Ephesians 6:10-17 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up theshield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
This passage was one of my favorites as a child. Little boys are fascinated with warfare. They love swords and shields, guns and arrows, bulging muscles and exotic karate moves. Here we find Paul telling us that our Christian life is like a battle. How do the two relate? Aren't Christians supposed to be passive? What's war got to do with it?
The first thing that we will touch on is the fact that it is indeed armor. It is designed to protect us from attack. From whom? It tells us there in verses 11-12 that we fight against the Devil and evil forces. Many Christians today live life so comfortable with the enemy's forces that they need no armor, they already live in that camp.
My wife and I were visiting my parents' house over Labor Day weekend. As usual, my mother had many delicious sweet treats available. After 3 cookies I decided I was done. But the next day the remaining 2 of those particular cookies were tempting me. Seeing as I used to weight 245 pounds and do not wish to weigh that again, I resisted the temptation. They continued to tempt me all morning, and I mentioned this to my wife and my mother who were sitting there at the table chatting. They both seemed to think the best way to get over the temptation of eating the cookies was to simply do so and move on. That way I wouldn't be tempted anymore.
As common a philosophy as this is in our world when we relate to food; many people try to apply the same 'wisdom' to their spiritual lives. They simply give in and think the sooner they give in the sooner they will cease to be tempted. So they throw off any armor they had put on and surrender to the other side. That is foolish for weight loss, but far worse in our spiritual fight.
I will not go into great detail about the various pieces of armor, as many people of greater qualifications have done so in the past already. However, there is one more point I would like to make. In this entire passage we need to note one thing. God supplies the armor; we make use of it. In the battles in our lives we cannot just pray for God's help and sit on our back pockets. No, we need to follow through. We put on the armor, tighten the belt, grasp the shield, and pull the sword from its sheath. Paul often refers to our spiritual war as a race, a prize, and a war. What do these have in common? Effort.
Philippians 2:12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling
Does this sound like action? Note that Paul does not say earn your salvation, but rather work it out. We can be saved and be weak Christians, tossed to and fro like the Corinthian Church. We can also be like the Galatian Church, trying to add works to our salvation. Neither of those methods are what we are talking about here. What we need to do is not add to salvation but show it.
Conclusion
So what am I saying? That we are to earn God's favor or maybe our salvation? NEVER. We cannot earn our salvation or God's merit. What we do does not affect His love; it affects our lives. We cannot sit idly by and think God will fight all our battles. He promises to be with us, not to let us sit and watch Him. He conquered Death and Satan; and He expects us to follow Him into the victorious battle, not sit and eat popcorn while cheering others on.
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