Christians are fighting against evil—describing hand-to-hand combat. But we are not in an earthly military campaign—our battle is not against people made of flesh and blood. Instead, we battle the demons and forces of darkness and evil over whom Satan has control. Demons work to tempt people to sin. They were not created by Satan because God is the Creator of all. Rather, the demons are fallen angels who joined Satan in his rebellion and thus became perverted and evil.
The descriptive words reveal the characteristics of these enemies as well as their sphere of operations. These spiritual beings have limited power. They are invisible to us, operating in the unseen world. The mighty powers refers to those spiritual powers who aspire to world control. They are evil (of the darkness) and they currently rule this world. The wicked spirits in the heavenly realms refers to the demons’ dwellings, planets and stars, from which the demons control the lives of people.
Paul used the names of groups of evil powers not so much to establish classes or distinguish demonic powers as to show the full extent of Satan’s warfare.
Here is a host of spiritual forces arrayed against us, requiring us to use God’s full armor. These are real and powerful beings, not mere fantasies.
Believers must not underestimate them. The Ephesians had practiced magic and witchcraft (Acts 19:19), so they were well aware of the power of the darkness. We face a powerful army whose goal is to defeat Christ’s church. When we believe in Christ, the satanic beings become our enemies, and they try every device to turn us away from him and back to sin. Although believers are assured of victory, we must engage in the struggle until Christ returns because Satan constantly battles against all who are on God’s side.
Believers’ response to the reality of this warfare should be to use every piece of God’s armor. The armor is available, but the believer/soldier must use it. We would be neglectful to do otherwise, for the battle is real, and we are Satan’s targets. Only with the armor will believers be able to be standing firm, a word describing standing against great opposition; indeed, it would be impossible to stand on our strength alone. Christian soldiers must be able to hold their ground and not flee or surrender under Satan’s attacks. The time of evil refers to the hours of trial that have within themselves the seeds of the last and greatest trial. Christians must be prepared for every day’s conflicts with the forces of evil.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
The Bible says if I'm going to win the battle of good vs. evil, the battle of God's plan for my life of good vs. Satan's destructive plan here’s some simple pictures about God’s armor in my life that I need to get a hold of so that I can wear the whole armor of God.
Ephesians 6:13 says, “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”
The word “stand” came up a couple times in that verse. The whole theme of this passage from Ephesians 6 is it’s not enough to know about the armor of God, to put on the armor of God. It’s one thing to know that all this armor is available for you somewhere but it’s quite another thing to put on the armor of God. For the rest of this week, I want this to be a real practical session. I don't just want to talk about some of the things that’s in the armor or inform you about those things. I want us to focus in on how can we put on this armor in everyday life. We are going to face the battle. How can we in advance make some faith choices that will help us not to be defeated in battle?
We get to put on the armor of God. Paul writes to the Ephesians and doesn’t say, “Recognize that it’s already put on for you.” He has said that about some things but here he says, “You need to make a choice in your life to put on the armor of God if you’re going to win this battle of good vs, evil.” You have to make the choice to put on this armor. That’s our choice. We can try to live without armor. That’s like being spiritually naked in the Sierra or Siberia or something and you have no defense if you try to do that. But more often we try to put on our armor instead of God’s armor. We’ve got our own schemes and our own ways to make sure that we win in this battle. The way to victory, we’re going to find out, is to choose to put on God’s armor. That’s a choice you and I can make.
This choice is incredibly important for a couple of reasons.
#1. Battles are guaranteed. It says “…that you may be able to stand your ground in the day of evil.” I know and you know that we live in an evil world. I know we face temptations everyday of our lives. But that phrase “the day of evil” sort of indicates to me that there are sometimes in our lives when it seems like everything falls in on us. We have struggles all along but “the day of evil” – sometimes that means the last days, the second coming. In this case I don’t believe that it does. I think it means there are times in our lives when everything sort of caves in on us. Do you ever have days like that?
The Bible says if you put the armor on now when that day comes you’ll be able to stand firm. Because battles are guaranteed. They’re going to be a part of every one of our lives. It’s not that something’s wrong with you. It’s not that you’re a better sinner than anyone else it’s just that we all face battles. It’s part of this life. Jesus faced battles when He was here. Battles are guaranteed.
#2. Victory is possible. I want to give you God’s definition of victory from this verse: STANDING AT THE END. For God, our life in this world isn’t some 100-meter dash where if you win one sprint you’ve victorious and you get a medal and you get to parade it around the rest of your life. That’s not victory in this world. For God it’s more like a marathon. In a marathon, everybody who finishes has some sense of victory even if they weren’t first in line, if they finish that long race they feel like, “I’ve won this race! I did it. I accomplished it.” And everyone of us, it doesn’t matter where you are. We are in a marathon. For me, the definition of victory is standing at the end.
It’s important personally. One of my goals is to not just start well in life but to finish well. I think that’s a goal every one of us should have. To finish well in life. There are a lot of Christians who start well, a lot of people who, when their kids were growing up, they spent a lot of time with the Lord helping them to grow up, but then when their kids leave home they sort of drift away from the Lord. A lot of people when they first come to know Christ there’s excitement and enthusiasm but then it sort of wanes. They don’t finish well. God’s definition of victory is put on this battle armor and you will finish well.
Whenever I see older people, older pastors that are living out their faith even in their last days. They’re still creative, they’re still thinking of ways they can really live for the Lord, I like to get around those kind of people. They impress me. It impresses me greatly that somebody who at the end of their lives who could say they could just sit back and rest of their laurels and let somebody hang some kind of medal around their neck, they say instead, “I'm going to finish well. I'm going to live out the rest of my life to the best of my ability for Jesus Christ.” That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t change gears sometime later in life and retire and do some different things, but it does mean you never retire from service for the Lord. That’s a challenge for all of us. Victory is standing at the end.
How is that going to happen? We are going to face battles. We are going to take hits in life. The way to do that is to put on God’s armor in an everyday way. Then those hits and arrows that Satan throws at us, they don’t defeat us, they don’t damage us, they don’t destroy us.
Will you commit today to God that you will finish well? Will you commit to God that you'll stand, no matter who else falls you will stand?
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