Third Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Ephesians 6:10-20

Ephesians 6:10-20

More General Comments: Keys to Understanding This Passage and Ephesians
Last weekend, I talked about how the writer of Ephesians--traditionally thought to be the apostle Paul--contrasted the old life from which the Gentiles in Ephesus had been called with the new life they enjoyed and could build on through Jesus Christ. There, Paul contrasted light with dark, as well as wisdom with foolishness and drunkenness on the self-driven path with being filled with God's Holy Spirit, encouraging the Ephesian Christians--and we post-modern Christians--to fill the holes in our souls with the power and goodness of Jesus Christ.

In the lesson for this weekend, the writer says that our primary battle in life isn't with members of the Body of Christ with whom we may sometimes disagree or with the wider world living in "evil days." Our primary enemy is the devil and the other fallen angels under his direction.

Now, stop that...I saw that...Your eyes were glazing over. Ephesians is serious when it talks about the devil. And so am I.

I know that there's skepticism about the existence of the devil or, as he's also called, Satan, even among those who believe in God and claim the Bible as the authoritative Word of God.

But the Bible doesn't share that skepticism. (Nor do I!) At another place in the New Testament, we're told: "Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour" (First Peter 5:8).

But how do we stand against a spiritual enemy we can't see?

The Christian believer who wants to remain faithful to Christ and rooted in "the strength of His power" (Ephesians 6:10) faces an even more difficult prospect than those who face guerilla fighters.

Though the guerilla doesn't wear a uniform and is able to blend into the populace to do his worst, he is a flesh and blood human being. He can be seen.

And, unlike the demons of hell, the guerilla can't enter the spiritual vacuums in minds and wills that we can create for the devil and his fallen angels to enter. (See Ephesians 4:27)

The death to which demonic adversaries can lure us is even worse than the death that a guerilla fighter or insurgent can infringe on someone; the death to which the demon can lure us is one into which we walk willingly. The devil entices us into the spiritual suicide that happens when we walk away from the God we know in Jesus Christ, the way, and the truth, and the life.

The difficulty in facing such an enemy is identified in our Bible lesson for this weekend:

For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

In my next pass, I really do hope to look at this weekend's lesson verse-by-verse, where we're told how we can resist evil and let God's goodness and power have priority in our lives.