THURSDAY 3rd
Ephesians 6:10-20
NIV (v13) – ‘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.’
ESV (v13) – ‘Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.’
We conclude our look in Ephesians by briefly considering the armour of God. First I want us to note that Paul says to ‘Put on the FULL armour of God’ (NIV) ‘Take up the WHOLE armour of God’ (ESV) We cannot expect to be protected spiritually if we only put on the parts of the spiritual armour we want to and exclude others parts. We need truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, Spirit & Word, and prayer.
In one of the parables Jesus gave, we have these words, ‘Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning . . .’ (ESV) ‘Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning . . .’ (NIV) )Luke 12:35) In Ephesians 6, Paul is saying the same, put on the armour of God to be ready for anything, be protected, ready for action. I come from Hereford which is the home of the SAS and they are trained as soldiers to be ready for action, action which could come at any given moment and in any given situation, most of the time in extremely volatile and dangerous circumstances, imagine the soldiers being called up to a particular task and turning up without some of the essential equipment, the whole outcome would be a failure, a disaster rather than a success. We also need to properly prepared. We will consider four aspects today and conclude tomorrow with the final three.
We need the belt of truth. Truth is essential, for the Christian faith is the faith that is based on truth, Jesus is truth, his word is truth and we as his people, the church should be people of truth. We need to be able to stand against anything that opposes truth, in particular the truth of who Jesus is and the truthfulness of his Word. Jesus came from the Father full of grace and TRUTH, he himself said he was the way, the TRUTH and the life and in his prayer in John 17, he called the word of God, TRUTH and we as the people of God should walk in truth, we should be a people who walk in honesty and integrity.
We need the breastplate of righteousness. Thankfully although our own righteousness was like filthy rags, when we are placed in Christ at new birth, salvation, his righteousness is imputed to us and we stand clothed in robes of righteousness, this speaks of the need for us to be clothed in holiness, living morally pure and upright lives in an ungodly world. Lives with which no one can point a finger at us.
The shoes of the gospel of peace. Christianity is a faith of peace, it is the gospel of peace, peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ and we are called to live peaceable lives in the world. (Hence why we are also called in 1 Timothy 2:1-2 to pray for those who are in authority ‘so that we can lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way’.) You will recall the ministry from Peter Vincent that we have peace with God, within ourselves and toward others. The Church is not called to take up weapons of warfare such as swords and guns etc, for we are called to live in peace and in harmony, in other words we do not conquer through warfare but through sharing the good news of the gospel. This has nothing to do with warfare in the stage of the world with its aggression found with state against state or country against country, we are dealing with the spiritual. Regarding the secular I personally believe it is up to an individual’s own conscience as to whether they get involved with civilian affairs and warfare. And I personally thank God for those (and the people themselves) who have played and do still play an essential part in peace keeping around the trouble spots in the world, with so many having laid down their lives for our freedom.
We need the shield of faith. The shield of faith is used to protect us from the fiery darts of the devil, this can include anything and everything that the enemy will seek to throw at us to try to make us unsteady, to try to shake our faith and our confidence in God. Arrows that if the devil could get them through would penetrate our heart and cause us to distrust God and doubt who he is and all he has made available for us. The shield of faith is what takes the hits for us, and the fiery arrows lose their ability to harm us, as they hit the shield they will fall to the ground and we can stamp on them in joyous victory. Faith is what brings us to Christ and it is faith that enables us to stand tall when trials, difficult circumstances and adversary comes for ‘faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’. (Hebrews 11:1) Listen to the words of John, ‘For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?’ (1 John 5:4–5)