray for the church (and other things -- 7:00 PM Wed., LHF time).

Text: Eph. 6:10-19

"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 rulers, against 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. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel."

This week I'm going to consider just verses 10 through 17. Verses 18 and 19 about prayer I'll talk about next week.

It's hard to write a small amount on this passage. I have a 600-page book (small print and two columns per page) on just this passage alone. So, I'll leave out 99.7 per cent of what could be said and try to condense it to a couple of pages. Also, Michael Painter gave an excellent message on the spiritual battle a few weeks ago. I highly recommend that everyone review it. (I'll repeat some of the points that he made. They are worth repeating.)

Eph. 6:10-19 starts out with the word "finally." This passage is the apostle Paul's last word after he has said everything else that is in Ephesians. He is not changing the subject. It's not a new topic, but very appropriately follows everything else that Paul has said up to this point. What we are being told is that, in putting into practice all that Paul has told us up to this point, we will be fighting a spiritual battle. In order to fight this battle, God has provided us with armor and weapons and with his own strength to fight the battle. Without using the things God has provided, we will not be able to stand. If we do make use of these things, we will most certainly stand. "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."

Before going on, I want to point out again that Paul is giving these instructions to "you" plural -- that is to the Church rather than only to individuals. We must fight the battle together, rather than as every man for himself. This means that we have to not just pray for help, but share our individual struggles with each other, help each other and pray for each other.

The first and most important thing Paul tells us is that we need to "be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." Our goal is to stand against the devil's schemes (v11). And after we have accomplished everything -- everything that God has for us to do -- finally, to stand (v13). The Lord is the source of all our strength. Without him, we cannot stand. But we belong to the Lord. He purchased us with his own life blood. We do have his strength and we will finally stand. Paul is going to tell us what to do. He describes it in terms of God's full armor.

Before we do any fighting, though, it is very important to recognize who the enemy is. Our enemy in the spiritual battle is not flesh and blood. That is, our enemy is not people -- not people in general, not each other, not even ourselves. We are fighting against a vast evil spiritual army. The devil or Satan -- and when we say the devil, or when we say Satan, we generally are referring to the entire army, or at least part of the army, of evil spiritual forces which the devil leads -- the devil would very much like for us to think that we are fighting each other or ourselves, individually, rather than fighting him. That deception is one of his schemes that we have to stand against. Satan is the father of lies. He has been a murderer from the beginning. (John 8:44) His goal is to destroy God's work, us.

How does Satan work? He is the God of this age. He has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they can't see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). He can obviously influence people's thinking and will definitely attempt to cause us to doubt God's love, as he did with Eve in the garden (Gen. 3:1-4) and attempt to turn us against God and against each other. He has also set up a world system which continually tempts us to disobey God. In addition, he is able to cause physical trouble as he did in the case of Job (Job chapters 1 and 2).

If you want to confront Satan and see him at work, try to be "completely humble and gentle and patient, bearing one another in love." (Eph. 4:2) Or try getting rid of "even a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or of greed" (Eph. 5:3). When you do, you will be directly engaging the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

However, as you can see in the case of Job, Satan could only test Job to the degree that God permitted and no further. Satan is the ruler of this age and his evil army of rulers, authorities, powers and evil spiritual forces operates in the "heavenly realms." But God, when he raised Jesus from the dead, seated him in the heavenly realms FAR above ALL rule and authority and power and dominion. Jesus has complete power and authority over Satan. Satan's purpose is to destroy God's church. But God, who works all things together for the good of those who love him whom he has called according to his purpose, uses Satan's attacks to make us perfect. James says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may become mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4) It must be frustrating to these "spiritual forces of evil" to know that whatever they do to destroy God's Church, it only ultimately has the opposite affect. It makes us stronger until finally, we lack nothing. We are mature and complete. God's work in us is done and we are like him.

Now, lets see what this "full armor" is that God provides for us. We have the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the footwear (or whatever) of the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit. Just as the items of armor that Paul mentions are related and function together, so are the spiritual items which God has given us to use in the spiritual battle interrelated. But lets consider them one at a time.

First there's the belt of truth. In Eph. 4:25 we are told that we must put off all falsehood and speak truthfully to one another -- and we certainly must do this. But I think that what Paul is referring to here is the truth of God's word -- the truth of the gospel. I've read that the belt Paul was referring to was kind of like the foundation for much of the rest of the armor. It held the other parts in place. The truth of the word of God, and especially the truth of the gospel, is also the foundation for the other parts of the spiritual armor. For example, according to Rom. 10:17, faith (as in the shield of faith) comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. Also, the "sword of the Spirit" IS the word of God. Without the word of God we have no basis for any of the rest of the armor. To have on the belt of truth, we must know the truth, the word of God.

