What do you think of when you hear the expression “spiritual warfare”? Be cautious about an over-reaction to abuses that leaves you unprepared for Satan’s attacks. But the focus in Ephesians 6:10–18 is not on our technique, but on God’s power.
Do battle against the enemy. You are in Christ, but still doing battle. Paul has written of Christ’s victorious exaltation, and of your having been raised with Christ and seated with him in the heavenlies. The Ephesians are in Christ, but they are also still in Ephesus. You are in Christ, but you are still in Newberg, in Oregon, in a life where temptation is very real. The crucial battle has been won, the outcome of the war is not in doubt–but the conflict goes on. Don’t become a casualty! Christ faced an hour of darkness, Luke 22:53. The evil day may refer to a time of future persecution and suffering, but if so, there are anticipations of it in your life. Recognize that Christ is beyond Satan’s reach, but you are still in the danger zone. You have a Trojan horse—sin still exists in your life, and Satan will do all he can to drive a wedge between you and your Lord. See Revelation 12. Paul is not questioning the perseverance of the saints, but it is precisely in the standing firm in the face of Satan’s attacks that you do persevere.
“Remember the One who has conquered him [the devil] by His life, by His death, and by His resurrection; and who is now seated at the right hand of God. All rule and authority and power are given unto Him, everything is under His hands, and He has sent us the Holy Spirit. The devil and these forces are controlling men in the world; but ‘greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.’”
(Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Soldier, p. 372
Understand the devil’s schemes. Satan’s temptations are organized. He uses strategy. He may tell you 100 true things–so that you believe the 101st–which is a lie. Recognize the supernatural power of your enemy. You are doing battle with spiritual forces of evil. Yet don’t over-analyze the terms Paul uses to describe the enemy. The path to victory does not lie in identifying precisely which of Satan’s minions is attacking you. Rather, be aware of the context. It is in the familiar details of life that Satan seeks to gain his victory. If he can get a Christian wife to resent her husband’s authority, a husband to act like a boss instead of a servant leader, a child to sneer at her parents, a father to habitually frustrate his children, employees to grumble at their managers, employers to treat their employees as a commodity, if he can get Christians to avoid submitting to one another in the Lord —if he can do any of these things, he has won a victory. It is that giving way to anger that gives him a foothold, Ephesians 4:26, 27.
Put on the armor of God. You need your warrior God. You need the full armor of God. Just as a soldier needs to be fitted out with his equipment, you need the armor God provides. But this is not simply a matter of drawing your equipment from God’s storehouse, drilling with it, going through basic training, and then marching off into battle. You cannot win this battle in your own strength. You can stand only in the Lord and his mighty power.
The warrior Lord delivers you! You need more than equipment. You need your God.! Paul may well have in mind partly the armor worn by a Roman soldier. Doubtless original readers would have some mental pictures of that kind of armor. But don’t think that Paul simply pictures a Roman soldier, and then allegorizes about each piece of equipment. Rather, Paul’s language is drawn from various Old Testament passages, especially Isaiah 59. Notice that, like Israel, you are unable to deliver yourself. The factor that incapacitates you is sin. The people are separated from God by their iniquities, no one calls for justice, they do not know the way of peace. With a people powerless because of sin (Isaiah doesn’t use the term, total depravity, but the idea is there) the Lord himself takes up the battle. He is the one who “puts on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head,” Isaiah 59:17. The warrior Lord enters the battle—and, of course, wins the victory, not just for himself, but for his people. Isaiah is looking ahead to the triumph of the Messiah. The Redeemer comes to Zion—verse 20. When the Lord wins the victory, the triumph extends world-wide. Ultimately it is God’s armor—but you put it on. You are connected with your Lord. You live in Christ.
Put on the armor.
Buckle on the belt of truth. Paul may have in mind the Messianic language of Isaiah 11:5. Ultimately Christ is the truth. But if you are in Christ, who is the truth, then truth must characterize you, a point Paul has made back in Ephesians 4:24–25. Lack of truthfulness compromises your ability to stand against Satan. It gives him a crucial weak point at which to attack you.
