Take the Whole Armour of God

(Ephesians 6:13)

One of the things we learn as we grow in Jesus Christ is that we are at war. Every minute of the day and in every circumstance we may find ourselves in places where we are being attacked spiritually and sometimes verbally or even physically.

This is to be expected because the Lord and the Bible tells us that this is our lot as Christians.

But the Lord did not leave us defenceless. He has given us a range of armour and weapons of spiritual warfare, and this scripture tells us to use it.

Why do we need armour?

The answer to this might be obvious. If you are fighting a war then you need to properly attired to fight the war. Just as soldiers go into physical war zones need to be “dressed for war” to protect themselves and wage war efficiently, we too as Christians need to be “dressed for war” to fight in the spiritual realm.

If we look at the back end of this verse today we get right to the heart of why we need the armour of God.

13 Therefore take the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6:13)

The reason that we need the armour of God is to be “…able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Without the armour of God we cannot stand. And if we don’t stand that means we will fall.

As any Christian knows, to fall is one of the worst things that can happen. No Christian wants to fall under the power of evil and to be outside the grace of God.

We all seek to withstand the devil and to stand against evil. We all seek to be strong in the Lord and to stand in the face of the attacks and persecutions that will come against us. This is probably even more important today than at any other time in history.

Recently there were articles in the daily news indicating that Christianity and Christians were the most persecuted people in the world. An opinion piece by Rita Panahi on June 24, 2019 in the Herald Sun newspaper in my hometown of Melbourne, Australia had this to say.

In many parts of the Middle East, the Christian population has all but disappeared in what has been variously described as slow extermination, ethnic cleansing and religious genocide. According to the latest research by Christian group Open Doors, one in three Christians in the region experience “high levels of persecution”; across Asia the figure is one in six.

In Pakistan blasphemy laws are used to persecute the Christian minority with reports of forced conversions, marriages and church attacks.

The plight of Christians in parts of Africa is harrowing, with regular reports of violence in countries such as Nigeria, Eritrea, The Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan, Kenya and Somalia.

In Nigeria alone, 3731 Christians were killed for their faith in 2018. Many more were forced to abandon their homes and villages to escape Islamist extremists. (see the full article here)

Furthermore, an article on May 3, 2019 in the BBC News in the UK spoke about a report on the persecution of Christians that was commissioned by the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jeremy Hunt, and led by the Bishop of Truro, the Right Reverand Phillip Mountstephen had this to say.

In some regions, the level and nature of persecution is arguably coming close to meeting the international definition of genocide, according to that adopted by the UN.

And;

The interim report said the main impact of “genocidal acts against Christians is exodus” and that Christianity faced being “wiped out” from parts of the Middle East. (see the full article here)

And in this second article you will see that even the Prince of Wales, HRH Prince Charles has weighed in on this issue making a comment about the tragedy of this situation.

These are the extremes of persecution against Christians occurring in this world today, and in these articles they are likened to Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing.

And the issue of political correctness is also pointed out in the BBC article as a contributing factor in this disaster, the non-reporting of many of these things and the lack of attention by media and governments to these horrific acts.

Although these are the extremes of persecution, they are just the tip of the iceberg so to speak. These things do not happen without a groundswell of hate and verbal or political extremism beneath them first. Political correctness is one thing, but here in western societies we have seen the progressive erosion of Christian values, the removal of Christian practises from public life, schools and other places.

As a result, there is a greater need for the armour of God in our day to day life as Christians than there ever was.

Whether we are to be sacrificed as martyrs or not, the spiritual armour of Christ is able to protect our spirits from all of these things and worse, even if it does not protect our physical beings. And besides, we must remember the words of Jesus Christ who said,

It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. (John 6:63)

The life we live as Christians and the war we wage in this world is not about the flesh. The flesh is of no avail. It is not important. The truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about the spirits of people and how the spirit is transformed into the image of Jesus Christ by the gospel.

So let us now look at the first part of the scripture in Ephesians 6:13 that speaks about the armour of God.

The whole armour of God

The first thing that we are told in this verse is that we must, “Take the WHOLE armour of God.”

The important aspect of these words is the word “whole.”

