THEREFORE TAKE UP THE
FULL ARMOR OF GOD: dia touto analabete (2PAAM) ten panoplian tou
theou: "Therefore"
in view of the fact that our enemy is not flesh and blood but
consists of supernatural forces, we need God's supernatural
empowerment. Paul says that because we face such a formidable foe,
we must avail ourselves of God’s provision lest the enemy destroy
our Christian witness and ministry.
Eadie comments...
"Wherefore," the foes being so
formidable in power, operation, and nature, what need is there not
to be fully protected with this complete and divine suit of mail?
(Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians )
C. S. Lewis wrote that
"There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can
fall about the devils. One is to
disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and
to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves
are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or
magician with the same delight:" (The Screwtape Letters. p. 3.
New York: Macmillan, 1961)
Dearly beloved, never leave
your home spiritually "undressed" and never underestimate the
strategy, schemes and strength of our enemy.
"Take up" (3538)
(analambano from
ana = up + lambano =
take) is used 8x in the NT (Mk;
Acts
8x;
Eph
2x;
1Ti;
2Ti)
and literally means to
take up a thing in order to carry or use it.
Analambano is used of
Jesus' being taken up into heaven (Mark
16:19,
Acts 1:2,11, 22,
1Ti 1:16),
of being taken on board ship (Acts
20, 13,14), and of
Timothy picking up Mark to bring him to Paul (2Ti
4:11).
Analambano was a military
technical term describing the last preparation and
final step before the actual battle begins! It pictures taking
up one's armor and putting it on in anticipation of the coming battle.
Analambano is used in
this military sense in the Septuagint translation of Deuteronomy
1:41 where Moses declares
“Then you answered and said to
me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord; we will indeed go up and
fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every man of you
girded on (Hebrew = to gird oneself or put on a belt; Lxx =
analambano = take up) his weapons of war and regarded it as
easy to go up into the hill country."
Take up is
aorist
tense which calls for
an immediate action and often conveys a sense of urgency. The idea
is "Do this
now" and "do it effectively". The "active"
voice indicates that the subject (the believer) is to carry out
this action. Active voice emphasizes the human responsibility that is
necessary, even though the armor is God's. The armor is available,
but each believer must “take it up” in order to be ready. We would
be neglectful to do otherwise, for the battle is real, and we are
Satan’s targets. The
imperative mood is a command. In short, Paul like a
Roman general whose troops were about to engage in mortal hand to
hand combat delivers his orders that if obeyed assure
victory.
Kenneth Wuest explains that
"the Christian is to take up and put on all the armor of God as a
once-for-all act and keep that armor on during the entire course of
his life, not relaxing the discipline necessary for the constant use
of such protection." (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's word studies from the
Greek New
Testament. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans)
Why "once-for-all"? Think
about why this might be so. Do the rulers and powers, etc ever call a
truce? take a rest from their relentless attack? Of course not. How
tragic then that so many believers become lax & "slip out of the
full armor", forgetting the truth that our "adversary,
the
devil, (continuously)
prowls
around (present tense)
like a
roaring
lion,
seeking
someone to
devour." Note that the command or
charge also carries with it a promise -
the promise being that if we will really put on the full armor of
God, we will stand and be victorious.
Paul's
point is that every believer has God's His provision, but His
strength must appropriated through our willingness to obey.
Jameison,
et al writes that Paul says...
not “make,” God has done that:
you have only to “take up” and put it on. The
Ephesians were familiar with the idea of the gods giving armor to
mythical heroes: thus Paul’s allusion would be appropriate." (A
commentary, critical and explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments)
Historian Edward Gibbon
(See below to read his original
quote)
relates how the relaxation of discipline and the disuse of
exercise rendered the Roman Legionnaire soldiers less willing
and less able to support the fatigue associated with active service.
They began to complain of the weight of the armor and obtained
permission to lay aside their cuirasses
(breastplates) & helmets! How
many believers "complain of the weight of their armor" and end up
laying aside vital components of their spiritual dress?
Kent Hughes
draws this parallel with "Christian
soldiers" stating that...
"the prevailing
materialistic, mechanistic thinking of our age leaves no room for
the supernatural, or
indeed
anything without a physical cause. Sadly, many Christians are so
influenced
by this
thinking
that even though they give conscious voice to their belief in Satan
and spiritual warfare, their lives show no evidence of this reality.
They actually live in unconscious disbelief. For such persons, this
passage
(Eph 6:10-18) provides a much-needed
antidote."
Hughes goes on to caution us that
"It is possible to move from practical disbelief in the Devil and
his minions to a preoccupation with them — like the New Yorker
cartoon which pictured a man pointing toward his
car’s
transmission
saying, “I think there is a demon in my bell housing.” We’ve
probably all felt that
way
at times, but if we attribute every problem to demons we are in
trouble! At the same time Paul’s worldview, the Biblical worldview,
is that we are in a spiritual battle with evil in which there is no
truce...".
