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Meditations Contents
Series Theme: Meditations in Ephesians
Series Contents:

1 : By the will of God

2 : Praise & Blessing

3 : Chosen & Predestined

4 : Adopted for Praise

5 : Redemption

6 : Mystery

7 : A Plan for Glory

8 : Sealed with the Spirit

9 : Responsive Prayer

10 : Prayer for Revelation

11 : Power & Rule

12 : Head over the Church

13 : Our Past History

14 : Made Alive

15 : Raised & Seated

16 : Saved by Grace

17 : A Job to do

18 : Brought Near

19 : Made One

20 : God's Household

21 : God's Dwelling

22 : Prisoner & Servant

23 : Wisdom made known

24 : Open Access

25 : A Prisoner Encourages

26 : Be Strengthened

27 : Realise His Love

28 : Glory in the Church

29 : A Worthy Life

30 : Oneness

31 : Captives & Gifts

32 : Equipping the Saints

33 : Growing in Christ

34 : A Growing Body

35 : The Way of the World

36 : Made New

37 : Changed Lives (1)

38 : Changed Lives (2)

39 : Imitators of Christ

40 : Stay Clean

41 : Children of Light

42 : Be Careful of the Day

43 : Wine & Spirit

44 : Submission

45 : Sacrificial Love

46 : Loving Unity

47 : Family Harmony

48 : Employment Harmony

49 : Warfare

50 : Stand Firm

51 : Armour

52 : Prayer

53 : Reassurance

Meditation No. 49

Meditation Title:   Warfare

   

Eph 6:10-12 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

 

Finally? When preachers say ‘finally' they usually go on for another quarter of an hour! But this letter is drawing to a close and this is a key and crucial issue before Paul finishes. Remember the context has been the unity of the body of Christ, the church, and Paul has worked through a number of practical issues in the Christian life, things that should not be there and things that should, concluding with thoughts about family life and life working for another, all very practical stuff. Now, in the concluding paragraphs he wants to cover and remind his readers about spiritual realities, about the warfare that is constantly being waged and, as a good pastor, he wants to teach them how to overcome.

The overall call in the coming verses is a call to overcome and he tells us how to do that: “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” It is God's presence and God's strength that will help us overcome, not our own strength. This is the wonder of the Christian life, that God's strength is available for us. However it is not like receiving an injection and suddenly feeling full of energy; very often God's strength is there but until we get on and do what we are called to do, we're not aware of the ability He gives us, His strength that always matches the need. That is the truth, His strength always matches the need that He gives us to do, and so we're not aware of overflowing power, just power to do what needs to be done!

But then Paul uses the language of analogy. It is possible that he is in prison and in chains or at least (and I think this is more likely) that there are guards in the vicinity who wear armour and he likens the things we have from God to pieces of armour, as we'll see when we move on in the next meditation. For now he gives us a simple instruction, which he will soon enlarge on: “Put on the full armour of God.” Note the word, ‘full'. Not just odds and ends, but the full covering that God has provided. When you put on armour you cover all parts of the body. God doesn't leave us ‘uncovered' in any way. He provides full protection for us in the things He has given us. Now comes the reason for this need of this armour: “so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.”

Yes, this is the truth, that we have an enemy, an adversary. In many places the Bible testifies to the fact of this fallen angel called Satan, the Accuser, or the devil. His activities are most clearly seen in Genesis 3 where he challenges the truth and tempts Eve and Adam to disregard God's words. He tempts, he deceives, he accuses and he attacks (see Job 1,2). He schemes to bring us down, he plots to get us to stop following God and he sows discord and discontent and seeks to get us to lose our perspective. We will see as we go on that our call is to stand, and the picture is of us having being given ground to hold – the truth, the truth about ourselves, the truth about God and the truth of the Gospel. In the fight our enemy seeks to push us off this ‘plot of ground' so we give up believing the truth and from then on we are vulnerable and will fall.

If we are uncertain of our perspective, Paul spells it out: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” We may think that the troubles we have, the situations we struggle against, are to do with people, but people are only the means that Satan uses to come against us outwardly. He also comes against us inwardly in our minds. This is a spiritual battle and the main part of it is fought in our mind. It's not just people, it is all those who are ungodly and unrighteous, whether they be human or demon. When people come against us and challenge and oppose us with atheistic arguments, the origins for that are in the spiritual realm from our enemy, who rules their minds.

We need to be quite clear of this before we go on to consider the armour and the battle in detail: this is a spiritual battle, an unseen battle and therefore the answer is with THE Spirit, God Himself. He is with us and He is for us and He will provide all we need. Remember, part of what we call the Lord's Prayer says, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Mt 6:13). Do you see the need to pray that on a regular basis? There is a very real need and we ignore it at our peril.