There is a story of a military officer stationed in Korea. She was in the Army 2nd infantry and the division she was in had an unofficial motto: “Fit to Fight.” She said that she was amused at how each unit twisted this motto to fit their duties. She said that the aviation battalion changed theirs to “Fit for Flight.” And the band’s was “Fit to Delight.” She said the best one though was the sign posted in the dentist office: “Fit to Bite.”
You know I don’t know much about the military. I thought about it when I was younger. I thought about being able and willing to fight for my country. Many of my relatives fought in the US military. My grandfather was in World War II and growing up, just as he still does, he is always telling stories of his earlier years over seas in Italy, France and Germany. I may never be in the US military or defend my country in a war. I may never learn about military operations or understand much about warfare. And even what I can learn from a book or TV is not the same as actually being there involved in first hand action.
But I do know about Spiritual Warfare. I do understand that as a Christian I am constantly up against an enemy in this world and that I play a role in helping to defeat this enemy. I know that when the time comes for me to defend my faith and the truth of Jesus Christ I had better be ready. Before September 11 this country was not involved in a war, but I was. All Christians were. We were in a war which the bible talks about – a spiritual war. And I knew then, just as I know now, that I had better be fit to fight – because the enemy – the enemy – is ready and the spiritual enemies we are up against are fit to bite.
So what is the first thing that we should do to be fit to fight? First, I think we should identify the enemy.
Paul is writing this letter, that we know as the book of Ephesians, to the people in the church of Ephesus. You see Ephesus was a pagan society. It was an affluent city because of it was the most accessible city in Asia, both by land and sea. But it was most noted for the temple of Artemis, the Greek goddess of fertility, which the Romans later named Diana. The temple Diana was one of the 7 wonders of the world. It was 425 feet in length. [That’s almost one and a half football fields]. Its width was 220 feet. Its chief attraction however was an image of Diana said to have fallen directly from heaven to earth. The temple was so popular among pagans that Ephesus emerged as the religious center of all Asia. And so it should be little wonder that when Paul showed up in Ephesus in the early 50’s that he met with such opposition from the locals as he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which stated in no uncertain terms that there are no gods but one and that is the God revealed in the Scriptures and in Jesus Christ who is fully God and fully man and who rose bodily from the dead.
Keep in mind that Ephesus had a great thing going. In many ways it was a tourist town as people from all over Asia came to pay homage to Diana. They would buy statues and trinkets related to Diana. It was an entrepreneurs dream. There were merchants all over the city selling anything and everything related to Diana. The temple also acted as a treasure house where the rich would store their money for safe-keeping. It became a very influential power in the ancient world. Artists would come to paint this great statue of this well-known goddess. Pilgrims would flock from all over to worship there in Ephesus, much like Mecca or Rome today. In this letter Paul has identified the enemy. He knows that the people of Ephesus know who the enemy at hand is. Paul knew the enemy and knew the temptation for those believers in this famous city.
I would have to say that the city and people of Ephesus are not too much different than the people of our nation. What is our Diana? What or who do we worship in this nation besides God, the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to send that is here with us and penetrates us and lead and guides us? What else do we worship besides our triune God? We worship all kinds of other things and stuff that we make gods. Tony Campolo points this out in many of his sermons. For example, I was just watching the television the other day and there was a commercial for a car. I am not sure what make or model of the car. But the slogan was “Something to believe in.” Well, that comforts me. I am glad that in this time of distress and tragedy at least we can count on a car manufacturer for guidance, comfort and peace. What a joke!
You see we worship all kinds of things, things that seem harmless. Even things that are helpful like cars and money, and our jobs. But when we worship this stuff we turn them into our gods. No different than how the Ephesians were worshipping some statue made from stone. It is just a rock. Or in the Old Testament and the Hebrews, just exiled from Egypt by God, worship this man-made golden calf. What is the first commandment given to Moses? Do you think God just coincidentally made that one first? Or do you think God knew what he was doing, and knew that our challenges thousands of years after Moses carved those into a stone, that we would still face the same problem. And not only face it but that it would be a huge temptation – big enough that this commandment needed to be number one on that list of ten. In fact the first two commandments on this list deal with making false idols.
Paul addresses this problem further, earlier in his ministry to the people of Corinth. Paul tells us about worshipping to pagan gods. He says in 1 Cornithians 10:19,
Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.
