Living in light of our identity as a follower of Jesus empowers us to stand up against the schemes of our enemy...

At the church where I serve we have been looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles called the book of Ephesians. This week I would like for us to pick up where we left off last week. As we look at the final section of a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church of Ephesus, we will see God reveal to us another timeless truth that has the potential to powerfully impact how we see our true identity, the identity that God designed us to live in, so that we would live our day to day lives in light of our true identity. So let’s look at this last section of this letter together, beginning in Ephesians 6:10:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Paul begins this final section of his letter to the members of the church of Ephesus with a command: be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Now what is so interesting here is that this command in passive. In other words, Paul is commanding the members of the church at Ephesus to allow something to happen to them, which is that the Lord would make them strong. When Paul uses the word strong here, this word refers to a moral strength.

Paul then explains that how the members of the church at Ephesus would become morally strong is in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Now this phrase literally means be strong in the Lord and in His mighty strength. As we have seen throughout this series, when Paul uses the phrase “in Christ” or “in the Lord”, this phrase refers to God’s activity through Christ that results in our relationship with Christ.

You see, the Apostle Paul wanted the members of the church at Ephesus to live out their identity as a follower of Jesus in such a way that they would become morally strong as a result of Jesus activity in their lives. The Apostle Paul wanted the members of the church at Ephesus to live out their identity as a follower of Jesus in such a way that Jesus mighty strength in their lives would produce a moral strength as they lived out their lives. Paul then provides a second command to the members of the church at Ephesus in Ephesians 6:11-12:

 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

Here we see the Apostle Paul paint for us a powerful word picture in order to reveal for us a timeless reality when it comes to our day to day lives as a follower of Jesus. When Paul uses the phrase put on the full armor of God, this phrase refers to the complete set of equipment that a heavily armed Roman Soldier would take into battle. This would be a picture that the members of the church at Ephesus would be very familiar with, as the Roman Empire was the dominant military power in the world, with soldiers stationed throughout the known world.

Paul then explains that the reason why the members of the church at Ephesus needed to put on the full armor of God was so that they would be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. As we discovered earlier in the series, the devil, who Paul also referred to as the prince of the power of the air, is the archenemy of God.

Both Jesus and Paul teach us that the devil, or Satan, is a supernatural spiritual being who is the chief or a group of supernatural beings called demons. Demons are angels that were created by the Lord before the creation of the universe, who rebelled against God sometime before the fall of humanity that is recorded for us in the very first letter in the Bible in Genesis 3.

Prior to becoming followers of Jesus, there was a time when the members of the church at Ephesus chose to live out their day to day lives in a way that followed the influence of the devil. And as a result, there was a time when the members of the church at Ephesus were sons of disobedience that were following the footsteps of the “fatherly influence” of the devil.

But now, as a result of God’s activity through Christ, they had been made alive and in relationship with Christ. However, the while the members of the church at Ephesus were now sons and daughters of God through believing, trusting, and following Jesus, they had made a new enemy in the devil. And as their enemy, the devil was scheming against the members of the church at Ephesus.

So Paul here is commanding the members of the church at Ephesus to arm themselves so that they can stand up to the crafty schemes of the devil and his servants. We then see Paul provide a second reason why the members of the church at Ephesus needed to put on the full armor of God in verse 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.

To fully understand what the Apostle Paul is communicating here, we first need to define some terms. When Paul uses the word struggle, this word is a word picture that was used to describe individuals who were engaged in a challenging wrestling contest or military conflict. When Paul refers to flesh and blood, he is referring to earthly human beings. Paul’s point was that the members of the church at Ephesus were not engaging an enemy that was an earthly human being.

Instead, the members of the church at Ephesus were engaging an enemy that was “the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Now all of these phrases refer to transcendent spiritual beings who have a position of power and prominence in the spiritual realm.

This phrase, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Our conflict is against the transcendent powers of the spiritual world who are the spiritual forces of evil that are ruling at this time over this fallen and sinful world but who reside in the spiritual realm and are led by the devil.”

You see, the Apostle Paul wanted the members of the church at Ephesus to clearly understand that their ultimate enemy that they were in conflict with was not other human beings or the things of this earth. Instead their ultimate enemy that they were in conflict with is a supernatural spiritual being named Satan, or the devil, and his minions called demons.

And in the same way today, our ultimate enemy is not the boss who mistreats you at work, or the neighbor down the street who yells at you as he closes his garage door, the class bully who makes your life miserable at school and on social media. While they may oppose you; while they mock what you believe; while they may make you miserable, it is important that you understand that they are not your enemy. They are simply living out their day to day lives in a way that follows the influence of the devil. They are simply living like we all used to live prior to being made alive through Jesus.

You see, our ultimate enemy is a supernatural spiritual being named the devil who opposes and hates us as a result of our identity as a follower of Jesus. And as a result of our identity as a follower of Jesus, the devil is craftily scheming how he can destroy us as we live out our identity as a follower of Jesus, which is why the Apostle Paul repeats his command to the members of the church at Ephesus in verse 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.

When Paul commands the members of the church at Ephesus to take up the full armor of God, the phrase literally means to take up in order to carry. Paul then provides two reasons why the members of the church at Ephesus were to take up the full armor of God. First, Paul explains that they were to take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist the devil in the evil day.

Now the word resist, in the language that this letter was originally written in conveys the sense of being able to stand one’s ground against something, in this case being the evil day, which literally means when the times are evil. You see, Paul commanded the members of the church at Ephesus to take up and carry the full armor of God so that they would be able to stand their ground when the times were evil.

Second, Paul explains that they were to take up the full armor of God so that you, having done everything, to stand firm. Now this phrase conveys the sense of being able to stand up against and resist. Paul wanted the members of the church at Ephesus to take up and carry the full armor of God so that they would be able to stand up against and resist the temptations that they would experience from their enemy the devil.

And it is here that we see the Apostle Paul reveal for us another timeless truth when it comes to our identity as a follower of Jesus. And that timeless truth is this: Living in light of our identity as a follower of Jesus empowers us to stand up against the schemes of our enemy. Just as it was for the members of the church at Ephesus; just as it has been for followers of Jesus throughout history, living in light of our identity as a follower of Jesus empowers us to stand up against the schemes of our enemy.

When we live in light of our identity as a follower of Jesus, we will live in such a way that we will become morally strong as a result Jesus activity in our lives. When we live in light of our identity as a follower of Jesus, we will put on the full armor of God was so that we will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

When we live in light of our identity as a follower of Jesus, we will live in such a way that recognizes that our ultimate enemy is not our fellow human beings around us, but is a supernatural spiritual being named the devil who opposes and hates us as a result of our identity as a follower of Jesus,. And when we live in light of our identity as a follower of Jesus, we will take up and carry the full armor of God so that we will be able to stand up against the schemes of our enemy

Now you might be thinking to yourself “Well Dave that sounds great, but what exactly is the armor of God anyways? I mean, where do I go to get the armor of God? How am I supposed to put on the armor of God? And how does the full armor of God empower me to stand up against the schemes of our enemy?”

If those questions are running through your mind, I want to let you know that those are great questions to be asking. And in the verses that follow, we see Paul being to answer those questions. Tomorrow, we will begin to discover the answers to those questions…