Ephesians 6:10-20
Holy war
How do you view Christianity? How do you view the the Christian life? How do you view your life as a Christian? How do you view your role as a part of Christ’s church? I have come to realise that different Christians view the Christian life differently.
Some people see the Christianity as like a hospital. The church is basically a hospital. We take in people who are sick in sin and Christ heals them, and the purpose of the church is to be like a spiritual hospital. And in one sense, that is true. Christ came not to the healthy but the sick. He came to heal us of our fundamental problem - sin. But – is that all church is – a hospital? Is that all you see the church as?
But there are other ways of viewing the church and Christ. Some see Christianity as fire insurance. You believe a few theological truths, such as Jesus lived, died and rose again for our sins, and that’s about it. When you feel like it, you come to church and do a few other Christian things, like get married in church and so on. But mostly, Christianity is fire insurance, to make sure that after you die you’ll go up instead of going down. But is that all there is to Christianity? Sure, for true Christians – there is fire insurance for the future. But is that all there is to being a Christian? Fire insurance
- but it doesn’t really make much difference to your life now?
Others have other views of the church and Christianity. Some see Christianity like a social club. You can come along every now and then, when there’s nothing better to do on on a Sunday. Sing some songs, hear some lessons to help with living life such as how to raise your kids, how to have a good marriage. It’s also a good chance to meet other people, make friends with nice people. A good place for the kids to meet other kids in a wholesome environment. But overall, church is like a social club. And it’s certainly true that in some ways church is like a social club. Like minded people meeting together for a common goal. Good opportunity to make friends and get good advice for life. Yes, church is that. But – is that all there is to church, to the Christian life?
Then there’s another image of the church. The church as an army. The Christian as a soldier. The image that as Christians we are in a cosmic battle, in a battle in our own individual walks with Christ. But not just in a battle as a lone solider, but as part of the church army involved in a larger, cosmic battle. A battle for the purity of the church - purity in doctrine, in behaviour. And a battle not just for those in the church, but a battle for those not in the church now. A battle for souls. Souls – people who don’t yet know Jesus. This view of the church - the church as an army, the Christian as a soldier, is the view that Paul gives us today.
Our verses today, Ephesians 6:10-20, are about a spiritual battle. They are about holy war, that if you are a Christian you are in whether you know it or not. If you don’t know you are in a battle, that may be a sign you are losing the battle. So pay attention please, as we go through these few verses and as we learn about this spiritual battle. Let’s have a look at these verses.
You will notice the first word in verse 10 is “finally.” That means Paul is about to finish this letter. That means that the section we are looking at is actually the conclusion to the letter of Ephesians. They are Paul’s conclusion and summary of Ephesians. And now that Paul is finishing this letter to the Ephesianshe is telling us these things that Ephesians has been talking about, will be no walk in the park. The Christian life is not a life of ease, but Ephesians tells us it is a spiritual battle, a holy war.
Let’s have a look at what this holy war is like and how we are to engage in battle in this war, the most important battle. The first thing we will look at from verses 10-12
is the nature of the battle. Secondly in verses 13-18, we will look at how we are to fight in this battle and what our weapons of warfare are in this cosmic battle. And thirdly in verses 18-20, we will look at the example of Paul and what his priorities in this battle were.
Firstly - what is the nature of this battle? Verse 11-12 says
11 Put on the whole armour 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.
The first thing to note is what it is not. Our enemy is not flesh and blood. That means it is not a physical battle. As Christians we are not called to win our way in a physical military sense, as we shall see soon our weapons of warfare are not real physical swords, shields, and so on. And that is important, because at points in history people who call themselves Christian have taken up arms to get their way. But this is not the sort of battle Ephesians is talking here. We are not in a battle against flesh and blood.
Then what sort of battle are we in? It tells us here in verse 12: we are in a battle against the rules, the authorities, the cosmic powers over this present darkness and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Verse 11 also tells us our fight is against the schemes – which is the strategies – of the devil. So we are engaged in a battle against the devil and his minions. It might manifest itself in physical things - just ask believers in countries where they are persecuted for their faith, where they are physically beaten for their faith, even killed for their faith. But the ultimate source of the battle is spiritual and our weapons to fight back are not physical as we shall shortly see.
But also notice that not much detail is given to us about who the devil is. No detail is given about who these cosmic powers over this present age are. No detail is given about the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. And one of the things we as people tend to do when we aren’t given much detail is to try and make it up to fill in the gaps. Some of us would have heard teaching on so-called spiritual warfare that goes far beyond what these verses say. There are books, seminars, courses on spiritual warfare that propose a whole system of demonic structures. For example – the idea of “spiritual mapping” - that certain demons are over certain areas or activities and we need to identify and engage them. The whole idea of prayer walking a specific area, as though your prayers are more powerful if you are actually on the demon’s territory than if you are someplace else. I remember a friend once who was organising one of these prayer walks, and she suggested they do the prayer walk on roller blades so they could cover more area in the same amount of time.