(Hughes, R. K. Ephesians:
The mystery of the body of Christ. Preaching the Word. Wheaton,
Ill.: Crossway Books. 1990)
Edward Gibbon in his
famous work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (click
here) has the following interesting not on the
deterioration of discipline in the Roman soldier writing that...
"The
relaxation of discipline, and the disuse of exercise, rendered the
soldiers less able, and less willing, to support the fatigues of the
service; they complained of the weight of the armor, which they
seldom wore; and they successively obtained the permission of laying
aside both their cuirasses (breastplates)
and their helmets. The heavy weapons of their ancestors, the
short sword (machaira),
and the formidable pilum (javelin), which had subdued the world,
insensibly dropped from their feeble hands. As the use of the
shield is incompatible with that of the bow, they reluctantly
marched into the field; condemned to suffer either the pain of
wounds, or the ignominy of flight, and always disposed to prefer the
more shameful alternative. The cavalry of the Goths, the Huns,
and the Alani, had felt the benefits, and adopted the use, of
defensive armor; and, as they excelled in the management of missile
weapons, they easily overwhelmed the naked and trembling legions,
whose heads and breasts were exposed, without defence, to the arrows
of the Barbarians. The loss of armies, the destruction of
cities, and the dishonor of the Roman name, ineffectually solicited
the successors of Gratian to restore the helmets and the cuirasses
of the infantry. The enervated soldiers abandoned their own and the public
defence; and their pusillanimous (lacking courage
and resolution : marked by contemptible timidity: cowardly)
indolence
(inclination to laziness; sloth; disinclination to action or labor) may be
considered as the immediate cause of the downfall of the empire."
How important then is discipline to the Christian soldier in the
arena of spiritual warfare? Surely it cannot be underestimated
lest we too like the slothful Roman legionnaires suffer ignominious
defeat at the hands of our relentless "barbarian" adversaries.
THE FULL ARMOR OF GOD:
ten panoplian tou theou:
Paul’s repetition
of the “full armor” of God is a reminder that we need the whole
package; every piece is necessary. "full
armor" is the Greek word "panoplia" (pas = all +
hopla = weapons or tools).
Among the Greeks the panoplia was the complete equipment used by
heavily armed infantry.
Don't forget the most critical aspect of the
armor, "of God"!
We cannot forge our own armor.
Our own resolutions, like home-made weapons, will be sure to betray
some weakness. The Christian armor consists of God-given graces.
"Christian" in Pilgrim's Progress had his armor given him at the
house "Beautiful" and we must do likewise. Even a steel breastplate
is no protection against a cup of poison and in like manner, the
character of our defenses must be spiritual and holy, like the
character of God, in order that we may be able to withstand such
spiritual foes as Paul has just enumerated.
Click here for some parallel
thoughts by Spurgeon that relate to our "full armor".
John MacArthur
writes "Don’t concentrate on what the devil is doing, but on what
you’re to be doing. It doesn’t matter that you know precisely when
and how Satan is mapping every subtle scheme. We can’t do that
anyway. The only thing that does matter is that you put your armor
on. If you do, you will be ready for battle."
(MacArthur, J.. How to meet
the enemy. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books. 1992)
In Classic Greek the "full armor" was descriptive of a "heavy armed
soldier" (Vincent).
There is an interesting
illustration of the "full armor" from Greek mythology. It is
reported by the Greek poets that the mother of Achilles the Grecian
captain was warned by the oracle and dipped her son, as a child,
into the River Lethe, thus providing an impenetrable armor for
protection during the Trojan War. Paris, Achilles’ archenemy,
knowing of this fact, realized the only place he could attack his
foe would be the heel, that by which his mother held him while
immersing her son in the river. Ultimately, Paris attacked and shot
Achilles in the heel and killed him. For the believer, there is
"full armor" to protect us from Satan’s attacks. We must put on each
piece with prayer and God has promised to protect us, even down to
our Achilles’ heel. We are assailable in every part of our nature.
It is useless to be only half-armed, for the subtle tempter is sure
to aim his dart at the most vulnerable spot. Where we think
ourselves most secure we are likely to be most open to attack. It
will not be sufficient to be sound on all points but one.
Kent Hughes comments that...
"Those who have traveled through
J R Tolkien’s most imaginative Middle Earth perhaps remember that
Bilbo Baggins passed on to his successor, Frodo, a finely wrought
coat of delicately woven mail which was secretly made under the
mountains by dwarves and was virtually impenetrable, thus saving
their Hobbit skins on several occasions. But here with Paul, in the
context of ultimate spiritual reality, we are offered real armor
wrought on the anvils of Heaven which will protect us in real war if
we will but wear it. In this study we are going to examine the first
two items on the list: the soldier’s belt and his breastplate."
