Ephesians 6:10-20

Spiritual Battle: Standing Firm – Protected by God’s armour (v11)

“Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes”

We don’t have to enter the battle unprotected. God give us the spiritual equipment we need to face the enemy.

ILLUSTRATION: In my work as a police officer I am issued with protective equipment to help me deal with dangerous and violent situations. SHOW BODY ARMOUR AND EQUIPMENT. I would never go on patrol without wearing this because I never know what is round the corner and I need to be able to protect myself and members of the public.

In the same way we should not enter the spiritual battle without the spiritual armour that God supplies – we’ll have a look at this armour in more detail later on.

The difference with spiritual armour is that once it is on, it should not come off! When I finish duty I take my body armour off and store it in a locker until the next shift. When this passage talks about “putting on” the armour of God, it means permanently. You cannot be a part time Christian or pick and choose your battles. Satan is not a part-time enemy and he is very scheming. If you decide to take a month off and drop your guard he will try to bring you down.

The phrase “put on” is also a command. It is not an option to take up the armour for battle. It is imperative for spiritual survival, which is why God instructs us to do it.

We need perseverance to go the distance in the battle. We need to “stand firm” when faced with the storms of life. This requires us to be obedient and to faithful, developing good patterns of behaviour – reading the word, praying, meeting together,

Don’t allow the enemy to force you to retreat of compromise your faith in any way.  Don’t give the devil a foot hold in your life. This could be in any area and can start small – a little lie or half truth can lead to bigger lie and before you know it you have compromised you integrity and ruined a relationship. This can be at work, at home, at church.

The battle has been won. We don’t have to go on the attack but we need to be able to resist the advances and hold position. It is not our responsibility to defeat Satan, but to be ready when he attacks.

 What is the armour?

As I mentioned earlier Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter, chained to or very close to a Roman solider. He uses this as an illustration of Christian spiritual armour.

He focuses of 6 pieces of equipment for his analogy, which we will look at in the following studies.