Strength for Our Spiritual Struggle
Ephesians 6:10-13
The end of Paul’s letter resembles a locker room pep talk before a football team plays their crosstown rival. After teaching the key concepts about our relationship with Christ and explaining how these spiritual truths should play out at church, home, and work, Paul says, “Finally” (Eph 6:10). No more x’s and o’s. It’s time to talk about the underlying mindset and motivation that pulls it all together for the win, so here’s what he says.
Get your spiritual strength from the Lord.
“Be strong” refers to an inner ability to face an external challenge. This sounds like how God told Joshua to “be strong and courageous” when he led the nation of Israel into battle against the powerful foes and fortified cities of Canaan (Josh 1:6, 7, 8, 18). Whether we know it or not, we’re up against a similar battle every day of our lives.
This command is different, though, because it doesn’t tell us to strengthen ourselves but rather to receive our inner strength from the Lord. That’s why we should pray for one another “to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man” (Eph 3:16).
“In the power of his might” assures us that the spiritual strength we receive from the Lord is indeed powerful and mighty, not imaginary or theoretical. It is real spiritual power from Christ that’s able to overcome the spiritual forces that fight against us.
Personal willpower, discipline, and determination are important qualities to have, but these alone are no match for the powerful opposition we face. More than any of these qualities, we need to draw our spiritual strength from the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be energized and empowered by him in order to succeed as believers and as a church.
Use all the spiritual resources God has given you.
“Put on the whole (complete) armor of God” (Eph 3:17) tells us more about how to prepare for the spiritual struggle we face. Remember when King Saul put his full set of armor on David as David prepared to fight Goliath (1 Sam 17:38)? This helps us visualize in what Paul has in mind.
Our scenario is different, though, because David wasn’t able to use Saul’s armor effectively. Our spiritual armor is given to us by God and is exactly what we need to combat our spiritual opponent and win.
Our scenario is different in another way, too, because our armor is spiritual not physical. Paul describes this armor in detail (Eph 6:14-17). It includes truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the Word of God.
As you can tell, these are resources (or armor) that we appropriate with our minds. They’re not some special incantations, mantras, methods, or spells. They’re spiritual truths that we must fix our minds upon and put into practice.
We’ll talk more about these spiritual resources in the next study, but here’s the question we need to ask first: “Why is this armor so crucial?”
Our adversary makes strategic plans to defeat us.
Without this full suite of spiritual armor, we’ll be overpowered by our opponent. Since we’re children of God, however, he intends for us to succeed, “to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Eph 6:11). That’s what this armor enables us to do, but without it we will fail.
To “stand” (or withstand) is not a defensive-only posture in which our only goal is to push back and stand still, like a defensive line that guards the endzone. “To withstand” also features an offensive approach in which we make forward progress in doing God’s will, reaching nonbelievers and building up believers despite the opposition we face.
The opposition we face is both a personal opponent and a sophisticated strategy. The opponent is the devil. He’s our ultimate adversary, nemesis, and archrival. Since we’re children of God, he fights against just as he’s fought against God from the beginning.
To defeat our spiritual progress and disrupt our relationship with God, he prepares “wiles,” a series of well-planned attacks. Just as he slithered into the Garden of Eden to lure Adam and Eve into sinning against God, so he finds equally sophisticated ways to defeat us,. Like a football coach designs plays that capitalize on the weaknesses of his opponent, so Satan makes plans that target our weaknesses and catch us off guard.
How does this happen? Sometimes through the influence and message of false, deceptive teachers who devise clever methods for luring believers away from Christ and the church (Eph 4:14). Without the spiritual resources and strength that God provides, we’re all susceptible to these attacks. But why are the devil’s attacks so dangerous?
We face an invisible, supernatural foe.
“Because we do not wrestle against flesh and blood” (Eph 6:12). Paul combines military imagery (fighting a battle with armor) with athletic imagery (“wrestling in the Olympics”). The intensity of hand-to-hand grappling shows that the Christian life is not a casual game or leisurely stroll. It’s an ongoing, intense struggle against evil strategies and opponents.
The devil’s attacks are so insidious and intense because they’re invisible (“not against flesh and blood”). As human beings, the idea of invisibility fascinates us. We’re not content to read about a cloak of invisibility or a ring that makes the one who wears it disappear, we want to invent a cloak of invisibility for ourselves, especially for our military.
Imagine what it would be like to play a football game against a menacing defensive line of men who are 6 ft. 10 in. tall weighing 300 lbs. each, but worst of all, they’re invisible. How would you play against an invisible team? That’s what we’re up against as Christians.
Though the struggles we face may be the result of other people (things they say, do, and decide) or the temptations we feel in our bodies, they are not our only or ultimate enemies. These material, personal, and sensory factors are real, but we’re up against an invisible foe who cleverly exploits our circumstances, feelings, and relationships to his advantage.
Though Paul has already identified our adversary as the devil, he wants us to know that the devil is not a lone wolf. He doesn’t operate alone but deploys a variety of spiritual beings to carry out his strategies against us. They make it feel like Satan’s everywhere.