You see, Paul just made a connection. Worshipping or sacrificing like pagans is for demons. And God does not want us to be participants with demons – we should not fellowship with demons.
So in this battle we must recognize the enemy – Look in your Bibles at Ephesians 6 verses 11 and 12.
Who is the battle we fight against? It is against the devil – it is against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in high places – in the heavenly realms. This battle is not against another person, even those around us who are pagans – are sacrificing to false idols, to demons. This battle is not against them. This battle is against Satan, His schemes, and his demons. I hope that doesn’t offend anyone. I hope that we can all agree that Satan is real and that Satan is the enemy. Because the bad news is that a majority of people just don’t believe it.
The New York Times reported a study about the diminishing belief in the devil among Americans. Two-thirds of Americans do not believe in the devil as a living entity. In a randomly selected survey of over 1,000 Americans, pollsters asked whether they agreed that Satan is “not a living being, but a symbol of evil.” Sixty-two percent agreed with the statement. That means nearly 149 million Americans believe that Satan has no influence but that Satan is just a symbol of evil. Friends, we should know and understand that Satan is real and evil is real and that this is our number 1 enemy as believers in Jesus Christ.
So now one question for this spiritual war is: which side are you on? And before you are too quick to answer think about what we were just taught by Paul. Worshipping to false gods – whatever they may be – is also worshipping demons. So when we think about the sacrifices we make in our lives daily – do we make them to God or do we make them to have “something to believe in” like a new car? And we are all aware that this society is caught up every year in Halloween. So as we go through this time perhaps our eyes can be attuned to the imagery and flat out worship of evil, demons and death. Think about that when our youth go off to a Haunted House – think of the images of evil that they will see. And don’t think I am over-reacting or being silly. This is real stuff. Evil is real and when you believe that, answer the question, Who is the enemy of our spiritual battle and which side am I on?
Because until we, in this nation, realize evil and how it operates: our marriages, our relationships with our children and our friends will continue to fail and fall apart at the seems. Evil will live in homes and tear them apart. In fact, we as a church need to believe that and battle against it or else our very church is in danger.
So once we identify the enemy what do we do to prepare for battle?
Paul is addressing this city of Ephesus which we already learned is a major player in the world at the time. Because this city is so important the Romans controlled the city and invested much into the city. Therefore, they felt a need to have a strong military presence in this small town on the sea to protect all of it’s assets and too keep peace and civility. Paul knows this when he writes this letter and he explains how we prepare for battle in ways that these people could know and understand. He makes it very relevant to the people he was addressing. This perhaps was inspired by a look at a Roman soldier.
So in chapter 6 in verse 11 and again in verse 13 God through Paul tells us to put on the full armor of God. This is one way which we can prepare for our battle. I may not know much about the military but right now I would not want to be an American soldier stranded in Afghanistan with out the appropriate equipment. I hope that when we drop our soldiers into the battlefield they have their full armor to do what they need to do.
And here in verse 14 God tells what equipment we will need in our daily war. He tells us to put on the belt of truth around our waist. What does a belt do? It helps hold things up. So it is God’s truth that will help hold us up – a belt of truth. This is a help for us to proclaim the right word, the truth of God.
The next thing we are directed to put on is the breastplate of righteousness. What is this breastplate of righteousness? Later in a letter to the people of Theselonica, Paul explains this tool of our spiritual war. 1 Theselonians 5 verse 8 says that we should be “putting on the breastplate of faith and love.” Faith and love is what is righteous. Notice too that this is our breastplate. And I just love how this plate of faith and love, this plate of righteousness, is what is used to be put across our chest covering our hearts. It is almost as if it should be a Valentine’s Day card. This breastplate of faith and love.
And our feet should be fitted with the readiness, shod with the preparation, that comes from the gospel of peace. So we should be ready, be prepared. Again I hope those troops in our military are prepared for battle. I hope they know what to do when they jump out of planes and face the enemy on the front lines. And friends we had better be prepared to face the enemy on our front lines. There are many ways to prepare and this morning, as every Sunday morning this sanctuary can also be seen as a war room – a place to prepare for battle. And as any leading or commanding officer in the army must have additional training, I, as a commanding officer of this church, am getting additional training, to help me prepare for this battle.
