Ephesians 6:12-13 Podcast
12 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. 13 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. (Ephesians 6:12-13)
Paul describes the battle that we are engaged in as a "struggle." This battle is not waged against people, it is waged against unseen forces. What we think is an argument with another human is merely the agitation caused by unseen forces. These forces want to distract us from what is most important, the application of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus to people's lives.
God's kingdom is not advanced with swords, it’s not a flesh and blood battle. It’s a spiritual battle, it is advanced with spiritual weaponry. Note that Paul refers to the whole armor in v.12. We must be careful to appropriate the whole armor because each piece compliments the other. In other words, our effectiveness depends upon the appropriation of each and every piece in our spiritual armor.
The appropriation of this armor yields in the believer's life stability. Paul uses the word "stand" which we considered yesterday. This stability or this determination to not be moved is the product of each piece of weaponry which will each bring us back to the one thing in the economy of God that creates the greatest strength. This one thing is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel creates stability in the believer and this Gospel is all of God, not of us. This is why it creates so much stability in us.
We will know when this Gospel is defining us, when our theology is all about God and not ourselves. So mush of American Christendom is defined by the flesh of the believer. It is obvious when the flesh, the evil desires within us, is defining us. The products of the flesh are condemnation, guilt, unbelief, fear and the like. This weaponry is designed to tackle such enemies, and it is a profound understanding of the Gospel which frees us from the false teaching that says we must add to Christ's work in order to experience the freedom that Christ died to give us.
Everything physical is preceded by the metaphysical. In v.12, Paul refers to the heavenly realms. What we do with the spiritual realm will determine what happens around us in the physical realm. Take note of how the enemy is described in v.12 ... "authorities", "powers", "spiritual forces of evil." These angelic beings are bad and they are behind the troubles in our world. Jude tells us "they left their proper place." Peter tells us in 2 Peter that the angels "sinned." They had a free will. And "they fell from their position of obedience." These are "inferior deities" which is what the word "demons" means.
The Lord Jesus encountered six different individuals who were possessed by demons. The goal of these demons is to deceive and destroy mankind. Satan is given five names and twenty four titles in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus was given two hundred and fifty names and titles.
In v.13 Paul tells us that God has provided for us the FULL armor of God. Although God has provided the armor, we must put it on. And, when we appropriate or put on this weaponry, we rise to the viewpoint of God in the heavenly or spiritual realm. It is only from this vantage point of God that we recognize this life as it is. In fact, when we have this view point, we recognize that all things work together for the good of the believer.
My oldest son garnered a job right out of college which only lasted a few months. One day his boss came to him and let him know that he could not afford him as an employee so he would have to let him go. From the human standpoint, I wanted to rip the head off of his boss. But from God's perspective, we learned that it was one of the most important things that has ever happened to my son. You see, he took a job that he probably would not have taken had he had other choices. While at the second job, he was trained to make and install the PLC (Programmable Logical Control). This is when his professional career started to take shape. Learning about the PLC enabled him to discover his love, and today he is happy doing what he loves, making and installing PLCs all over the country. It is from the spiritual realm that we are granted the ability to see how all things work together for our good.
Finally, if I had acted on my desire to rip my son's first bosses head off, I would have been doing the bidding of the evil unseen world.
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