The
letter to the Ephesians was one of if not the first major letter Paul wrote
from his first imprisonment in Rome. In
it, he covers the main areas of being a Christian. The letter is generally broken down into
three sections:
1.
The
Work of a Christian (Chapters 1-3)
2.
The
Walk of a Christian (Chapters 4-5)
3.
The
Warfare of a Christian (Chapter 6)
Ephesus
was the fourth largest city in Asia Minor.
It was a port city known for it’s
entertainment, bath houses, the temple to Artemis, and schools of
philosophy. The people of that time were
completely carnal in nature worshipping idols, sexually immoral and filled with
a lust for violence. It’s from this mind set that Paul writes to the church
there establishing the life of a true believer by encouraging unity, love, and
peace in efforts to counter the culture and customs of the day. In chapter six, Paul changes from using love
and unity as a passive form of defense to the armor of God needed to actively
defend against the true enemy of the believer.
Today, we have the same struggles as the Ephesians did in their
time. We are inundated with sexual
immortality, violence, and philosophies counter to the knowledge of God in
Christ. This letter is one of the most
important tools we have today in understanding how to act towards each other,
to the world, and the spiritual attacks we will face as believers.
When
it comes to the Armor of God, most Christians consider this as the only place
where it is mentioned in the bible. Paul
is actually drawing, in part, from Isaiah 59:17 He put on righteousness as his
breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of
vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
If
we aren’t careful, we could draw from this passage that we
have a right to some vengeance and God given authority to let loose on
people. We have to realize a few
things. First, we have to take the whole
word of God, not building any belief on a single verse. That being established, what does the word
say about vengeance? It’s God to enact, not ours. Second, Paul has already set the stage in
which we are to do battle. We are not at
war with unbelievers, but spiritual powers that pervert truth, righteousness,
faith etc…
That affords us the ability to separate
the sin from the sinner. I don't know
why people are shock when Non-Christians act like none Christians. We have to realize that they don’t have the truth in them. We should have compassion for the sinner, and
understand that sin is a symptom in the life of a person without a loving,
personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. If you are struggling with sin, you don't
need condemnation, that will only at best, cause the symptom to be dealt with
at the surface. The root will still be
there and will manifest in a different symptom given time. What we need is the cure. A pure relationship with a pure God that will
sever the root of sin at its source.
This relationship is the fix for all the problems we face today. It’s
impossible for sin to exist in His presence.
We have to in His presence daily live.
With that, we begin to understand the importance of putting on the whole
Armor of God.
The root of the word Artemis means
“the thrower of the dart or the shooter”
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in
the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you
may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic
powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able
to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the
belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put
on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield
of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
17 and
take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God, 18 praying
at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep
alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given
to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains,
that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
The word for “put on” in the Greek is enduo, which
means (in the sense of sinking into a garment); to invest with clothing
(literally or figuratively):--array, clothe (with), endue
1.
Unarmed
Christian
•
Ignorance
- Doesn’t
know about the AOG.
•
Arrogance
- Knows, but doesn't apply it thinking
they're strong effort without it.
2.
Half-Armed
Christian - Picks which piece to put on,
there by winning some battles, but losing in the same areas over and over.
3.
Full-Armed
Christian - The strongest and most capable
warrior. Ready for anything and
overcoming everything.
What does the Armor of God
represent for us as believers? There are
two concepts that are different but often times lumped together by many
spirit-filled believers today. The first
is:
• Power - The actually power it takes to do
something. This is seen as the Holy
Spirit investing us with its power.
• Power - The authority to carry out an act on behalf of
the vesting authority. This concept is
understood in light of the armor of God.
A good example would be if you
carried a gun to a school. This act in
and of itself is within your power to do.
I don't recommend it as you do not have authority to do that and it will
land you in jail even if you don't have bad intentions. Even if you were to see a bad guy and use it
to stop him, you still didn't have the authority to and the police would be
suspect of your motives for having a gun.
Putting on the whole armor of God
is the same concept. It’s the uniform that gives you the authority to use the
power given to you for the work in which we are called to do. Too many times we are like naked soldiers
wilding swords and swinging at anything that moves, including people, thinking
we have the authority to cut both believers and unbelievers down to size. This is what Paul was completely against in
the first 2/3s of Ephesians. The context
shows us that we can not be in the army of God without wearing the uniform
given to us that shows our superiors and the powers of this world who we are in
Christ.
That being said, this presents us
with the next thought concerning the AOG.
Who’s armor is it?
It’s God’s… Who is God?
Jesus! Isaiah shows us that this
is Messiah’s armor and Paul tells us in Romans that it is the
armor of light.
Romans 13:12 The
night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of
darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us
walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual
immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no
provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
In verse 12 is says armor of light
and concludes in verse 14 saying “put on
the Lord Jesus Christ”. This shows us that when we put on the whole
Armor of God, we are clothing ourselves in Christ. The word says that Jesus was the light of the
world. 12 Again
Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever
follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
When we put on the Armor of God we
become indistinguishable from Jesus to both the unbeliever and the spirits of
darkness. This is why we must pay
attention to what we put on. The enemy
knows if you are identifying with Christ or this world. We are to be crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20)
and dead to sin. We take on the same
identity as everyone who names the name of Christ and has their armor on. It is what we do today in our military. I was in the Air Force for nine years and the
first thing they did when you got to bootcamp was make you take off your
civilian clothes and put on a uniform.
This became your identity to yourself and others. It was noticeable if someone wasn't wearing
their whole uniform or was mis-wearing it.
We had Training Instructors that would kindly and gently remind us with
warm, loving words of what we were doing wrong and how to fix our errors in private
as to not embarrass anyone found “out of
uniform”. This was not
the case, but thankfully God’s army has a little more
grace than the Air Force did. We had
whole classes devoted to how-to-wear our uniforms. We should do the same in church today. The first thing is to know what the pieces
are, then why we have them, and finally how to wear and use them.
Next week we will go through the
parts that make up the armor of God. The
Armor of God is important to the believer today. It shows the world and it’s spiritual authorities what side we are on. It is Christ’s
armor, allowing us to identify with Him, and makes us ready to face the attack
of the enemy. The enemies of this life
are not people, but spiritual adversaries.
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