Why the armour of God, has no back covering. Ephesians 6:10-18
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
You will notice that the armour we are to put on is not our own, Paul describes it in this way. Remember that Paul is in Ephesus under roman imprisonment when he writes to the church at Corinth; Paul knows a thing or two about armour.
But here he says “be strong in the Lord and his mighty power.” Not be strong in your own name or in Colonel so and so’s teaching, or in the words of pastor thingy or even in your own strength. The power to be strong in is The Lord’s! Put on the full armour, so that the devil’s schemes don’t work.
Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against, spiritual forces here on earth and in the heavenly realms.
As Christians our battle is spiritual, if I have ever felt defeated and this may be quite different for you it is I was having one of those days, or more likely because I was not living in ways that are truthful, not living in right relationships with my fellow humans and God, was not ready for the conflicts because I was not living fully by the gospel of, the good news of Jesus Christ.
But on a positive note we can always dress ourselves as Paul describes, always accept the grace of God and engage in these right ways and actions. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, there is our helmet of grace, there is our shield of faith.
We are to pray in the Spirit on all occasions, to be so connected with He who is Christ that we know an intense connection; alert, aware, praying for one another.
You will note in this list of armour there is no back plate; there is nothing to cover the back half of a Christian. In this battle God has our backs…I know this from personal experience. When I was going through a spiritual battle last year God reassured me of this, he had my back. What I thought was impossible happened to prove it. God has our backs.
The reason that he has our backs is because our role is to advance, his name, his kingdom taking the banner of Christ forward defeating the powers and principalities of darkness.