So we put on a belt of truth and a breastplate of righteousness. And are feet are prepared and ready for action. What else?
Well, God tells us to take up three things. First a shield of faith. Friends sometimes our faith is all we have. Like most atheists like to point out – there is no scientific evidence for the existence of God. And those that are unbelievers like to attack us with this, and they attack other aspects of our faith. But our faith is our shield.
By the way there are two Greek names for shields used by soldiers at that time. One is a small round shield called an “aspis.” The second is called a “thureos” which is a full-length shield of leather-covered wood that protected the whole body. Guess which Greek shield is used to describe our shield of faith .. that’s right the “thureos.” This shield of faith covers our entire person. And we can use this shield to defend our faith and God’s truth by the words and attacks thrown at us by the enemy.
Proverbs 26:18 eludes to how arrows are metaphors for sins of speech – the words that the wicked speak against God. Our shields of faith quench these fiery darts.
We should also take up the helmet of salvation. Again Paul uses this imagery in 1 Theselonians 5 and here he calls the helmet “the hope of salvation.” Again notice what a helmet protects. It protects our heads. Again I would contend that our salvation has to do with our minds, our heads. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. We are to use our minds, and it must have something to do with our salvation. In other words think – use your heads.
And finally God gives us a weapon, a sword, THE Sword. It the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Our weapon against evil: the Holy Bible. We must know it, with our minds, we must live it with our bodies, we must believe it with all our hearts. The Bible is our only weapon against the evil in this world.
The Bible is profitable for doctrine and teaching, for reproof, for rebuking, for correction and training, for instruction in righteousness. And our doctrine should reflect that of the Bible – and when it doesn’t it is no longer useful to us. The Bible is not just for Sundays. Would our soldiers on the front lines leave their weapons back home? No, when they are doing battle they are armed. So we should be armed. So for those who leave their Bibles up on the shelf, get them down, wipe the dust off them and polish them up. And use this as your sword in a battle.
And our weapons are useless if the Spirit of God is not with them. 2 Corinthians 10:4 states “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.” God is what makes our armor useful.
Also note that there is no protection for a person’s backside. If you turn and run from this challenge you will get bit. If you turn, you will be vulnerable. The only promised way to be protected is to face the challenge straight on. Be brave and don’t turn back.
And notice that God only directs us to take up one offensive weapon and everything else is defensive. You see this battle is a defensive battle. So once we have identified the enemy, and we are fully prepared for battle with the full-armor of God, what does God tell us to do in this battle? Let’s look at the verbs.
Let’s skim all the verbs from verses 10 to 20. If you have your pen or pencil perhaps you will want to highlight them in some way. Start at verse 10.
Be strong, take your STAND, STAND FIRM, standing seems to be significant in our orders for battle. There are three ways to stand: First, Stand against evil, second stand in truth, and third, stand with righteousness.
Also Pray … pray in all occasions with all your requests and petitions. Pray for help in this battle. Pray for others who are in battle. Pray soon and often.
Paul closes this section of his letter by giving us our orders. If Paul is our commander in this war, then these are his final orders. In verse 19 He writes about how he talks. He says that we should open our mouths boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel. Just like he said before that his feet are ready with that which comes with the gospel of peace. A gospel of Peace. And he asks for prayer. Prayer that will give him the courage to declare this gospel of peace fearlessly and boldly.
So the final orders are to pray, stand firm and talk boldly.
Turn your Bibles back a couple pages to Ephesians chapter 4 and look at verse 14.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
How do we Stand Firm in this battle? We stand firm by knowing deceit and being ready for it. Be alert to it and know that it is with us everywhere. This is evil. And don’t you think advertising, advertising so that we will sacrifice all our time and blessings of God to buy a car to have “something to believe in” is deceitful? Don’t you think excusing the celebration of evil, demons and death in Halloween, is deceitful? Please use your mind, put on that helmet of salvation and think about it.
Read on to verse 15: How do we talk boldly?
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ
We speak in truth and love. Speak in truth and love.
You see, evil is our enemy. Satan is real. And we must be prepared. We must stand firm in the truth. And we must talk boldly in defense of the truth of Jesus Christ to make known the mystery of the gospel of peace.
In other words like that Army divisions motto, We should be fit to fight.
