Ephesians 6:11-12 (NKJV) 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
At this point in our study, we have come to the set of weapons Paul calls the whole armor of God. As we discussed in our last post, this is primarily focused on defensive weaponry. The pursuit of effective armor has always been an important goal of war fighting. Our spiritual battle is no different. We have offensive weapons in the Word of God, however as a pastor I have seen so many people so spiritually beat up that they were unable to muster enough strength to continue in the fight. They were true soldiers who wanted to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil, but they did not understand that protection of vital spiritual organs is just as important as fearlessly wielding these weapons against the enemy. Even valiant and courageous spiritual warriors are no good to the fight if they are disabled
Paul tells us we need to be strong in God’s might. We need to realize we do not have to be valiant in our own might. That is never enough. You will eventually wear out and find yourself out of the battle or worse. That is why we need the body of Christ. We will all need to be lifted by others at some point, and we need to realize that to ask for help when we need it is not weakness but wisdom. That said, we also need to employ the defensive weapons God has given us so that we can stay in the fight longer and be of more use to the church for a longer time. We will still need rest, but we will not suffer the kind of wounds we would without the armor.
There have been many casualties in the churches fight against the powers of evil. It is easy for us to judge them as being weak or even sinful and it may be true that they were. I believe that if we understand and put on the armor described in Ephesians 6, we can avoid becoming casualties even when we need rest and help.
In verse 10, Paul tells us to be strong in the Lord. We looked at what that means in our last post. How do we do that? The next thing Paul says is to put on the whole armor of God. Although I do not think that is all there is to drawing on God’s strength, in the context of Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 6, I think we can conclude that the armor of God is an important part of being strong in the Lord. If that is the case, we need to learn what that armor really is and how we put it on.
There are some preliminary things we need to understand before we look at the specific pieces of armor Paul mentions. First, this is not an idea that solely belongs to Paul. This idea is present in many parts of scripture including in the Old Testament. The prophet Isaiah uses this a number of times but let us look at one example.
Isaiah 59:17 (NKJV) 17For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing And was clad with zeal as a cloak.
As we look at the specific armor Paul talks about, we can see that Isaiah is one of the places from which he is drawing his imagery. Paul was a man of revelation. That means that, while honoring and respecting the historical meanings of what he read, he also allowed God to bring the truth of the Old Testament scripture into the culture he was living in. Although armor had not changed much from the days of Isaiah to Paul’s day, there was one army and one kind of armor that everyone who lived in the Roman world of the first century knew about. That was the armor worn by the Roman army who had conquered much of the known world of their day. It is this armor Paul is using to illustrate his teaching.
Although the Roman armor was the source of his illustration, he is not speaking here of any physical armor. He is talking about the armor of God. In Isaiah 59, as we read the context we can see that Jesus wore this armor. In David’s battle against the giant Goliath, King Saul tried to give David his own armor to use in the coming battle. David could not use Sauls armor because it did not fit him. God had weapons for David that were tailored to his skill and his size. Although there was no physical defensive armor to what David had, he was covered by the Lord and the power of his might. The armor God is telling us about in this chapter is not “one size fits all.” Instead, it is an armor that fits each of us individually to release the power of God’s might in all of us.
Let me point out something else here. Paul tells us to put on the whole armor of God. Today’s soldier has what they call a kit that must be put on before they go into battle. The soldier cannot go into battle with part of his kit in place. He must wear a full kit. Some of it is uncomfortable. Although it is highly engineered to allow the soldier enough freedom of movement, I am sure it is still restrictive to a degree. However, he must wear it all or some part of him will be unprotected in the fight.
We must put on all the pieces of God’s armor if we are going to be fully protected. The helmet and shield are effective on their own, but they cannot fully protect the heart and lungs of the soldier. The belt or girdle protects areas that the helmet does not. The breastplate and the shield cover some of the same areas of the body, but without both in place the protection is diminished. One of the parts of the armor that we may not consider important are the shoes. However, without the right kind of protection for their feet. the soldier would not have the traction necessary to move in battle. Not only that, but a soldier who cannot walk because his feet were injured, will cripple one or two more fighters since they must care for him. Every piece of this armor is important, and we must pay attention to each.
The last thing I want to point out before we learn about the various pieces of armor is that it is not physical armor. It is not designed to protect us from physical harm. Nevertheless, I do believe it will protect our physical body because the battles we fight are both spiritual and physical. Our armor protects our whole being as we apply it in the realm of the spirit. That is where our real enemy resides. Paul makes this clear when he says we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. People are never our enemy. People are what we are fighting for.
Paul speaks of a hierarchy of spiritual enemies that we face. It can be helpful to understand what all of these different powers represent, but for now it is more important to note that they are our real enemy. The Commentary and Explanatory on the Whole Bible says it this way. “The Flesh and blood foes we wrestle are Satan’s mere tools, the real foe lurking behind them is Satan himself, with whom our conflict is.” Satan is the head of an army that seeks to dominate the world and its people.
The same commentary points out that by using the word “wrestle” the combat we face is hand to hand or personal in nature. Today we see a warfare that can be fought mostly by remote control. But we still find that to really win the battle and ultimately the war, soldiers must place boots on the ground and defeat those in front of them to take the ground from the enemy and keep that ground. Each soldier is important.
Most of us live our lives in the daily struggle to overcome the many things we encounter in life. We face all kinds of challenges, and sometimes we think no one knows or understands. Nevertheless, we must realize that God sees us all. God knows every battle we fight, and God honors every victory and understands our defeats. He will take those and use them to help us overcome the next time while restoring whatever we may have lost in the process. Every soldier in every battle counts. You may not be known here, but every battle is recorded in the heavenly record and God honors us all.
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