Righteousness Is Your Armor; Your Sword Is The Gospel (Ephesians 6:10-20) Series

Let's start today by simply reading Ephesians 6:10:

Finally, become strong in the Lord

and in the might of his power.

Paul here begins by signaling the letter is nearing its end. "Finally." And I find myself being sad about that. I've enjoyed this series a lot, and learned a lot, and been challenged.

What we are going to see in today's passage, is that Paul is going to take the entire letter, and explain everything he's taught in terms of spiritual warfare.

God has made one family, one people, one kingdom, who lives in peace with him and with each other. God has done all this through Jesus. Jesus is our peace. And God has done all this at great cost to Satan. God struck the decisive blow against Satan and his kingdom at the cross, and resurrection of Jesus. But the battle rages on. If God's kingdom is growing, winning-- and it is-- it's because Satan's kingdom is losing ground.

The initial question each of us has to answer is this: Do you want to be part of God's kingdom and God's family? Do you want to live in peace with God, and with each other? Do you?

If you want in, if you want to be able to call God "Father," you repent, you submit to Jesus as King, and you get baptized. If you haven't done this, and you want to, please, come talk to me.

Then what? Now that we are part of God's family, God's kingdom, what happens next?

In Ephesians, Paul says the next step looks like this: Now, as God's holy people, we are supposed to walk worthily of our calling, as children of light, out of thankfulness for what God has done. This means walking rightly, at peace, with God and with each other. And it means shining as a light to the world, exposing the darkness.

Every single part of this is related to the spiritual warfare between God and Satan. Every single part of this is related to our battle, in Jesus, with the demonic. And that's what today's passage is about.

Paul begins, in verse 10, by commanding the Ephesians, "Become strong in the Lord." The Ephesians, right now, have not been strong in the Lord. The reason for this is very simple. Let's turn back to 4:17.

Therefore , this I say and I testify in the Lord, no longer walk

just as also the Gentiles/nations walk in the futility of their mind,

being darkened in their understanding,

being alienated from the life of God

because of the lack of knowledge being in them

because of the hardness of their heart,

who, having become calloused , themselves they gave over to self-abandonment

for the pursuit of all uncleanness in greediness.

The Ephesians are weak because they are living as children of darkness. They don't value what Jesus did for them; they don't value being part of God's family. They aren't thankful. If they did value what God has given them in Christ, and were thankful, they wouldn't be living like the Gentiles.

As a result, they are weak. They are vulnerable.

So Paul begins this section with a command: "become strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might."

The solution to their weakness is to become strong. Not by lifting weights. The strength they need is found in Christ. Jesus is strong, and we want to share in the strength of his might. But how? How can we share in Jesus' power?

Verses 11-12:

Put on the full armor of God

so that you are able to stand against the scheming of the devil,

because the struggle for us isn't

against blood and flesh

but against the rulers,

against the authorities,

against the world rulers of this darkness,

against the wicked spiritual ones in the heavenlies.

We become strong in the Lord by putting on the full armor God gave us. This armor protects us against the devil's schemes. Satan is working very hard to figure out how to defeat you as an individual Christian, and you as the church. But we are not defenseless. God has given us armor.

Paul then gives us a point-counterpoint set, to help us understand think about God's armor. Again, the way these sets work is that the first point is less important than the second, but it frames the second and helps us understand these better.

So let's think about the frame first.

"Our struggle is not with blood and flesh."

If we are part of God's holy kingdom, we find ourselves in the middle of a war. But this war is not with people. Our war is not with Russia, or Syria, or Iran, or North Korea, or any of the 100+ countries the U.S. has troops in. That isn't OUR war. People are not our enemies. We aren't supposed to pick up armor, and guns, to fight them. Don't shoot Muslims, or other Christians.