The world’s attention has been drawn away from the war against the invisible Covid virus to the current Russian war against her cousins – the Ukrainians. Our world is always at war in one form or the other. There have been at least 250 wars [1] since the end of WW II in 1945.
Why are there
so many wars? The answer is complex at one level, but essentially the answer to this
question is not so difficult for the man or woman that knows their Bible. The fall
of man into sin has brought this about.
CONTEXT
Ephesians is a letter about God’s marvelous deliverance from man’s most basic problem: sin!
In Ephesians 1–3 we find a picture of the wonderful salvation and character of the Christian life.
In Ephesians 4:1 - 6:9 Paul appeals to his
readers to live in a manner worthy of their calling. He says in effect, “…now that you have become Christians, live like Christians!” There are two aspects for which he pleads in
particular: the unity and the purity of the church.
The foundation for unity is laid down
in Eph. 4:1-16, and for purity
in Eph. 4:17-5:21. This is followed
by a particular application with regard to three
areas of relationships in the church, in which unity and purity ought to be
clearly seen: (i) wives - husbands (ii)
parents - children (iii) employers - employees.
This brings us
to Ephesians 6:10ff and to the
subject of the greatest hindrance to
spiritual progress, to what Paul calls ‘the
schemes of the devil’[2]
. Now let us be quick to affirm that
the fact that devil is in the detail does not absolve us (mankind) from our
responsibility in the matter of sin. After all it is we that give him the
foothold when we get lost in our mindless anger – see Eph.
And so it is necessary that we should understand his methods. And we must understand the Bible’s counsel on how to resist and stand firm against the devil – and against his hirelings which the Bible here calls “the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic over this present darkness… the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places …” (6:12). We must understand that we need more than human ingenuity and strength to stand against such an enemy. We shall learn that we need the full armour of God, so that we may be able to stand our ground against these evil forces in the heavenlies. So where do we begin?
We
begin by studying the nature of our enemy.
He is revealed to us here as the devil - a personal being - not simply an abstract force or power.
He is the father and the source of all evil. He
is a powerful being. He is a created, but fallen angel who has rebelled against
God - we don’t know why, how and when. He leads the universal rebellion against
God. He has many names in the Bible besides ‘Satan’- his most common name. This
name is mentioned 52x in the Scripture and it means 'adversary'. 35 times he is called the ‘devil’ (Gr. ‘diabolos‘ - lit. slanderer).
Other names used of him are prince of
this world (Jn. 16:11); prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2); god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4);
Beelzebub, the prince of demons (Lk. 11:15).
He is superhuman in his power, which means that he cannot be ordinarily resisted by mankind. And yet he is not divine. He is a created being. He has a kingdom/dynasty (Eph. 2:2). He has servants and followers, described here in Eph. 6:12. These beings, we are told, are not made of flesh and blood (i.e. of human substance); they are metaphysical beings. They are not seen with the naked eye, and yet they exist just as surely as electricity and gamma rays (which are not seen with the naked eye) exist. The evidence of evil is everywhere and in every age. By their evil they manipulate politicians, world events, and even the church and even Christians. Sometimes they are plainly manifested as demonic beings.
The devil’s
chief desire is extinguish the church. He hates her, because he hates Christ! Every
war ultimately exists to draw people’s attention away from God and His saving
work in the world.
This world is a
restless place by virtue of sin entering into our world through Satan’s agency
(Gen. 3:1) and man’s complicity (Gen. 3:6-7). The fruit of this most
tragic event is seen in the language of Genesis
3:14-19. Mankind, originally created for a life of peace and harmony under God
has now tasted of the knowledge of good AND evil. Conflict and disagreement
become the order of the day. In Genesis 4 we find Cain
killing his brother
Abel, and Cain walks away from the presence of the LORD (Gen. 4:16). Conflict, murder and war dominates
the histories of the Old and New Testaments. It dominates the histories of all
civilizations. The Lord Jesus made this point specifically in His Olivet
discourse, that a sign of the end of the ages would be the fact that there
would be wars and rumours of wars (Matt.24:6-7).
The Revelation of John points in a similar direction. The war in the heavens in
Revelation 12 translates into war on earth
when Satan the great dragon, and his angels are thrown down to earth.
So, it is important that we understand what is behind the notion of war. It starts with a fallen angel who is at war with God. It starts in the heavenlies. But, at face value wars start with what James 4:1-2 describes,
“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.”
Then James goes right to the root and he says that this mentality is born out of an attitude. He calls it enmity with God (Jas.4:4). That enmity began with Satan’s rebellion against God in Genesis 3. This is our vital link to our text in Ephesians 6:10-20.
When we speak about war we must not forget to speak about its fundamental problem, which is a spiritual problem, and if a spiritual problem, then we must understand that more than loss of life is at stake.