Put the breastplate of righteousness in place. In Isaiah 59 it is the Lord’s righteousness, in contrast with the iniquity of his people, that equips him to be the conquering warrior. Absolutely essential to your salvation is the righteousness, not of yourself, but the righteousness of another—the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul, the former self-righteous Pharisee had learned that his efforts were not enough. He needed the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the righteousness that comes by faith, Philippians 3:8–11. As Paul echoes the imagery and language of Isaiah 59, he points you away from yourself to God’s righteousness in the Redeemer who has come to Zion. But if you are in Christ, if you are the new creation, rescued and redeemed by the victorious warrior king, then righteousness appears in your life as well. You reflect the character of your Lord–not as the grounds of your salvation, to be sure–but you do reflect his character. And if righteousness is not evident in your life, then Satan will push you back. You will be retreating–for a crucial element in your armor is missing.
Be shod with the readiness of the gospel of peace. Paul does have in mind the feet of the one proclaiming peace, Isaiah 52:7, but that passage doesn’t mention footwear. The Roman soldier wore a heavy sandal, laced around the foot and lower leg. It was nail-studded, enabling him to stand firm on the battlefield, rather than slipping and losing his balance in action. There’s an old military saying, that an army is only as good as its feet (which is why sergeants can behave like nagging mother hens when it comes the troop’s feet). Being ready to give an answer is part of being equipped against Satan’s attacks. That may sound a bit strange in the context of mostly defensive armor, but knowledge of the gospel is crucial to resisting Satan. Spend time in the Word. Study. Read. Meditate. And keep in mind the heart of the gospel—Christ himself.
Take up the shield of faith. You need protection against Satan’s flaming darts. Satan does attack. Men like Luther, Bunyan, and Spurgeon all wrote of struggles with Satan’s attacks. The attacks may include doubts, and particularly severe temptations. But perhaps more subtle are temptations to be less than obedient in the relationships just described. Against flaming arrows, raise your shield! The Roman soldier carried a tall, curved shield, that protected him from enemy fire. Legionnaires could interlock their shields, forming a testudo, or turtle. Faith looks outside of yourself. It looks specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ and his work in your place.
Wear the helmet of salvation. Paul uses this imagery elsewhere, 1 Thessalonians 5:8, 9. The armor focuses on Christ and his work. This is ultimately God’s helmet. In Isaiah 59:17 the Lord is ultimately the warrior who puts on his armor to deliver his people.
Wield the sword of the Spirit. Sometimes the best defense is an offense. You not only stand against Satan, you can and do defeat him. Equip yourself with the Word. Read it. Study it. Meditate on it. Memorize it. The Word is the sword of the Spirit. The Word is Spirit-breathed. Appreciate the Christo-centric character of both the Word and the work of the Spirit. The risen, ascended Christ did not leave you orphans, but equipped you with his Word and Spirit.
“The reality of the Spirit’s filling work is the reality, in all its breath and richness, of the ongoing working of Christ, the life-giving Spirit, with his Word. To look for some word other than this Word, now inscripturated for the church, is to be seeking some spirit other than the Holy Spirit.”
Richard B. Gaffin, Perspectives on Pentecost, p. 34
Stand your ground! Stand firm in the Lord. Paul does call you to stand–repeatedly. Don’t take lightly what it means to stand in the face of temptation and Satan’s attacks. But your standing is in the Lord, and in his mighty power. That power is described in Ephesians 1:19–20 as the power that was involved in raising Christ from the dead. That is the dynamic energy working in you to enable you to stand.
“The final proof that we have been raised up to sit with Christ in the heavenly places and now walk in a way that is worthy of him is: we keep our feet and are able to remain standing in the battle against the Evil One.”
Sinclair B. Ferguson, Let’s Study Ephesians, pp 172–173
The victory is yours in Christ. Your Lord is beyond the grasp of Satan, John 14:30. But your union with Christ, along with all its benefits, means that Satan attacks the body of Christ. In Revelation 12, the dragon, having failed to devour the man child, turns his anger against the other seed of the woman–against the church. There are no non-combatants in this war. On occasion God draws back the curtain, as Job 1 and 2 do, and gives us a glimpse of the heavenly conflict which is the reality in which we live. The battle is as old as the Garden of Eden. But the serpent crushing seed of the woman has been born. He has done battle with the serpent. The victory is his, and therefore yours as well.
War is going on, and you are involved. But take hope—Christ does give you the ability to stand, because he has triumphed.