Next there's the breastplate of righteousness. This is not our own righteousness (which is like filthy rags), but the righteousness of Christ. "For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, 'The righteous will live by faith.'" (Rom. 1:17) (And incidentally, I believe that the statement, "The righteous will live by faith doesn't mean that if you are righteous, you conduct your life by trusting God, but that the fact that God has given you faith will keep you alive into eternity.) So the breastplate of righteousness is not independent of the shield of faith.

The next item is the readiness that comes through the gospel of peace. We are ready for battle with the spiritual forces of evil because we have peace with God. As the word of God says, "Therefore, since we have been justified (that is, God has put on us the breastplate of righteousness) -- since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5:1) Through Jesus Christ, we are no longer enemies with God. He sends us into the battle and gives us strength. If we fall, he is there to completely heal our wounds and comfort and encourage us and make us ready to continue. We have peace with God.

Next is the shield of faith. With it we can extinguish all (not just some, but all) of the flaming arrows of the evil one. I've read that the shield that was used in a battle where flaming arrows were being used was wooden and was covered with wet leather. Without the wet leather, a flaming arrow would set the shield on fire. But the wet leather extinguished the flaming arrows. The flaming arrows are everything the evil one has to throw at us -- every kind of doubt and temptation -- everything that Paul has already warned us against in the rest of Ephesians. But by grace God has put the shield of faith in our hand: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through FAITH -- not from yourselves, it is the gift of God --" (Eph. 2:8) With the shield of faith we can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Next is the helmet of salvation. It is simply the assurance that no matter what happens we already have eternal life with Christ. It is a done deal, sealed by his own blood shed for us on the cross. Jesus said, "You will be betrayed by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life." (Luke 21:16-19) No matter what happens, we will stand. Not a hair of our heads will perish. We have on our heads the helmet of salvation. God has put it on us.

Finally, we are told to take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. All the items of armor God has apparently already put on us. We simply need to recognize that we have them. But with the sword of the Spirit we have to do something. To take the sword of the Spirit, we have to study the word of God. All the other items of armor are protective and are only used defensively. But the sword of the Spirit is used offensively.

Jesus gave us an example of the use of the sword of the Spirit. When Satan tempted him by promising to give him all the kingdoms of the world and all their splendor if he would simply bow down and worship him, Jesus replied, "Away from me Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" (Matt. 4:10)

To use the sword of the spirit, you must know the word of God. If, for example, Satan attacks you with sexual temptation, you can tell him, "It is written, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.'" If Satan tells you that you can't do anything right and have no hope of salvation, you can tell him that you have confessed Jesus as Lord and that he bought you with his blood and that he is absolutely able to make you stand. The Holy Spirit will tell you how to use the sword of the Spirit at the appropriate time. In the account of Jesus's temptation, it says that after the third temptation, the devil left him and angels came and attended him.

From what I have said, it may sound like the spiritual battle is easy. It isn't. When Satan is seriously attacking you, you may know to hold onto the shield of faith and take the sword of the Spirit, but its not easy to do. It's a serious battle. The passage implies that we can expect to be attacked often and fight long periods of time. But God guarantees that we will have victory. We may win some battles and lose others but we will finally rejoice in victory with Jesus. We will also have joy along the way and Jesus will give us rest and times of peace and refreshing as we need it.

One other thing I'd like to point out: All of Ephesians is about the Church. And this passage is also about the Church. It pictures the Church as an army fighting a war. In a war, even if the army is victorious, you expect that some of the individual soldiers may be killed. But this is not so in the Spiritual battle. Jesus will not lose one of us. Praise the Lord!

Also, the last two verses of the passage are about prayer. I didn't say anything about prayer today, but none of this can be done without prayer. So, as I have said, I'll talk about prayer next week.

Finally, remember that we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but evil spiritual forces who will try to convince us that our enemies are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Come on Wednesday and pray for the Church. The Church is the overflowing abundance, the wealth beyond measure and the full and perfect nature of God who fulfills and completes everything in every way.

Grace and peace,
Dean Svoboda

PS: You can also bring you own prayer requests and pray for them with your brothers and sisters in Christ (i.e., with the Church). Bring your requests to God with thanksgiving and receive his peace.

PPS: Pass this invitation along to others in your household or to someone who doesn't have an e-mail address in the LHF directory