“Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. ¹² For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Eph.6:11-12. NLT 

Footsteps # 407. Paul closes his letter by reminding these Christians of the reality of spiritual evil (6:10-24). These are beings and forces that will try to undermine the unity of Jesus’ people and compromise their new humanity. As Christians, we often think that we are engaged in solo combat with satan. When we read Ephesians 6:10-18 we see that, yes, we are in combat with the principalities and powers of darkness. But, like the story of the newly anointed King David fighting Goliath, Jesus is our champion, and he goes to battle for us. He has defeated the Goliath of sin! We are part of His army; that is why we are told to put His armour on. Also, we do not fight alone. The ‘you’ in Eph 6:10-16 (three times) is in the plural. He was addressing the church! We as a church take the armour and fight TOGETHER behind our champion, who is God Himself. So Paul challenges them to stand firm and to put on this metaphorical set of body armour which he describes in detail. Paul was chained to a soldier and his inspiration probably originated there, but Paul has drawn all these pieces of body armour from the book of Isaiah (Isa 11:5, 49:2, 59:17) and how Isaiah depicted the Messianic king. Now, as the Messiah’s followers, we need to make the Messiah’s attributes our own since we make up Jesus’ body. Practically, Paul means for Christians to begin to form habits, proactively using prayer, the word of God, and our relationships with each other to help us to grow and mature as followers of Jesus. 

The secret of victory is abiding “in Him” (35 times in various forms remember).  Notice it is the ‘whole’ armour. Not bits and pieces. It is His armour. God forged it, He gives it to us, we only wear it. We are just told to ‘put it on’ (v11). Christianity is a fight of faith. It is easy and it is hard! It is easy because it is a gift. It is hard because to remain a Christian is a battle with self. That is the chief front of the battle. It is the only battle. Because all the other battles have been won. The battle is resisting satan and remaining ‘in Christ.” 

Notice also the 2 postures of defence. One is active one is passive. ‘Stand’ v11, 13, and 14, but also ‘the shield of faith’ and ‘the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God,’ are moveable active defences. 

The letter to the Ephesians is very powerful. It is where Paul summarizes the whole gospel story (Chapters 1-3) and how it should reshape every part of our own life story (chapters 4-6)