Ephesians 6:10-18 *
Dear Friends in Christ,
Because we live in a sinful world every one of us here, from
the youngest to the oldest, has some mental frame of reference when we hear the
word “war.” Every generation has gone
through at least one, and as we age, they start to accumulate. They are such a part of life that in casual
conversation you’ll sometimes even here people personalize them as “my” or
“our” war. For some it is World War II. For others,
Thus it has always been, and thus it will always be. Wars and rumors of war, Jesus told us, will be an identifiable feature of life on planet earth until He returns and makes all things eternally right on the Last Day.
Consequently, when the Apostle Paul uses the vocabulary of war and applies it to our spiritual lives, he’s talking in terms that we can understand. And that’s exactly what he does for us today. He speaks about the ongoing spiritual war we are all engaged in as Christians. He makes it clear that it is a tough and strenuous battle against a formidable and relentless adversary, and one in which nothing less than our eternal souls are at stake.
And he’s not merely using rhetoric or overstating the case. He wants us to know just exactly what we’re up against so we don’t underestimate or downplay the magnitude of what’s going on in each of our lives.
It’s a sobering message.
But running throughout is this glorious fact: though the battle is tough, with God’s help
it is winnable. In fact, the actual war
has already been won. Satan was defeated
at
But this message from Paul applies to our personal lives of faith. And while the enemy is defeated, until Christ comes again he is still in operation. And we’re the ones he’s after. So, drawing from the words of our text, let us focus on this
SPIRITUAL WARFARE
1. By identifying the enemy
2. Employing the weapons to
overcome
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
power of this dark world and against the forces of evil in heavenly realms.
Here at the outset we have the enemy identified. It is the devil and his evil angels. As to the respect due him as an opponent, Paul tells us to be strong in the Lord and to put on the full armor of God, which he then goes to describe. The point is simply that this enemy is powerful and calls for special provisions on our part in order to withstand him.
Let’s talk a little about the devil. The first thing we should say is that he’s not merely the concoction of ancient superstitious people who had to find a way to explain the bad things that happen in life. No, the devil is real.
One of the more famous works of the Christian writer C.S. Lewis is a little book called “The Screwtape Letters.” It is written in the form of instructional letters on how to lead Christians astray from an experienced devil named Screwtape to his young nephew, Wormwood, who is just starting out in the temptation business. In the preface Lewis makes the pertinent observation that there are two opposite but equally dangerous attitudes regarding the devil.
The first is to take him too seriously by showing an unhealthy and excessive interest in him – getting involved in things like witchcraft, devil worship, etc. The opposite is to not take him seriously enough – for example, treating him like a joke or cartoon character – or to disbelieve his existence at all. He makes the point that the devil doesn’t mind either extreme. He has no ego in this sense: it is entirely okay with him if people don’t believe he exists, because then he can go about his work unhindered.
I was reminded of this in a theological conversation I had with a very intelligent man this past summer. After stating his views on Christianity he said if anyone says to him the devil is real, he laughs in their face. I suspect that kind of talk makes the devil’s day.
Because he is real. If he isn’t, Jesus is a liar and the Bible is at best a fairy tale, because he is mentioned by both many times. No, he exists, and according to the title of a best selling book a few decades ago, he’s “alive and well and living on planet earth.”
So, what do we know about him? The information given us in Scripture is all that God feels is necessary for us to know, but probably less than our curiosity desires. The Bible tells us only that the devil, or Satan, is a fallen angel who, along with his followers, was cast out of heaven for rebelling against God. Doomed to hell and operating under the guiding principle that misery loves company, Satan’s goal is to bring down as many people as he can. And since Children of God are the ones he doesn’t already have, we are the ones he is especially after. The white robes of righteousness through Christ mark us not only as redeemed children of God, but also as targets for Satan.
But let us not think that Satan is God’s equal. He’s not. He is limited in what he can do. He’s like a vicious dog on a leash. He has influence and strength and power, but only as far as God allows. In that classic work of Christian allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress, the pilgrim, Christian, is scared of the lions he sees on the road he must travel. But he is assured the lions are chained. “Stick to the center of the path and they cannot harm you.”
Now, I confess to not knowing just exactly how he works. Can he whisper in our ears or rearrange the furniture in our mind? Does he have an up to the minute log of our personal weaknesses and then orchestrate events which strike at those areas of our lives where we are especially vulnerable? I’m not sure.