But notice, none of these details are mentioned here in Ephesians. There are few details – in fact you could say, no details about our spiritual enemy beyond that he exists. And we must be careful when we read the Bible that we don’t read things into it and constuct systems and patterns which don’t have solid biblical foundation. It is sufficient for us to know that there is an enemy, but we don’t need to know all these details about him or how he operates.
So then, how do we fight this enemy we don’t know much about? Well, it tells us here. So now let’s look at the second point of our passage, which is how do we fight this battle, and what are the weapons of our warfare? So – how do we fight this spiritual battle? Well the main way we fight it is to stand. The word “stand” and the similar word “withstand” are mentioned four times this passage.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
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.
To stand one’s ground speaks of a defensive action. You see, we don’t have to go looking for the devil, for demons. If you are a Christian, a serious Christian, living the way you should, you will attract attacks from the enemy and it is up to you to stand. To hold your ground. The word “stand” reminds me of Martin Luther. Martin Luther was the famous leader of the reformation who stood up against the abuses of the church of the day and stood firm on the foundation of the Bible and the truth about obtaining salvation through faith and no other way. He was called to give account of himself before a tribunal and is reported to have said, "Here I stand. I can do no other." Here I stand. When the devil tries to throw us off track, when we are tempted to sin, when we are tempted to choose comfort and ease instead of the Lord’s work, we need to be able to stand and hold our ground.
But how do we do that? We don’t do it alone. God has given us armour for this battle - very effective armour, so that we can stand and be victorious. Now when we have a look at this armour, we need to be careful not to over-spiritualise them. For example, the first piece of armour mentioned is in verse 14 - the belt of truth. I remember when I was a young Christian in my prayer times I would go through this list in Ephesians 6 and I would and announce to the spiritual realms that I was now putting on the belt of truth. I don’t think that’s what it is talking about here. What it is talking about is the way we live. We need to be truthful people. We need to be people of integrity. This is something already mentioned in Ephesians. Ephesians 4:25 says
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members of one another.
Have you put away falsehood? Are you living a life of truth? Are you known as a person who lives a life of integrity? Who is not hiding things? Who conducts your dealings openly, honestly, without falsehood? That’s what it means to put on the belt of truth.
What about the next piece of armour? The breastplate of righteousness in verse 14.
Again, that talks about the way we live. Ephesians 1.4 says that
He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
Eph 4 22-24 tells us to
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Brothers and sister in Christ, what is the breastplate of righteousness? It is being righteous! Holy! Acting right! That’s how we stand against the schemes of the evil one.
Now the next piece of armour in verse 15 is to fit our feet with the readiness given by the gospel of peace. Back in chapter 2, Paul reminds the Gentiles – non Jews, that they were separated from God. Aliens, like refugees. But then Christ came bringing the Gospel of peace
Ephesians 214 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
Friends – our Gospel is a Gospel of peace, that brings peace with God and has the potential to bring peace with each other when we we live in unity. We need to remember that in our strife torn world. It is only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ - and the word “Gospel” just means Good News - it is only through the Good News of Jesus Christ that there can be peace. Peace with God and peace with each other. We need to hold onto that truth. The world bombards us with other ideas of peace. That all religions are the same. That we should be tolerant - even of unrighteousness. But we need to understand there is only one way to true peace, and that is through the Good News of Jesus Christ..
And as it says here in Ephesians 6:15, we need to put on the readiness of the Gospel of peace. We need to have feet ready to proclaim the Good News. Now this word “readiness” in the Greek also means “preparation.” It is saying we need not just to be ready to tell others about Jesus, but to be prepared and equipped to do so. And in Ephesians it also talks about how we are preach this Gospel of peace. Paul saw it as a gift he was given, the responsibility to preach the Good News of Jesus as he says in Eph 3:8: To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
And it’s not just for Paul but the whole church as he says in Eph 3:10
So that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
Note the same type of “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” are mentioned here in Eph 3:10 as we’ve just had in our passage today in Eph 6:12. We don’t engage in battle with these rulers and authorities in heavenly places by doing spiritual mapping but we do so by telling people about Jesus.
Now as a church we’d like everyone to be equipped and ready to proclaim the Gospel. We are planning to run an evangelistic programme called “Introducing God” in first term next year. “Introducing God” is is a series that goes for 9 weeks that starts with Genesis and ends with Revelation and covers the Gospel very well. You invite people along who would like to know more about Christianity. We eat dinner together and then watch a half hour video presentation and then have a discussion time. We would like everyone to try and think of people to invite. And we need the whole church to get behind it. We need church people to set up, we need church people to cater for the dinner, we need church peope to join the discussion tables, and most of all, we need you to invite your friends, rellies, work colleageues, school mates, to come along and hear the Gospel. And we’ll be telling you more about in the next few months.
