Dressed for Battle
Scripture says that we are in a battle – a spiritual
battle. Even though we know that we live
in a very troubled world, we still don’t like to believe that there are evil
powers lurking around every corner. And
we wonder if it isn’t a bit paranoid to
worry about such things!
Our ancestors didn’t
worry about such things as germs! Just a
couple hundred years ago people saw no need to wash their hands or cover their
sneezes or sterilize anything. But then Louis
Pasteur looked through his microscope and saw a whole world that nobody had
ever seen before. A world of germs moving around under his microscope, so tiny
that no one could see them with the naked eye!
Pasteur was shocked and startled! When the news got out that he had discovered
a world of microscopic germs that could cause sickness, and that they were
everywhere, folks didn’t want to believe it.
But this discovery
eventually led the medical profession to announce that germs are very real and they
are indeed all around us! And germs can
bring disease and even kill us! And of
course that changed everything. In the
hospitals doctors began washing their dirty bloody gowns between operations and
sterilizing their surgical instruments.
And the population was encouraged to wash their hands with soap and
water. And the death rate from infectious diseases began dropping so much that
people began to actually believe that germs were real. And this knowledge changed their behavior.
Perhaps it’s the same
in the spiritual realm. Even though we
can’t see “evil powers” as we go through our daily life, the Bible tells us
that evil powers are very real. And our protection and our victory over evil is
our position in Christ because He has us covered. But we also have a part. The
Bible says our job is to believe the truth and try to live a good life. – try to obey God’s commands.
You may ask, “If my protection is found in Christ, then why
do I have to get involved?” Scripture
tells us that we are in a spiritual battle and that God has provided everything
we need to be victorious over the evil forces, but we have to believe what He
has said and use what He has given us.
Each Christian has been given a set of armor and a sword but we need to
put the armor on and use the sword. Let’s
read about what we have been given - our armor.
“Stand firm, having put on the belt of truth, and having put
on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the
preparation of the gospel of peace: in addition to all, taking up the shield of
faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the
evil one. And take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:14-17)
First of all we are to put on and wear the belt of “truth”. Jesus said, “I am…the truth” (John 14:6) And
because Christ is in you, the truth is in you. The belt of truth is our first
line of defense against Satan’s main weapon- that of deceiving and lying. Jesus prayed this prayer for us: “Sanctify them in the truth: Thy Word is
truth.” (John 17:17) The Word of God (the Bible) is truth and we
should not wander away from it or open ourselves up in any way to false
doctrines. Also we should always speak the truth. Lying even when we think it is for a good
cause is wrong.
The second piece of armor we need to fight the battles in
life is the “breastplate of righteousness.”
This righteousness isn’t your righteousness or mine otherwise we would
all be in trouble! The righteousness is
Christ’s righteousness. (1
Corinthians1:30; Philippians 3:8-9) When
we believe in Jesus as Savior we put on Christ’s righteousness. And since we
are covered by Christ’s righteousness, we are justified before God. (Romans 5:1)
So when we worry that we aren’t good enough to go to heaven we need to
remember that it isn’t our goodness that saved us but Christ’s. “Who will bring a charge against God’s
elect? God is the one who justifies.” (Romans 8:33) And even though we stand on our
righteous position in Jesus, we need to try to obey His commandments.
And then we are to put on the “shoes of peace”. Scripture says: “Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.”
(Matthew 5:9) Jesus prayed that
believers might be united and He calls us to forgive those we don’t agree with
or those who have harmed us. Christians are called to be ministers of
reconciliation. We are to bring people
together and encourage fellowship. A
joyful but often difficult ministry!
The “Shield of faith” is the forth piece of armor that we
have been given. The object of our faith
is God and His Word. Scripture says that
God gives each of us a measure of faith. But we can build up the faith we have
by worshiping God and reading the Word. “For then faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans
10:17)
Scripture says: “take up the shield of faith with which you
will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles from the evil one.” (Ephesians
6:16) These “flaming missiles from the
evil one” are nothing more than lies or temptations or fears that bombard our
minds.
When Jesus was
tempted by the devil He answered the temptations by quoting Scripture (the Word
of God). And we can do the same. If we are attacked by fear we can meet the
fear with God’s Word. “Fear thou not for
I am with you, be not dismayed for I am thy God, I will strengthen you yes I
will help you, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.” (Isaiah 42:10) And if we are attacked with the temptation to
lie (bear false witness) we can pray and ask for God’s help and again counter
with Scripture. “Thou shall not bear
false witness” (Exodus 20:16) God also includes our prayers as part of His
strategy to help us win the spiritual battle.
The fifth piece of armor is the “helmet of salvation.” Sometimes we may be tempted to doubt our
salvation. We may think that we have to do a lot of “things” to receive
salvation. But Scripture says that all we need to do is believe that Jesus is
our Savior and try to follow Him. Jesus
has won our victory and we are to stand firm in Him. God has “delivered us from the domain of
darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” (Col.1:13)
And the last piece of armor is the “sword of the
Spirit.” The Bible says that the sword
of the Spirit is the Word of God. It is
the only weapon we are given to actively fight with. The other pieces of armor are for our
spiritual protection. Scripture says:
“The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the division of soul and spirit …” (Hebrews 4:12) We can use
the sword of the Spirit (the Bible) along with the shield of faith to fight
this spiritual battle that we find ourselves in.
We each have a purpose and a mission to accomplish here on
earth. But if we love God, Satan, the
enemy of our soul, is there to oppose us – to undermine all our hopes and
dreams and to tear apart all of the good that we would do. We are in a battle
–the battle between good and evil – between the kingdom of God
Some ideas have been taken from Neil T. Anderson’s book “The
Bondage Breaker” pages 95-102
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