Ephesians 6:10-20; Be strong, ready, and excited for battle.

Tuesday March 1, 2022

Eph 6:11

(Y’all) Put on the full armor of God

The full armor is “of God.” It is God’s own armor (Isa 11:5; 52:7; 59:17).

This genitive would certainly mean that God supplies the armor, but with the OT references it is hard to avoid the impression that the armor is God’s own.

The closing of Paul’s letter is much like a general inspiring and rousing his army to valor just before an intense battle. Moses gave the children of Israel a similar inspiration before they crossed the Jordan to take the Promised Land. We should all understand enough about our lives with Christ and this battle to be excited for it.

Deu 4:1-8

“And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, in order that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal-peor, for all the men who followed Baal-peor, the Lord your God has destroyed them from among you. 4 But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you. 5 See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. 6 So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him? 8 Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?”

Do people say this about us – “Surely this great people are wise and understanding and are near to God.”?

And what if we have so far failed to do so? What if we have been too busy with our other idols?

Deu 4:25-29

“When you become the father of children and children's children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God so as to provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you shall surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it, but shall be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations, where the Lord shall drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”

Seek the Lord, but do so with all your heart. If your loyalties have been elsewhere, if your heart is divided, you will return to them.

Deu 5:26-27

'For who is there of all flesh, who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27 'Go near and hear all that the Lord our God says; then speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.'

What pleases God is faith (hearing) and obedience (doing) and that’s what secures His armor upon us.

Deu 5:28-29

"And the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, 'I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. 29 'Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!”

Faith and obedience are manifestations of love for the Lord (you want to please Him) and fear of the Lord (you know that His life is the only life).

2Co 5:6-11

Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord —  7 for we walk by faith, not by sight —  8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

11 Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.

We also know that the victory is not in doubt. Christ defeated sin, death, and the devil. We should rejoice in our testing and be excited for it. And we should be wise. The Lord’s victory over the spiritual war does not guarantee our own personal victory against the schemes of the devil. In fact, that false doctrine has been one of the devil’s schemes; the idea that the victory is so complete that true believers don’t have to fight or suffer, belief in which makes dumb, lazy Christians (if they are believers).

2Co 10:3-5

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

Divinely powerful weapons are God’s weapons. The enemy’s weapons are speculations and arrogant boasts of true knowledge.

And notice that the enemy is made up of speculations and lofty things raised up against the knowledge of God. What are the proper weapons against these? They are in the armor, and more are given, but since the armor is our subject, they are truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, salvation, and the word of God sharpened by the Holy Spirit.

The task of believers is not to win the battle but to stand. Christ alone is the victor.