In 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Paul writes, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” Every war threatens the soul’s peace. Our real desire for peace should be based upon the further desire to have the fullest opportunity to live a holy and godly life, and to be able to build ourselves up in the faith. The shedding of much blood has awful consequences in terms of a nations’ loss of spiritual peace.
Just think about
the terrible collective guilt the German soul has borne following the 2nd
world war. Just think what guilt the Russian collective soul must now bear for
this senseless war on its Ukrainian cousins. This will not go away easily.
Satan and his accomplices
will do everything to make us not live in peace, so that we cannot think about
the gospel. He will do everything for a nation to live in fear and horror, for
in so doing he removes our ability to be united in worship and prayer. War is
one of his best used tools, and you dear
brother and sister in the Lord Jesus are
exhorted
in the Scripture to "fight
the good
fight" (1 Tim 1:18; 6:12);
to “not
grow weary and loose heart” (Hebr. 12:3); “to resist the devil and he will flee from you" (Jas 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:8,9). The apostle
Paul warned the elders of this same church at Ephesus in Acts
20: 29 - 31 “ 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you
and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and
distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your
guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night
and day with tears. Part of the church's ministry is to warn the flock -
and to continually warn its members not to play in the devil’s backyard.
Carelessness and sin kills relationships. It starts wars. It must be understood therefore, that behind
many of the wicked men/women and their institutions in this world, there is a
manipulative power. What evil and disobedient men & women do not realize is
that they are manipulated. They are pawns in the hands of the kosmokraton (lit.' kosmocrats -
worldrulers'). This fact does not hold people innocent in the eyes of God. They
cannot say, “We are pawns in his hands; the
devil made me do it". Christians sometimes also unwittingly have been
tools of the devil. We are responsible to resist the devil (Jas. 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:9). We are commanded
not to give the devil a foothold (Eph.
The call to
resist Satan and his hostile forces does not begin with an inward look. Lay the thought aside that you should be able to
resist the devil in your own strength.
The call to
resist Satan also does not begin with an
outward look. You may be tempted to think - "well as long as those around me
are strong in the Lord, and as long as
our elders pray for us and fight our spiritual battles,
keeping the devil at bay, and the church at peace, I will be all right". Do not be fooled! And do not depend on the elders to keep this
church free from Satan’s attacks. None of these are strong enough to resist
Satan. The church together is God’s army.
The call to
resist Satan begins with the upward look.
Take note of these words, “Be strong in
the LORD, and in the strength of HIS might. Put on the whole armour OF
GOD... that you may be able to
stand!“ (6:10,11). Here is the ruling principle of that most basic discipline of not
giving the enemy a foothold: Be
strong in the LORD, and in the
strength of HIS might.
Be strong’ (Gr. ‘endunamoo’) - the verb
here is in the passive voice: literally this should read "be continually strengthened" (i.e. receive
strength). We do not have the strength to resist Satan in ourselves. We are
called to depend on the Lord for the supply of that strength. This battle
cannot be fought in our own strength. The Lord, as in Joshua's day
/Jehoshaphat's day must fight the battle against our enemies for us.
We are going to be working out this principle in some more detail as we consider the armour of God. We shall see that there are very specific instructions with respect to this battle. The only way in which we can successfully wage war against the devil’s methods is by employing God’s methods. Any other way with which to stand against the devil is useless. We cannot fight the battle against Goliath in Saul’s armour. We need a smooth stone well directed by God into the devil’s forehead. That is the only way to deal with Satan! Spiritual warfare is only ever waged successfully in the Lord and in His mighty power. The smallest, most insignificant Christian boy can slay Goliath with a slingshot, if he has God on His side- by means of prayer. William Cowper[3] wrote:
Restraining prayer, we cease to fight; Prayer makes the Christian’s armour bright; and Satan trembles when he sees, the weakest saint upon his knees.
"If God be for us, who can be against us" (Rom 8:31) and
with Romans
37 “….No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
CONCLUSION
Thomas Brooks in his excellent book, Precious
remedies against Satan’s devices, writes: “Christ, the scripture , your own hearts and Satan’s devices are the
four prime things that should be first and most studied and searched. It is my
work as a Christian to do my best to discover the fullness of Christ, the
emptiness of the creature and the snares of the great deceiver”.
If you, like me, find these days of war and rumours of war depressing and alarming then I invite you now to turn with me to seek the help and the promises of God. We do not have the mental or intellectual capacity to figure what is going on ultimately in the spiritual realm, and in the realm of politics, let alone to understand it all, and least of all to fight it in our own strength. We don't even have the ability to always sort out the good from the evil, or the true from the false when it comes to the ordinary issues in life – let alone the realm of the occult.
We need
superhuman wisdom and superhuman tools to deal with this realm. Thank God then that
He has not left us uninstructed or without a word in this matter.
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