“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, 15. and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 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…” (Eph. 6:10-14).
After the reader is told to “be strong in the Lord” Paul introduces the concept of the armor of God and the reason we are going to need it – to overcome the schemes of the devil. He then makes a point that I think is often overlooked when studying this paragraph. It is something we are going to look at today as we begin a brief study of the six elements of our suit of armor. In verse 13 we read, “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.” This is too an important point to gloss over as we hurry on to the more interesting part of the paragraph. In fact, it is a vital one because not doing so will radically increase the chance of our being defeated.
Allow me to use the analogy of a soldier of old preparing to go out and battle the enemy to make my point. When he was preparing himself, he would don the entire suit of armor for a good reason. If he only grabbed his sword and hurriedly rushed off to the place of battle, his whole body would be exposed and vulnerable to attack. Any defensive mistake on his part would mean serious damage to his limbs and/or organs, none of which would work out well for him. What would we think of him if we knew he had a complete suit available and he only took a sword, or maybe the sword and the covering for one leg? I would imagine we would think he was either stupid or totally insane. Why would he risk serious injury when he could prevent it by taking the time to protect his whole body?
Now here is the thing – he would probably only battle a couple of times in his life, but we must face the attacks of the evil one on a daily basis. Why then would we only use one or two of the defensive armor items at our disposal? Remember, our injuries may result in not only our physical, but more importantly, our spiritual death as well. We simply cannot go into battle half-prepared against an enemy of the devil’s power and magnitude. That is a surefire way of inviting utter defeat into our lives. It is not as if the suit is too complex to put on, or too wieldy and interferes with our movement. And even if it was, the alternative to wearing it is way worse.
Do not neglect to suit up with the whole armor of God so that no part of the “body” is exposed to the flaming sword of the enemy. The whole suit may not have assured the soldier on the battlefield that he would be triumphant and return unscathed, but we do have that complete assurance. The devil’s attacks are useless against a well-prepared Christian warrior.
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