In his Epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul writes,
11. Put on the whole armor 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. 13. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15. and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; 16. besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. 17. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:11-17 [RSV])
For the longest time I thought all of what we just read above were original words from the pen of Paul. But then I ran across the following from the hand of Isaiah in my daily Bible reading:
16. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intervene; then His own arm brought Him victory, and His righteousness upheld Him. 17. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself in fury as a mantle. (Isaiah 59:16-17 [RSV])
It really struck me what Paul is teaching us in his letter to the church of Ephesus when I saw the words of Isaiah. Paul is teaching us to be clothed in Christ entirely, for He is the One Who will do our battles for us. Isaiah is speaking of God, and only God is worthy to stand against evil and prevail for only God is completely righteous. Just as only God could intervene for justice in Isaiah, only Jesus was worthy to open the scroll in Revelation:
“Weep not; lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals” (Revelation 5:5 [RSV]). You see, the God of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ of the New Covenant. They are One and the same.
Paul refers to the whole armor, the panoply, of God. He then tells us what the armor is for: “that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil.” So the armor is for us to take a stand in our battle against Satan and his minions. It is not to be used against mankind for as Paul states, “we are not contending against flesh and blood.”
Next, Paul briefs us on just who our enemy is and against whom we are to stand:
“against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” “Principalities,” “powers,” “world rulers of this present darkness” and “spiritual hosts of wickedness” do not refer to human opponents, but to servants of Satan in the spiritual realm. Paul is laying out the hierarchy of the Devil and all his lower level Devils and Demons. From his perspective, Satan is, as Paul rightly points out, “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4 [RSV]), “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2 [RSV]). Remember, Paul wrote these words to established groups of Christians in the first century. The reality of the supernatural was beyond question in the mind of the Holy Spirit inspired Apostle Paul. But we in the church today have allowed ourselves to be so influenced by rationalistic thought that we discard and mock any who propose that evil and supernatural beings are authentic and active. If we are not careful we will soon follow many in Christendom who deny anything miraculous, which means we will eventually have to deny the existence of God as well. But the Apostle Paul truly believed and taught that Satan is real and that he has a pecking order of intelligent princes and underlings to do his bidding to oppress those who are disciples of Jesus Christ: “And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated” (2 Corinthians 12:7 [RSV]. The word translated in this verse as “messenger” is also translated as “Angel” other times in the Gospels and the New Testament. Paul very likely may have been referring to a literal Fallen Angel here that was his “thorn…in the flesh.”
It is Satan’s servants who are the source of bad influence, chronic depression, oppression, obsession and possession that afflict so many in the body of Christ, for these are all opposed to what God wants for His children: joy and peace. It is long past time that we embraced this belief system espoused by the Apostle Paul, too.
11. Put on the whole armor 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. 13. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15. and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; 16. besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. 17. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:11-17 [RSV])
For the longest time I thought all of what we just read above were original words from the pen of Paul. But then I ran across the following from the hand of Isaiah in my daily Bible reading:
16. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intervene; then His own arm brought Him victory, and His righteousness upheld Him. 17. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself in fury as a mantle. (Isaiah 59:16-17 [RSV])
It really struck me what Paul is teaching us in his letter to the church of Ephesus when I saw the words of Isaiah. Paul is teaching us to be clothed in Christ entirely, for He is the One Who will do our battles for us. Isaiah is speaking of God, and only God is worthy to stand against evil and prevail for only God is completely righteous. Just as only God could intervene for justice in Isaiah, only Jesus was worthy to open the scroll in Revelation:
“Weep not; lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals” (Revelation 5:5 [RSV]). You see, the God of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ of the New Covenant. They are One and the same.
Paul refers to the whole armor, the panoply, of God. He then tells us what the armor is for: “that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil.” So the armor is for us to take a stand in our battle against Satan and his minions. It is not to be used against mankind for as Paul states, “we are not contending against flesh and blood.”
Next, Paul briefs us on just who our enemy is and against whom we are to stand:
“against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” “Principalities,” “powers,” “world rulers of this present darkness” and “spiritual hosts of wickedness” do not refer to human opponents, but to servants of Satan in the spiritual realm. Paul is laying out the hierarchy of the Devil and all his lower level Devils and Demons. From his perspective, Satan is, as Paul rightly points out, “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4 [RSV]), “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2 [RSV]). Remember, Paul wrote these words to established groups of Christians in the first century. The reality of the supernatural was beyond question in the mind of the Holy Spirit inspired Apostle Paul. But we in the church today have allowed ourselves to be so influenced by rationalistic thought that we discard and mock any who propose that evil and supernatural beings are authentic and active. If we are not careful we will soon follow many in Christendom who deny anything miraculous, which means we will eventually have to deny the existence of God as well. But the Apostle Paul truly believed and taught that Satan is real and that he has a pecking order of intelligent princes and underlings to do his bidding to oppress those who are disciples of Jesus Christ: “And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated” (2 Corinthians 12:7 [RSV]. The word translated in this verse as “messenger” is also translated as “Angel” other times in the Gospels and the New Testament. Paul very likely may have been referring to a literal Fallen Angel here that was his “thorn…in the flesh.”
It is Satan’s servants who are the source of bad influence, chronic depression, oppression, obsession and possession that afflict so many in the body of Christ, for these are all opposed to what God wants for His children: joy and peace. It is long past time that we embraced this belief system espoused by the Apostle Paul, too.
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