A few times a year, the school that I work at has a “spirit” week. Not spirit as in Holy Spirit but as in pride and community. During those weeks, each day has a different theme. Something like Cowboy/farmer day, school colors day, tie-dye or hippie day, or movie character day. A few students go all in; during one recently, a student wore a yellow shirt, blue bibs overalls with a banana in the pocket – they were a minion. It’s always interesting to observe the student’s choices.
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he encourages them to put on the “full armor of God.” Over the years, I’ve heard many messages and teachings on this passage. But I’ve also observed that we often focus on the metaphor of each piece of armor instead of Paul’s true encouragement. In other words, we sometimes play dress-up with God’s armor instead of living in their attributes.
For the next ten weeks, we are going to take a very deliberate walk through Ephesians 6:10-18. Let’s begin where Paul began, “A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.” (Ephesians 6:10–11, NLT)
These two verses are the theme for what follows. First of all, Paul strongly encourages his readers to “be strong in the Lord” and be strong “in His mighty power.” To paraphrase a bit, Paul is strongly encouraging his readers to be ready for God to work through them. The first part is about enablement, while the second is about empowerment. To use a different metaphor, it is like an open jar being filled to the brim.
Paul also commands his readers to “put on all of God’s armor” in a continual way. Whenever I read this, I think back to when David faced Goliath. After David accepted Goliath’s challenge, King Saul provided him with the best armor available (1 Samuel 17:38-39). It didn’t fit. David instead faced the giant in shepherd’s garb and a sling. But that doesn’t mean that David was without armor. During combat, “David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” (1 Samuel 17:45, NLT) David’s armor was the full armor of God.
The armor’s purpose for us is similar, yet also different. It is not to best a flesh and blood giant, but to “stand firm against all strategies of the devil.” We will unfold this more in the coming weeks. But to prepare the ground a bit, hear this warning. The full armor of God is not some power trip. God doesn’t provide His armor to proclaim how good we are or how right we are. Neither is its primary purpose to make our own life better in some way – although that is often a secondary result.
The purpose of God’s armor is to stand firm against Satan and the kingdom of darkness and to rescue those caught in his traps. The armor enables and empowers us to join Jesus’ mission – “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” (John 10:10, NLT)
My desire for this series of lessons is that we’ll stop playing dress-up with God’s armor and put it to the task God intends for it. God’s armor is not a good luck charm or talisman to put on every morning; it is a set of powerful truths which gives us the confident ability to fight the good fight of faith of bringing Christ’s light to dark places.
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