We cannot be fully protected and ready for the war in the Spirit by taking only a part of the armour of God. We need to take ALL of it.

We will look at the individual pieces of the armour of God in the next posts, but for now just consider these things.

If a soldier went into war without part of his armour, could he fight the battles effectively? Suppose the soldier went to war with a gun, but no bullets. Or suppose the soldier had no boots or had no helmet. Suppose he had no protective body armour. Could that soldier fight efficiently and effectively?

Clearly the answer is no, he could not.

It is no different for the “soldiers” of Christ fighting the spiritual war against the powers of darkness. We too need ALL of the spiritual armour of God if we are to wage war effectively.

Too often today I see in the broad church that the people of the Lord are not properly equipped to fight this war in the Spirit. They have not been equipped with the WHOLE armour of God.

Some have part of the armour in varying degrees and others are almost spiritually naked.

Why? It is because of a lack of teaching and understanding in the first place. But it is also part of the work of the devil to undermine the truth of the gospel with lies that have infiltrated the teachings of the church and prevented Christians from finding the armour.

If we consider some of the pieces of armour briefly from the next few verses of Ephesians 6, we are told to “…gird our loins with truth.” We are also told to “Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Just looking at these two pieces of the spiritual armour we can see how difficult it is for Christians.

If we consider the first of these, there are a vast array of teachings in the modern church that are not based in scripture. Many of these teachings actually have there foundations in paganism and some in humanism. They are not part of the truth. There are also many teachings that are based on twisted scripture and are lies and half truths.

If this is so, and it is, then how can Christians gird themselves with the truth when they are not being taught the truth? And how can they put on the WHOLE armour of God when they accept these falsehoods blindly without testing whether what is being taught is truth or error?

Which brings me to the second point, taking the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.

The sword of the Spirit is not the Spirit himself, as some erroneously believe. The sword is the word of God. It is the teachings and words of Jesus Christ and His disciples, prophets and Apostles written for our benefit in the Bible that is the sword of the Spirit.

The words of Christ in the Bible is the weapon we give to the Holy Spirit to wield on our behalf in defence or attack. The living word of the Bible that is sharper than any two-edged sword is the sword in the armour of God.

But to give the Spirit this sword for our protection, we have a responsibility. We have to read and study the words of the Bible and immerse ourselves in these words so that we can grow and “build” the sword for the Spirit to use. This sword of the Spirit operates in the same way that Jesus used the sword of words when He was tempted by the devil after fasting forty days in the wilderness. The devil attacked Jesus and Jesus defended Himself with the words of the Bible saying, “It is written…” and deflecting the attacks of Satan.

We need to be able to do the same by filling ourselves with the words of the Bible.

But one of the great devastations in the Christian world today, is that many Christians either rarely or never read the Bible. According to a survey by the Barna Group several years ago, approximately 50% of Christians read the Bible less than once a month, and 12% of Christians have never read the Bible at all.

This is a travesty of the greatest proportions because in many cases the only spiritual input is what they may receive from preachers on a Sunday. And as I pointed out earlier, there are many lies that have been accepted as truth in the broad Christian church today. So what will be the level of knowledge for such people? And how sharp will their swords be, if they have a sword at all?

It is essential that we seek the truth and so identify and take the WHOLE armour of God and wear it at all times. When we do this, then we will be able to “…withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” as we are told in this verse.

You might also like:

Peace On Earth
Resist Temptation
The Peace Of Christ
Victory In Jesus Christ
Thank You Jesus
One Spirit With Christ
Tongues Build Up
The Spirit As Guarantee
Weapons Of War
Suffering For Christ
Beware Of False Prophets And False Teachers
Beware The Leaven Of The Pharisees
Woe To You Scribes And Pharisees Hypocrites
You Shut The Kingdom Of Heaven Against Men
Woe To You Blind Guides
Trouble For The End Times Church
Wherever The Body Is There The Eagles Will Be Gathered
Traditions Of The Elders
Beware The Leaven Of The Pharisees 2
Blind Leading The Blind
Have You Been Hurt By The Church
Beware Of The Scribes
Do Not Be Led Astray
Who Are You Learning From
Who Should You Listen To