Who is your enemy?

(Ephesians 6:10-12)

Who is your enemy? Is it the person vying for your position or promotion at work? Is it the guy who is “road raging” you on the way home? Is it the opposition political party or even the opposition football or other sporting team?

In truth none of these are your enemy. And even when nations rise against other nations in war and insurrections, the opposition are not your real enemies.

This section of scripture tells us who the real enemy of all mankind is and also begins to explain how we are to fight this enemy to overcome.

Satan is the enemy

On the off chance you hadn’t already guessed it, the real enemy is Satan; the devil.

Just consider these words for a moment.

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:10-12)

Verse 11 makes it patently clear who is your enemy. The true enemy of all mankind, and Christians in particular, is the devil.

We are told here that the devil is a cunning, wily and evil opponent. He does not fight fair but is the author of dirty tactics and dirty fighting. He does not play by any rules other than what will cause maximum destruction and disruption in the lives of humankind, and especially those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

The devil is our real enemy and the real opponent we are fighting and contending against. All other perceived opponents are just manifestations of the devil’s work.

People are driven by the passions, desires and lusts of humanity to fight and wage war against each other. It is these passions that the devil uses to incite people to fight, argue, bicker and wage war form the one on one fight to international wars. At the foundation of all wars and evil fightings you will find the handiwork of the devil and his band of demons.

As the scripture tells us, we are not contending against flesh and blood. It is not the people of this world whom we are fighting against. They are not our enemy.

All of mankind suffers under the oppression of the devil, and yet most people are unaware of his influence and designs.

As the scripture in verse 12 says, “For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

These evil hosts of wickedness seek to destroy God’s creation, and especially man. And it is in man where the greatest opportunity for the devil to destroy exists.

Consider the rape and pillaging of the earth’s natural resources and wonders. Do animals cause this destruction? No, it is man who destroys. It is man who pollutes and decimates rivers, forest and oceans. And for what? For the purpose of selfish gain and greed.

Man is looking for what’s in it for himself with little care for others and the planet at large. Man is destroying much of God’s creation for the sake of wealth and monetary gain.

It is the devil who drives man to these ends, inciting desire within man that when it is full grown leads to all manner of wickedness. And at the bottom of it all you will find that man does this for personal gain; for money.

As Christians we need to learn how to fight off the attacks of the devil who would drive us to the same ends. Fortunately, The Lord has given us the victory in the first place, and now we must don the armour of the Lord to fight back.

This is a spiritual battle and a battle in the spirit requires spiritual weapons.

The might of God

Verse 10 above tells us that we must, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.”

How are we to be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might? It is clear that we need His strength to wage this spiritual war because we do not know how to overcome by ourselves.

We can also take comfort in these words knowing that there is a strength available that can withstand and stand opposed to the devil and his horde of demons. We are told in these words that God is stronger than the devil and it is in the strength of His might that we will overcome.

But how are we to stand and fight against the devil and his horde of demons, as well as those whom he influences amongst the ranks of humanity? Fortunately, we are also told the answer to that question in these verses.

Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:12)

Just as a soldier going into battle gears up and puts on protective amour, taking a range of weapons and defences to join the battle, so too we need to put on the armour of God to fight the devil and the spiritual hosts of wickedness arrayed against us.

What is important in this verse is to note that we are to put on the WHOLE armour of God. Not just a part of it. Not just the bits we are comfortable with. We need to put on all of it if we are to wage an effective war against the devil.

In warfare, each side is looking for the weaknesses in their opposition to try to exploit those weaknesses to their own advantage. The devil does exactly the same to attack the people of God. He seeks out our weaknesses and then finds opportunity to use them against us.

Think about when the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness after Jesus fasted forty days and nights. What was the first temptation the devil threw at Jesus?

Food. Jesus had just fasted forty days and forty nights and was hungry. He would have been extremely weak from a lack of nourishment, and this was a powerful weakness that the devil tried to exploit. When you look at the other temptations described in the same section (refer to Matthew 4:1-11), we see Jesus tempted with the other weaknesses of man.

The devil tempted Jesus with wealth and power, and these are things that men seek. They are often at the bottom of all things evil, as the scripture says,

”For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

Many people have fallen prey to the temptation of money and greed. It is such a common denominator of all things evil that even the police recognise it as a prime motivator of crime. They solve many crimes by following the trail of money to find the perpetrators of the criminal act.

The other temptation Jesus faced from the devil is a good warning for us as Christians also. It was the temptation to fanaticism.

The devil tried to get Jesus to throw Himself from the temple and the devil twisted scripture to try and fool Christ into doing the devil’s will by proving that Jesus was indeed the Christ.

But Jesus understood and knew each of the traps the devil laid for Him. And He overcame every temptation by using one of the spiritual weapons of warfare: the scriptures and the word of God. In every temptation the devil threw at Jesus, the Lord overcame the devil by saying, “It is written…” and quoting the relevant scriptures to defeat the tempter.

Scripture is just one of the spiritual weapons of warfare and is part of the whole armour of God.

In my next post we will look at the armour of God and see how it applies to us and how we should use it to fight the devil and win.

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