Suit Up and Stand Strong: Ephesians 6:10-20

We are at war. You do not need me to tell you that. Unless you have been living in cave, unless you are in a cave with Osama Bin Laden, for the last five years you know that our nation is in the midst of a struggle with terrorists. We use the metaphor of war a lot in our country. We have declared war on drugs, war on poverty, a war on crime, and others. People understand the meaning of war, two groups battling against one another for control.

Paul uses the war metaphor in his letter to the Ephesians. We talked about the Ephesians a few weeks ago so to recap, Paul as established a new church in Ephesus, which is in modern day Turkey, and he is writing a letter back to them to aid them in their struggle as newly formed Believers. As, Paul is concluding his letter, he mentions to the Ephesians that they must prepare for a kind of spiritual warfare. Their enemy as believers are not those of flesh and blood, even flesh and blood could take their lives; remember that Christians were persecuted at that time. The real enemy was the “cosmic powers of darkness” and the “spiritual forces of evil”. We today have the same enemy, and the reason that we should worry more about this kind of an enemy instead of the ones of flesh and bone is because the spiritual enemy can affect not just the physical but also the spiritual. They can attack our relationship with God.

Who are these enemies? The first answer you might receive is Satan. The devil is the enemy to the Christian. He is the one that is root cause of all the evil in the world. Now, we can spend a long time discussing and analyzing the aspects and characteristics of Satan and trying to uncover the source of evil in the world, but instead let us look at forces of evil that we might be more familiar with. How about hate? There is a lot of hate in the world today; we see it not just on the news but in our own lives. What about fear? We’ve talked about this force of evil a lot. Fear can destroy faith and can prevent us from living full lives and from fulfilling our responsibilities as a church which is to make disciples. What about sinfulness? This can accompany a whole list of problems that we face. There is so much temptation out there that it is almost overwhelming. What about lies and deceit? This affects our relationships to the very core. The lack of trust will destroy marriages and friendships. What can we do with all this evil in the world?

God does not leave us alone in our battle. Remember that David was successful only because he has God’s power with him. Moses defeated Pharaoh because God was with him. Jesus withstood the temptations of the devil because God was with him. So the first thing we must do is to be strong.

Whose strength do we cling to, our own? Be strong not in ourselves but in the Lord. God has always demonstrated his strength in the weakness of humans. We remember story after story in the Bible about how God doesn’t chose the strongest, oldest, or even the smartest, but with the strength of God they accomplish anything. So before we take a step out of this church and into the world filled with the forces of evil we must first and foremost be strong in God. This signifies a relationship. We are dependent on the strength of God; we cannot succeed or even survive without God backing us up. Paul sums this notion up in another letter to a church in Philippi, when he says “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me”.

Once we have put our trust and dependence on God then we must put on. We must put on the whole armor of God. Note the word whole. We have to depend fully on God and put on all the armor he provides because if one part is missing then we are vulnerable. *SHOE ILLUSTRATION*

Paul also says to take up the armor of God. The word take in this case comes from the Greek and refers to the preparations of a warrior before battle, when they would put on their armor. So we must take up or suit up with God’s armor before we enter battle.

What is the armor of God? Paul makes a list of the different pieces of armor that most people of the time would be familiar with and then assigns and attribute of the spiritual help that God provides for us. First, Paul describes the belt of truth. A belt is something that we are all familiar with. It holds our pants up, keeps things held together as we move through the day. Truth is the foundation of our lives. Truth is related to trust. If our relationships with others, family, friends, is filled with lies and deceit then everything falls apart. We may be able to hold our lies together but we always end up having to tell more lies to cover up the first one we told. It’s like wear pants with no belt and you have ton constantly have to pull them up and tug on them to keep from being exposed. Eventually our pants fall down and our lies are brought to the surface. A belt of truth holds everything together. Being honest with one another provides a foundation to our relationships and holds everything together. Also, God’s truth holds us together; the truth of the Cross fastens us and holds us against the attacks of the forces of evil.

Second, Paul describes the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate was worn to protect the heart and vitals organs from attack. Righteousness is holiness, morality, justice, and the attributes of God. So, righteousness or Godliness protects our hearts from the assailments of evil. Remember the demoniac that Jesus healed. After he had exorcised the demon, Jesus said if the person remained empty then the demon would return with seven others more evil than itself. The point is that if our hearts are empty then we are venerable, but if we are filled with the righteousness of God then our hearts are protected from the forces of evil. Paul also means that we must have pure hearts. Remember David, he had a pure heart when he faced Goliath; he wanted only to serve God and wanted only God’s glory. So, if we have the same attitude then we can be protected, we must have God’s will in mind in all that we do.

The next item on the list is shoes. Paul says to put on whatever shoes we need to proclaim the gospel of truth. I wore my sneakers here on purpose. We have to be swift of foot, ready to move quickly at a moments notice. In those days, messengers had to send news of a peace treaty to all parts of the kingdom to prevent further death and destruction. Sometimes they would make it, sometimes they would not. Remember the Battle of New Orleans, it was Andrew Jackson’s finest moments as a military leader and it was a great victory for the United States, the only problem is that it came after a treaty ended the WAR of 1812, but neither side knew it. The gospel of Jesus Christ is one of peace and reconciliation. We must be swift to spread this good news to all that need to hear it. We have to put on our Nikes or our New Balances in order to be fast in our proclamation.

Paul then talks about the shield of faith that quenches the flaming arrows. The reference comes from the practice of Roman soldiers who would soak their leather shield in water before battle to prevent them from catching on fire if the enemy shot flaming arrows at them. We have talked about faith quite a bit because I think it is important. We talked about how the only thing that can fight fear is faith and the only thing that can destroy faith is fear. There are a lot of things to be afraid of in this day and age. Terrorism, economic downturn, illness all these things can destroy our faith like a fire. We must hold tough to our faith in God and no matter how many flaming arrows of fear get shot our way we can defend ourselves.

Next is the helmet of salvation. A helmet protects the head and our brain. Our salvation gives us a mind like Christ. We have the knowledge from Scripture that gives us the strength to face the world and when the forces of evil attack we are protected with the knowledge that God’s grace is sufficient for us and that God’s love can never be taken away from us.

The final piece of armor is the most interesting, the sword of the Spirit. Unlike the rest of the armor described by Paul the sword is an offensive weapon, used to attack. This lets us know that the battle is not simply us repelling the attacks of the forces of evil but it is also us going into the world with the sword of the Spirit which is also the Word of God. The word of God is our offensive weapon. When we proclaim God’s word we are attacking the evil in the world, each time someone understands that God loves them and that God’s grace is feely available to them then the forces of evil have lost a battle and God has gained a warrior.

We must remain vigilant and pray that we will have to strength of God when the attack comes and come it will. No one ever said that being a Christian was easy, we have targets on our heads and we must be ready to battle for God. We must do three things 1) Be Strong not in our own selves but in God; 2) Put On the WHOLE armor of God not missing one part; finally 3) Take Up the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes to proclaim the gospel of truth, the shied of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. We must prepare to serve God in a world that does not want to hear the truth. We can’t just stay put and wait till the evil attacks, we must go into the world and be soldiers of the Cross.