Our world is not as it seems. We go through our days, worrying about the present circumstances, one eye on our social feed and the day’s news cycle. Inevitably, there is another political controversy. Someone of notoriety that you’ve vaguely heard of before is now in the middle of scandal, self-inflicted or otherwise. The economy is worse, or better, it’s hard to tell depending on who is speaking. And in the middle of it all, your real concern is figuring out how to get all of your emails answered, the kids off to school or practice, the leaves raked, and that rotten spot on your deck railing fixed. Our thoughts of this world consume our days.
In the middle of this mundane madness, Paul’s words interrupt our train of thought. This world is not as it seems.
As the capstone of his letter to the Ephesian believers, Paul draws their attention past what the human eye can see. Paul wants to sober his readers’ thoughts and steel their nerves. Underneath the surface of it all, behind the veil of this physical world, a war is happening. It’s not a distant war, either. This is not some conflict between two far away groups with no immediate bearing on our lives. This war is happening right around us, and whether we like it or not, it involves us.
Life is War
In Ephesians 1, we are introduced to a sovereign God who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. He has given us an inheritance. In chapter 2, we who were dead have been made alive. We discover that God has created a people from no people; he builds his church. In chapter 3, we see the purpose of that church. The manifold wisdom of God is made known through the church. The mystery, hidden for ages, is now revealed, and unbelievably, God does so through his church. More specifically, through little churches all over the world, God’s cosmic plan is revealed. In chapters 4 and 5, Paul then challenges those of us who are members of God’s church to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. Christ-followers, together as the church, are how God makes known the good news of the gospel. Then, of course, that means we must live a certain way.
After all of this, we find ourselves in chapter 6. Paul concludes his challenge to the Ephesian Christians with a warning and it’s an abrupt transition. It’s supposed to be abrupt, because it’s an announcement of war. His words take a sharp turn in verse 10. Here, Paul calls attention to the opposition. The reality is harsher than one imagines, worse than one can see.
Paul lands at this grim reality, as though all he has said before in this letter is preparing us for this realization. You were bought, made alive, drawn near, and collected into a people. You were made a citizen of a new kingdom, but it is a kingdom presently at war. And you, as a citizen, have been drafted into the battle. From now on, or until Christ returns, we find ourselves members of a kingdom at war. God’s kingdom is inaugurated, begun in Christ’s death and resurrection, but the battles still rage on until he returns to put all things under his feet.
This is where we find ourselves, in the time between the times, with a God-given mission in the midst of a war. In Ephesians, Paul leans in to give us life-saving advice. For those of us who find ourselves on a battlefield we did not know existed, in the fog of war, Paul gives us the secret to making it through this battle in one piece. It’s a posture we should take as we live out our days in service to the Great Commission.
Stand Against the Devil
Paul informs the church in Ephesus that there is only one appropriate missional posture as we fight this battle. It is so simple it should stop us in our tracks: stand.
The only way to approach this present age is to stand in this present darkness. If you want a little more, Paul summarizes this whole idea in verse 13: “For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand” (Eph 6:13).
Paul’s point is so clear it is almost impossible to miss. This emphasis is even more obvious by looking at the original Greek text. Back then, if a writer wanted to emphasize an idea, he would repeat the same word multiple times. For example, if something was more than big, he would say it was “big big.”
Paul does that in this passage. Not once, not twice, not even three times. Four separate times in this one passage, Paul repeats the warning, the exhortation, the challenge: stand.
Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist [withstand] in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. Stand, therefore…
Four times. Paul is practically screaming this command to that little church in Ephesus. Why? Because they are at war, and Paul loves them too much to see them mowed down by the enemy.
Paul’s warning matters as much today as it did for those first Christians who received it in Ephesus. Rest assured, this enemy is still about his work of accusing the brethren and seeking whom he may devour. Paul’s words help us to do exactly what he told the Ephesian church to do: stand. He tells us what to expect.
Anticipate the Schemes
Our enemy schemes. Peter agrees with Paul’s sentiment in one of his letters in the New Testament. He writes, “Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour” (1 Peter 5:8). The image given by both biblical writers is a personal, active enemy who looks for opportunity. He schemes. The devil plans and strategizes. He looks for people, personally, to devour. As Stott noted above, he preys on the weak.
Schemes disguise intent, and that is how the devil works. Klyne Snodgrass spoke of it this way,
Evil rarely looks evil until it accomplishes its goal; it gains entrance by appearing attractive, desirable, and perfectly legitimate. It is a baited and camouflaged trap. (Klyne Snodgrass’s Ephesians, The NIV Application Commentary, published in 1996, page ??)
How true this is of temptation. Sin is indeed a baited and camouflaged trap. By these schemes, the devil destroys his prey. He brings down the Christian.
The consequences of this can be disastrous. Consider the casualties racking up today. Week after week, we hear the story of another moral failure in ministry leadership. I fear the day quickly approaches when these reports do little to stir our emotions simply because of their frequency.
We find this destruction no less prevalent when we leave the rarified air of headlines and celebrity Christians. This is the fabric of all of our churches. Consider in your church, among the churches in your town and city, the number of marriages that are presently eroding. Consider the disastrous stories of affairs and addictions. Pause to consider the churches being torn apart by division over matters of culture and society.
Evil rarely looks evil until it accomplishes its goal. The devil schemes, and then he destroys. In order to stand, we must anticipate his schemes and prepare for his attacks.
Resist the Winds
Of course, the alternative to standing is falling. Paul does not provide a third option in this passage. We stand or we fall. There is no middle ground where we somehow opt out of the attacks of the enemy. We cannot choose the sidelines, watching others navigate the war. The war is fought in our heart, and the moment one thinks they can merely avoid it, they have likely already fallen.
John Stott, said it this way,
Wobbly Christians who have no firm foothold in Christ are an easy prey for the devil. And Christians who shake like reeds and rushes cannot resist the wind when the principalities and powers begin to blow. (Stott, Message of Ephesians)
And the winds do blow. Wobbly Christians cannot stand and those who cannot stand get eaten.
This sounds like drastic language. You may be tempted to see Paul’s words and classify this as an overstatement, to assume the use of hyperbole to motivate his audience. Paul may be using figurative language when he describes this war, but there is no hyperbole in his words. The Christian faces an enemy more sinister than he can comprehend, and more deadly than he can fathom.
There is only one way we stand against the schemes of the devil. There is only one way we hold up against the winds and powers of the enemy. It’s by acknowledging our weakness and standing firm in God’s power. Kent Hughes says it this way,
“We must imitate Gideon’s going from 32,000 warriors to 10,000 to 300 armed only with trumpets and lanterns (Judges 7). This divestment of natural strength enabled the putting on of God’s power—and a mighty victory!” (Hughes, Ephesians Commentary)
God’s power comes when we lay down our own arms and put on His. The victory belongs to the Lord.