Let us fit our feet with the readiness and preparation of the Gospel of peace.
Next piece of armour is the shield of faith. What is the shield of faith? Of course – it is belief in Jesus Christ, belief that He came, died and rose for your sins. That you have salvation soley through faith as it says in Eph 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing: it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
It is through our faith in God, in His unshakable promises, that our eternal life, our security, is in Him. It is through this faith, that we can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. The devil tries to destroy us with all sorts of things. Temptation. Apathy. Doubt. We overcome them by faith in God and His promises to us.
The next piece of armour is the helmet of salvation in verse 17. Eph 1:13 says
In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
This passage reminds us that our salvation is based on the Gospel – the Good News of what Christ has done for us. We must make sure we put our hope for salvation - our trust in eternal life - in nothing else than the Gospel of our salvation. That is – trusting in what Jesus did on the cross for us.
And the last piece of armour, which is more a weapon – an offensive weapon - than a piece of armour, is the sword of the spirit in verse 17. Here Paul tells us what the sword of the Spirit is. It is the word of God - that is the Bible. How much are you a Bible Christian? Are you reading it, studying it? And most importantly – doing it? Later on this year Ben is going to preach a whole sermon on the importance of the Bible. I can’t under-estimate how important it is for us to base our faith, our values, our conduct, on what the Bible teaches us. We must take up the sword of the Spirit – the Bible, and use it so we know how we are supposed to live, and then do what it says.
So that’s the armour of God. And now Paul tells us what ought to go with this armour. We can’t do all this in our own strength which is why we are told in verse 18
18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
When should we pray? When in trouble? When we are feeling spiritual? Before meals? Not just these times! It says here – at all times! And we are to pray in the Spirit, that is, as we pray in line with God’s word, hen the Holy Spirit is with us as we pray. Paul says we are to make supplication – that is to pray - for all the saints.
A few months ago we had a few sermons on prayer from John and Warren. Prayer is vital. We’ve also introduced a few extra prayer meetings in the life of the church in addition to the Tuesday morning prayer meeting. We now have one on the last Sunday evening each month as well every Sunday morning at 9:10, just before the service in the creche room. Please come to one or more of these meetings where we pray together, as well as having your own personal time of prayer each day.
And now to our final point. The example of Paul n verse 19-20. Here Paul asks that the Ephesians pray for him. Now if you were Paul what would you ask people to pray for when they prayed for you? As Paul reminds us in verse 20, as he writes Ephesians he is in prison. In chains in prison. It can’t have been easy. If you were Paul what would you pray for? To get out of prison? I think that’s what I’d be asking. Or perhaps for better prison food. Or for good health. Or for nice prison wardens?
But is that what Paul prays for? No! What does he pray for?
He prays that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
Notice how Paul’s prayers are so non-self focused. They are not focused on his own comfort, but on his being a witness of Jesus Christ. And yet Paul was in much worse straights than any of us. In jail. An uncertain future. How long would he be in jail for? Would he be executed? And yet he doesn’t pray for those things, but just prays that he might know the words to say, might have the boldness to declare the wonderful Gospel of Christ. The mystery of the Gospel, that mystery which he already mentioned earlier in Eph 3:6: This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.
What a wonderful mystery, now revealed, that we can be fellow heirs, members of Christ’s body the church, we can be partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the Gospel.
And for Paul nothing else mattered than telling people who were heading for a Christless eternity that they could be saved. That this mystery had been revealed. And for that he was willing to engage in spiritual battle – holy war. For that he was willing to suffer in prison and to eventually give his life for the sake of the Gospel.
What about us? How do you view the church? As a hospital – but that’s all? As fire insurance – but that’s all? As a social club – but that’s all? If so, you have the wrong picture of the church. The church is an army. If you are a Christian, if you are a member of the body of Christ – His church, then you are involved in a spiritual battle. You have been saved by Jesus. You have been given hope. You have been forgiven of your sins. But while we live on this earth, we are in a spiritual battle. Satan doesn’t like God or righteousness and so he will attack you. Are you ready for the attack? Are you living a life of truth and intergrity? Of righteousness and holiness? Are you prepared and equipped to tell others about Jesus Christ? Are you solid in your faith? Are you sure of where your salvation lies? Are you basing your life on the Bible – the sword of the Spirit?
But as we engage in spiritual battle, rembember, we have been given armour by God. Brothers and sisters, let us ensure that we are aware of the spiritual battle going on. That we are being active in our Christian walk so that we are actually engaged in the battle, and that we are ready to stand, holding our ground, using the spiritual armour that God has provided us with.