But of his character there is no doubt. Paul gives us an indication of this when he warns us to watch out for the devil’s schemes. Another way of translating the Greek word used here is “trickery.” Behind it is the idea that Satan is crafty, cunning, has no conscience and will do whatever necessary to accomplish his purposes. And he has accumulated quite an arsenal over the years. One of his greatest schemes is introducing doubt and attempting to spread discouragement into our lives. He knows how to play all the angles.
Many of you will recall the beloved and comforting passage from First Peter where we are told to cast all our anxiety on God because He cares for us. Do you know what passage follows immediately after that? Another one you may remember: “Be self controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” The connection between the two is not hard to make.
Is it not true that in our most anxious moments Satan tries to make us doubt the love or wisdom of God in our lives? When things aren’t going the way we’d like them to… when Almighty God falls short of the expectations we mortals attach to Him… when God’s timetable lags behind ours… when, despite our fervent prayers, it appears God isn’t really coming through for us in the way we’ve directed Him …when we look at the possessions and worldly success of other people, some of whom openly despise God by their lives, and in our self-pity feel we aren’t being treated fairly…
In all those situations Satan sees an opportunity to drive us away from God by wedging doubt and discouragement into our souls. He’d like us to question the wisdom of God because the next step is to question the existence of God. In difficult times he tries very hard to direct our eyes away from the cross of Christ (where we see God’s ultimate act of love for us) and have us dwell on our present troubles, introducing the idea that God has somehow failed us. He tries to get us to believe that we have the right and expectation to live in a perfect world and that our lives ought to be free of any pain or suffering when, in fact, God distinctly tells us in His Word that because of sin there will be trouble.
So, he’s very good at what he does and how he does it. And yet, he’s entirely beatable.
Because of what we have at our disposal. Using the symbolism of a heavily armed Roman
soldier, Paul, himself a battle scarred veteran in the war for truth, calls for
full armor to withstand the onslaught of Satan and the forces of evil. We’ll go through this glorious section making
a few running comments along the way: Therefore – because we have an enemy always at our gates – put on
the full armor of God, so that when – note, not if, but 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 – that is, God’s Word; recall the words of Jesus in prayer to His Heavenly Father: “sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth” – buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place – we have been declared righteous through the atoning work of Christ; each Christian can sing: “Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress” – and your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace – in other words, know the gospel of peace and the utter contentment it brings and we’re ready to defeat Satan’s suggestions that we be discontent.
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. Let’s pick up just a little on the sword of the Spirit, because while all the other things Paul mentions are defensive pieces of armor, a sword is an offensive weapon.
And that’s what the Word of God is. And that’s why it’s important that Christians be at home in it. Remember the words we sang earlier: “one little word can fell him”? Or remember how Jesus put down Satan’s temptations in the wilderness with the same formula each time: “it is written.” He appealed to Scripture and Satan was left defenseless. So in times of doubt, temptation and despair; at times when maybe the devil is making a little inroad into our heart, let us remember that we can drive him away with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
There is a warning here. If we think we’re so familiar with Scripture that we don’t need to be in it, or if we think we learned all we need to know in confirmation class however long ago that may have been and don’t ever need to take a refresher course in the basics of Christianity, or if we think that getting involved in one of our Bible Classes is overkill because we hear the Word in church – Satan would like to suggest we’re thinking soundly. But Paul would say: think again. Doubt, despair and temptation can only be punctured by the sword of the Spirit; but we have to know how to wield the weapon.
A final offensive weapon is prayer. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. A solid prayer life is a mighty weapon. Prayer at all times and on all occasions strongly bonds us to our Heavenly Father. And the closer we are to Him, the farther away we are from yielding to the temptations of Satan. Satan also knows this, and he is very happy when Christians are neglectful or sloppy or inconsistent in our prayer life.
All these things mentioned by Paul are the weapons of victory. When, under God, we fasten these pieces of armor on ourselves, we are spiritually strong. And as long as we are outfitted in this way, we will remain spiritually strong…
Which is important, because the whole point of our text is that we’re involved in spiritual warfare. This text, then, is a call to arms. The enemy has been identified. But more importantly, so have the means to withstand him.
Therefore, let us each daily put on the full armor of God. Satan is strong, but in Christ, we are stronger. So we need not be scared of this battle – only prepared.
As a way of summarizing and bringing our thoughts to a close, please open to hymn 192. Let us join together in speaking these words…. Amen.