(Hughes, R. K. Ephesians: Preaching the Word. Wheaton, Ill.:
Crossway Books)
HOW DO WE "PUT ON THE FULL ARMOR"? One of the most
important ways is to hide God's Word in our heart (Ps119:9-11)
as if our very life depended upon it...because our spiritual
life does! As you read the dramatic illustration below ask
yourself if you have really acknowledged the reality of daily
spiritual warfare or whether you have drifted into apathy
and lethargy, and are no longer disciplining yourself for
godliness (1Tim4:7-8).
From
Our Daily Bread:
"Toward the close of World War II, Allied forces were mopping
up against remaining Nazi resistance. One particular unit was
assigned a crucial mission in Berlin. Each soldier had to
memorize a map detailing all of Berlin's important military
sites -- and they had to do it in a single night! In just a
few hours, each soldier in the unit had committed the map to
memory. The mission was a success. Several years later, the
Army conducted an experiment to see if that original feat
could be duplicated. They offered a similar unit an extra
week's furlough--an attractive incentive--if they could carry
out a comparable mission without a hitch. But the second unit
could not match the success of the first. What made the
difference? The lives of the men were not at stake.
Surviving in battle was a greater motivation than a week's
vacation. Christians are engaged in spiritual warfare (Eph
6:10-18). Our road map, our plan of strategy
against Satan's military strongholds, is the Bible. The more
we read it, the more of it we memorize, and the more
thoroughly we know it, the more effective we will be for God. We must approach God's Word as if our lives depended on
it--because they do. That's real motivation! "--HWR
Thy
Word is like an armory,
Where soldiers may repair,
And find, for life's long battle-day,
All needful weapons there. --Hodder
If your life
depended on knowing the Bible, how long would you last?
SO THAT
YOU WILL BE ABLE TO RESIST:hina dunethete (2PAPS) antistenai (AAN)
:
"Resist"
(436) (anthistemi
from anti = against +
histemi = stand) is used 15 times in the NT (Matthew;
Luke;
Acts
2x;
Romans
2x;Galatians;
Ephesians;2 Timothy
2x;
James;
1 Peter)
and in the NAS is translated cope, 1; has opposed, 1; oppose, 1;
opposed, 4; opposing, 1; resist, 5; resists, 2. The KJV also
translates anthistemi as "withstand".
Anthistemi
means literally to stand or set against. It
means to arrange in battle against and so pictures a face to
face confrontation. It means to set one's self against, to stand
firm against someone else's onset, to oppose ( place opposite or
against), to resist by actively opposing pressure or power, to
withstand (oppose with firm determination). It involves not only a
psychological attitude but also a corresponding behavior. It was
used to refer to an army arranging in battle against the enemy force
and so to array against.
“Resist”
means to defend oneself against the devil not to attack him. On the
other hand to cower before the devil is to invite sure defeat.
Effective resistance in faith to satanic attacks procures his
flight. Scripture teaches us to flee from various evils ("Flee
immorality...."
1Cor6:18; "flee from idolatry"
1Cor10:14; "flee from
these things [love of money], you man of God"
1Ti6:11; "flee from youthful
lusts"
2Ti2:22). The believer however is
never instructed to flee from the Devil but to stand
against him!
Grant Richison
writes that anthistemi...
"is a term of defense, not
offense. The Christian must build fortifications against the Devil.
The Christian is at war. We should establish bulwarks of faith
against our enemy. We resist by obeying the commands of verse eight.
We would do well to remember that we cannot fight the Devil in
ourselves." (Richison,
G: Today's Word)
The verb suggests vigorously opposing, bravely
resisting, standing face-to-face against an adversary, holding your
ground. Just as an antihistamines (derived from "anthistemi")
block or antagonize histamine,
anthistemi tells us that with the authority and
spiritual weapons granted to us we can stand against all evil forces. Note
carefully that Paul does not say for us to hunt down or to actively
pursue our spiritual enemies (don't worry...they will find us!), but
to remain steadfast & immovable girded in the full armor of God in
the face of persistent attack.
The Net Bible note
states that
"the term
anthistemi carries the idea of
resisting or opposing something or someone. In Eph 6:13, when used
in combination with stēnai ("stand firm") and in a
context of battle imagery, it seems to have the idea of resisting,
standing firm, and being able to stand your ground." (The NET
Bible Notes. Biblical Studies Press)
Note that in
spiritual warfare there is no middle ground, no
neutrality. To stand with the Lord is to stand against everything
sinful and worldly that formerly was appealing, corrupting, and
enslaving.
A Roman centurion,
according to Polybius, had to be the kind of man who could be relied