I am excited by the epistle to the Ephesians – and it all leads to a wonderful conclusion in chapter 6 verse 10: “Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the Power of His Might”! All these things Paul is telling us we have to do, whether it is putting off filthiness of the flesh, whether it’s being obedient as servants, whether it’s recognising and growing into the Body of Christ – and Christ is the Head – all of this is for a very strong reason, that we might be ‘strong in the Lord’!
And then in v11, Paul goes on, “Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil – because we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places...” So the whole purpose of our obedience, of our being subject to one another, subject to Christ, subject to Holiness, putting off the works of the flesh, of being controlled and filled with the Spirit, is that this becomes the very essence of the armour of God that we put on, to defend ourselves in the spiritual battle we have to fight against the devil.
We have to be obedient to all these commandments we have been seeing here, because we need the whole armour of God, we need to be filled with the Spirit, 5:18, in order that we can be strong enough to stand in the battle against the enemy! Our battle is not against flesh and blood. It’s not against our government, our prime minister, or even other people. Our real battle is against principalities and powers, the rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness in high places. Yes, these powers manifest through earthly leaders and through ordinary people, but it’s the source of the controlling powers that we have to battle against.
Even the pandemic, the 2020 coronavirus, I believe is a tool the enemy is using, it’s all part of the weaponry that is formed against us. And yet Scripture says, Isaiah 54:17, no weapon that is formed against you can prosper, you will prevail against it, because this is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord! In Christ, when we put on the whole armour of God, we can stand! Yes, though we are born again, though we have received a new spirit – but still we have a battle that takes place in our own flesh! Yes, we have an inheritance in Christ, but that inheritance comes only as we fight this battle. It’s constant war!
So Paul says, vv14-17, “Take the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day... with your loins girded about with truth, having the breastplate of righteousness, your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked, and taking the helmet of salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God...” We’re fighting constantly. But we’ve got defensive armour: we have the shield of faith that protects us against the fiery darts from the wicked one, the helmet of salvation that protects our head; the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the Gospel of Peace, these protect our position in Christ. And we have an offensive weapon, the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God! This is spiritual warfare! We’re fighting against the world, the flesh and the devil. We’re fighting against the influence of the world, which cannot touch our born again spirit, but can affect our earthly bodies – we have to fight against the lusts, the wrong desires of the flesh, which Paul describes in Chapters 4, 5 and 6. And we fight against the devil.
It’s a constant battle. We cannot ‘sleep’, we cannot ‘rest’... It’s a constant war which we fight in prayer, in the Spirit, praying with perseverance and supplication for all the saints, v18. We stand in this battle only in all prayer and supplication! Here at the end of this letter, Paul is referring, as he has done throughout, that together we are the Body of Christ.
Each part of the Body has its responsibility, but Christ is the Head. Just as symbolically in marriage, the husband is the head of the wife, but the wife is just as important, so within the Body of Christ we are all of equal importance – but our responsibility, our function must come through Christ! All of this is to prepare us to be able to fight against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness. Although we wrestle in our flesh, the real spiritual battle is against these evil forces and evil powers. We have to recognise, this is spiritual warfare! Lifting up the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God – and fighting back!
We are in constant spiritual warfare – and God is calling us to fight! I want you to be strong, I want you to put on the full armour of God, and I want you to fight so that together we can stand and defeat the enemy – and see the Glory of God, the Glory of Christ! But as Paul is saying, it’s got to begin in your own body! We’ve got to put off the things of the flesh, we’ve got to be filled with the Spirit – let the Spirit of Christ fill our bodies, let His Spirit be manifest in us in what we think, say and do... Don’t let people see us doing things that contradict what God is commanding us through the Spirit!
All this is leading to the full Inheritance we are going to receive in the Kingdom! In order to get this full Inheritance which is ours in Christ, we have to fight the spiritual battle in our bodies, we have to fight against all the wiles of the devil. But the devil is here all the time... I’ve just been reading about cyber warfare, how Russia and China are penetrating some of our top secret intelligence – it’s going on all the time! The attacks of the enemy against you and me are going on all the time, day and night... The devil doesn’t sleep. But if the Church is asleep, if you or I are asleep – then we are not in a position to continue in this battle...
But we are the Body of Christ and we have His Spirit within us! I want to pray with you:
Father I pray that we can understand the truth of this, understand the spiritual warfare that we are in. And the closer we get to the Coming of Christ, the more serious the battle becomes. O God, help us to put on Your whole armour, but not just in defensive mode. Yes, we need that shield of faith to defend against the fiery darts, but we also need to be able to wield the Sword of the Spirit which is Your Word. Lord, we want to take that Sword in our hands! I love William Blake’s poem, ‘Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand till we have built Jerusalem’ – the Kingdom! O God, grant it! In Jesus’ Name. Amen.