Paul describes these beings with a series of four words:
- Rulers (“principalities”) and authorities (“powers”) which are common, New Testament descriptions for demonic beings, fallen angels who joined Satan’s rebellion against God with Satan near the dawn of time.
- Rulers of the darkness of this age most likely refers to demonic beings who stand behind or “empower” the idols and false gods worshiped by nonbelievers. Though these gods are not real, demonic beings often project themselves through these manmade images and characters.
- Spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places is a general “catch all” phrase that refers to all kinds of evil, demonic beings whether the previous three titles included them or not.
Though we don’t know much about the world of fallen angels, we know that they are numerous, powerful, and wicked. They’re guided by Satan to defeat and oppose our spiritual progress, so that’s why we need to rely upon Christ for spiritual strength.
We need all the spiritual resources God provides.
Since we’re up against such an elusive and overpowering foe, we need every spiritual resource God provides in order to defend ourselves and advance Christ’s cause against the onslaughts of our enemy.
We know this is an especially important point to make because though Paul has already said this (Eph 6:11), he repeats is rapidly here (Eph 6:13) and will expand on what all these resources include in the verses that follow (Eph 6:14-17).
Yet before Paul provides a detailed description of the spiritual resources God gives us, he gives a strong reason for activating all of them in our spiritual arsenal. “That you may be able to withstand in the evil day” (Eph 6:13).
“The evil day” may refer to times of extraordinary difficulty and struggle, like the “violent temptations”[1] that flare up in our lives from time to time. Do you know what it’s like for life to be going long as usual and then, boom, a difficult or deceptive temptation or trial comes out of nowhere? Let’s admit though, too, that every day is real spiritual struggle!
The reason we have such daily and extraordinary struggles is that we’re living in an era when satanic spirits continue to be active and on the attack. This day or period of time will end when Christ extends his victory over sin and death, hell and Satan to the terrestrial realm and banishes all evil from the Earth, but until then we need to rely upon all the spiritual resources God provides to move the church forward for his glory.
Don’t wait until you’re assaulted to prepare.
“And having done all, to stand” (Eph 6:13). “Having done all” means once we’ve taken all necessary precautions ahead of time. It means we shouldn’t march into our daily lives unprepared, without having first embraced in our hearts and minds the truths and spiritual resources God provides through Christ by the Spirit.
By repeating “to stand,” Paul ensures we doubly understand that though we can’t succeed against Satan’s well-planned attack without the strength and resources God provides, to stand and make progress is our responsibility. We must choose to meditate on these spiritual truths and to apply them in our lives. We must work fight together with God in the spiritual battle, relying on him alone for our strength and putting his truth into action.
After hearing this urgent message from Paul, we have to ask ourselves a question:
Are you taking the spiritual struggle seriously?
Are you going about our daily lives as though we’re in a real spiritual battle? Are you alert to possible deception and aware of our potential weaknesses? Do you step into your day like it’s the game of the year or a walk in the park? Do you live as though you’re in a wrestling match, or do you plow mindlessly through the day, doing tasks and interacting with people, oblivious that we’re in the crosshairs of an enemy who wants to destroy you?
Envision two scenarios in your mind:
- First, envision a group of college students hanging out at Coney Island. They’re wandering aimlessly from one ride to another, engaging in random conversations, laughing about everything, and buying food and drinks along the way.
- Second, envision a woman sitting at a chessboard plotting her next move. She’s playing for the state championship with $10,000 to win, but she’s playing against a man whose won the state championship three years in a row before now.
Which scenario best illustrates the kind of spiritual mindset we should have from day to day? The mindless activity of the students at the fair or the thoughtful, deliberate moves of the woman at the chessboard?
We should be thoughtful and observant like the woman at the chessboard because our enemy is both invisible, powerful, and intent on destroying our spiritual lives. If we take a “let’s see what happens” approach, we know what will happen. We’ll be defeated.
Depend on the Lord daily for your strength to stand.
When the devil attacks you at a point of weakness – whether through temptations to sin, the hurtful words of another person, or the lies of false teaching – how will you respond?
- Will you give in to the temptation because the pull to sin feels overpowering?
- Will you lash out with hurtful word of your own or give in to feelings of depression?
- Will you Google the web and isolate yourself from the believers at church when you hear some new and unusual twist on Scripture?
Or will you depend on the Lord for the strength to withstand these attacks from the enemy? Will you respond with countermoves which show that you prepared for such a moment and are relying on the spiritual resources that God provides?
More importantly, how will you prepare for these moments? Here’s a good approach that applies what Paul teaches in this passage:
- Pause at the beginning of your day to remind yourself of the Lord’s strength and spiritual provisions and to request his help through prayer.
- Then “check on yourself” throughout the day, asking, “How am I doing?” and renew your commitment to rely upon the Lord through prayer.
This simple approach provides you with a regular, personal opportunity be strengthened by the Lord and to arm yourself with the spiritual resources he provides us so that when the devil launches an attack our way, we’re prepared to stand.
[1] Ellicott, Ephesians, 645
