Ephesians 6:10-11; The Christian clothed and not exposed.

Class Outline:

Thursday March 17, 2022

 

Imperative 1: Be strong (6:10)

Imperative 2: Put on (6:11) / take up (6:13)

Imperative 3: Stand firm

 

EPH 6:10-11

Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

 

We completed our study on God’s mighty strength in us and now we move to the second main verb in this section, “put on”. Like “be strong” and “stand firm” it is one of the three imperatives (commands).

 

What we wear often represents what we are about. This is obvious with uniforms, as a soldier, policeman, fireman, etc., and other types of dress in certain conditions. A man or woman wearing a suit in a court are likely lawyers, other clothes might mark a person as a priest or a homeless person. In the Bible we have for instance the dress of the high priest and also the dress of the prophet Elijah.

 

Ahaziah, king of the Northern Kingdom:

 

2KI 1:7-8

“What kind of man was he …” “He was a hairy man with a leather girdle bound about his loins." And he said, "It is Elijah the Tishbite."

 

This was also the preferred dress of John the Baptist.

 

MAR 1:6

And John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey.

 

Both prophets spent a lot of time in the wilderness. Their dress and manner were in contrast to the elite of the time, for Elijah the court of the king and for John, the religious elite who held almost all the power and wealth in Israel.

 

In LUK 3:1-2 Luke opens by mentioning the Roman elite and then the Jewish elite and immediately follows by saying that the word of God came to John.

 

An excellent example is Herod.

 

ACT 12:1-3

Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church, in order to mistreat them. 2 And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. 3 And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.

 

ACT 12:18-24

Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter. 19 And when Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there.

 

20 Now he was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; and with one accord they came to him, and having won over Blastus the king's chamberlain, they were asking for peace, because their country was fed by the king's country. 21 And on an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. 22 And the people kept crying out, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" 23 And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.

 

24 But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.

 

What do we want to wear? Of course, I’m not talking about physical clothing. In the case of the Baptist vs. Herod, what they wore was a manifestation of what they clothed their souls with.

 

LUK 6:20

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

 

The wealthy “poor person” would be exceedingly gracious.

 

LUK 12:22-23

And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body than clothing.”

 

Don’t be concerned with physical clothes but seek first His kingdom - be clothed with Him.

 

LUK 12:29-32

“And do not seek what you shall eat, and what you shall drink, and do not keep worrying. 30 For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. 31 But seek for His kingdom, and these things shall be added to you. 32 Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.”

 

The believer is clothed with Christ, being in Christ, for all eternity.

 

The parable of the wedding feast is the third of three parables in this section of Matthew where Jesus is speaking to the same crowd, and in particular to the chief priests and Pharisees. All three parables (the two sons, the vineyard, and the wedding feast) focus on the failure of the current Jerusalem leadership to respond to God’s call, and go on to explore the consequences of their failure. This group has just challenged Jesus’ authority.

 

The leaders are in love with power, wealth, and influence and despise the Lord’s words. The Lord contrasts them with John.

 

In the parable of the wedding feast, like the parable of the supper in Luk 14, the initially invited do not care to come. The king then sends out his servants to invite anyone they can find and they fill the hall. The king finds one man not wearing wedding clothes and asks him how did he come in without wedding clothes. Depending on their soteriology (doctrines of salvation), different groups interpret the wedding clothes differently. Let’s just say for now that guest wasn’t dressed properly.

 

We must never forget that we can put on the full armor of God only because Christ, through His sacrifice, has clothed us with Himself.

 

GAL 3:23-29

But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

 

“put on” is the same verb Paul uses in “put on the full armor” in EPH 6:11.

 

When Adam and Eve ate they discovered their nakedness and they made their own clothing out of fig leaves. Their experiment in the knowledge of good and evil resulted in self-consciousness, shame, and fear. The fall resulted in immediate shame. Shame means that we see something in us that is faulty.

 

Fallen man became faulty whereas before, he was complete. Christ restored our completeness and clothed our nakedness.

 

COL 2:9-15

For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; 11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

 

God clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins from the blood sacrifice. The clothing God provided was quite different than what Adam had attempted. Adam took leaves from an inanimate, unfeeling tree. God deprived an animal of life. For us life is cheap and death is common, but Adam at that point had only known death as a punishment for sin. This was the last thing Adam would have thought of. Adam would learn that sin could not be covered by a bunch of leaves but only by pain and blood. It was obvious at the first that sin was a real and deep evil, and that by no easy and cheap process could the sinner be restored.

 

This wonderful type is fulfilled every time a person believed in Christ as his or her Savior. God is the only one who could remove the shame from Adam. God is the only one who can clothe us and remove our shame. The believer is forever in Christ. Who will bring an accusation against God’s elect?