Ah yes, the famous passage on the armor of God, a passage many know by heart, a favorite sermon passage and a favorite devotional passage rich with metaphor and meaning; a wonderful passage. Since I have blogged on this passage more than once already, and since it is so familiar to most everyone, I thought that I’d approach it a little differently this time. Accordingly, I’ll not really comment on the metaphoric aspect, but focus on the underlying strategic circumstances that all of us face every day.
The whole armor metaphor is a way of communicating an important issue that for most of us is not easy to understand, the issue of spiritual warfare. Over the centuries, people have understood this in various ways and many legends and ballads have been the result, both in literature and other art forms. There have been times when people in superstitious cultures have gone to bizarre lengths, burning witches, so called heretics and almost anyone who incurred disfavor in high councils at the stake; history is full of such insanity. I can’t help but wonder how otherwise good people couldn’t see where the evil one was really operating, but then maybe they forgot to put on their armor!
In our day, the idea of spiritual warfare is often limited to the oddball fringe, “nuters” as our British friends might say; you might hear a lot on the subject on radio talk shows that air in the wee hours, along with spacemen and such. Oh my, how clever our adversary can be!
The truth, as Paul points out, is that we are very much involved in a spiritual war; in a sense we are on the front lines. Yet as physical beings, we can’t always see the action, even though we might discern the result. Putting on the armor of God is a series of metaphors that are telling us that we need to be centered on our relationship with Christ, who is the source of truth. In a close and vibrant relationship with Him, we are not likely to be fooled or sucked into things we have no business getting into, as well as being protected from spiritual attack. This requires maturity to understand… and maturity is attained through relationship with Him, so we must not neglect that relationship!
Spiritual discernment is something that all of us should have, but not so many actually attain. Spiritual discernment is not a matter of seeing spooks in the dark, but rather the comprehension of the source of certain things. There is also a spiritual gift of discernment which some have; a person with the spiritual gift of discernment can discern the source of a teaching or the source of a person’s personal issues. Yet, we don’t need the spiritual gift of discernment to be discerning, the gifted person may understand more and more easily, but any of us can be discerning enough to stay out of trouble.
Look at the world situation today; consider cultural trends, trends in families, homes and personal habits of people. Include values, morality and motivations. Also consider items in the news, and our various institutions…
God is at work in our midst, and so is the other guy. Ask yourself where God is working, and where the Adversary is working; can you see the difference? I’ll offer a hint, one that I mention quite often here:
Nothing in this world is quite what it appears to be!
This is Paul’s message in our passage, and is the reason that he concludes it with an appeal for us to be in prayer. Verses 18-20 deal with this: Pray for each other, pray for Paul, and others who spread the gospel, pray for the gospel, for many to receive it, for others to grow in their relationships, for God’s Kingdom and will to be done: Grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ.
That dear reader is the summation of the armor of God, that we grow in our relationships with Him and remain in His presence, and that is also the summation of the entire letter to the Ephesians:
Relationship with Jesus Christ!
Life Project Blog 
“In our day, the idea of spiritual warfare is often limited to the oddball fringe, “nuters” as our British friends might say; you might hear a lot on the subject on radio talk shows that air in the wee hours, along with spacemen and such. Oh my, how clever our adversary can be!”
Grammer Alert. It is “nutters” 🙂 🙂
LOL, and so it is! 🙂
The challenge with the spiritual warfare is the belief that once we have accepted the need for Jesus redeeming sacrifice the fight is over. Paul’s powerful message is the fight has just begun.
Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness – it wasn’t Jesus internal badness surfacing because the scriptures tell us clearly he was and is without sin. The resistor is a real personality as described in Job chapters 1 and 2 – he set his goal on turning anyone who decided to fear god and worship god, to renounce god because of the pain and suffering he, the devil could inflict.
Why is the battle more intense now? We have to look to the revelation of John to understand that in chapter 12 but it is clear Paul, John and Peter (1 Peter 5:7 and 8) three key personalities of the early christians saw this as a real fight with our life at stake.
So Paul is telling us through this passage that God has equipped us for the battle. The component parts are crucial to survival. The greek myth of Achilles springs to mind that the skilful opponent will identified the weakness expose and strike. Why do so many underestimate the skill of the common enemy of Christians today?
The review is helpful because if any of us feel things are very easy and it isn’t a struggle to be a Christian all day everyday then we need to realise that something is missing.
We are encouraged to Fight the Fine Fight of the Faith – you know you’re in a fight when you have to expend time and energy to defend what you believe and why.
Thanks for the thought provoking content as usual
Thank you for another awesome comment, one we all should take to heart
in the morning as I arrive at work but still sitting in the car I reach for my bible and open to Ephesians 6:10-20. When so many Christians began to be persecuted by ISIS as they swept through Iraq and we were hearing of them, I then began to pray this not just for myself each day but for all of those living in a fear I currently only think about. As I say the words (example)…14 stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, (I then close my eyes and imagine the angel of the Lord with me AND imagine a multitude of the persecuted Christians with angels of the Lord God standing with each one whom are more than I can count or even see.)…but the angel of the Lord then buckles that belt of truth around my waist and the same for all the others…they do it tighter than I can do it just by putting it on. Then I do the same with the breastplate of righteousness in place (again, angels helping strap it on firmer than I could and for me and all other Christians in the world…then fitting our feet with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace . THEN, taking up the shield of faith, which you can extinguish ALL the flaming arrows of the evil one. (here I imagine the angels of the Lord really strapping and getting this on our hands so that it CANNOT be dropped or knocked from our hand by any blows from the enemy). Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God…(again the angels of the Lord are sure to strap on my helmet and the multitudes of Christians being helped also…the helmets are strapped on so solidly and better than I can myself AND the sword of the Spirit…it is also being strapped to the other hand opposite the shield I already have strapped so it cannot be dropped and the sword now cannot be dropped either but WILL be more effective), After all of the armor of God is securely on then I continue with the prayer.
Thought I would share….thank you!
Fantastic comment, thank you!!
Daniel 9 tells about Daniel praying for 21 days. At the end of that time, an angel appeared to him and said God had heard him the first day, but he and another angel were busy fighting the prince (dark angel) of a certain country. Then he left to go back to battle. It makes me think that perhaps our prayers are strengthening the angels in their own warfare. Just perhaps….
A really interesting thought…
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Thank you for reminding us of this important aspect of our spiritual growth. I will reblog it.
Thank you!
Thank you for your post on this important topic. As the body of believers, we need to be reminded that we are at war.
Thanks Pam; yep there’s a war on and we need to keep it in mind, especially since it isn’t always obvious
Hi, Don, thanks for this blog, but grey writing on a black background is almost impossible to read XXXXX
LOL! Sorry it’s hard for you; it’s about the only combination I can sort of read, everything else I must paste into Word and enlarge.