Ephesians 6:13 - Prepare for war

"Because of this, take up the full armor of God, in order that you should be powered to stand against in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to stand.’

-Because you are engaged in a desperate spiritual battle, do-or-die, where the stakes are eternal, life and death literally on the line with unimaginable consequences, you (and I) need this armor, we all need to take it up and put it on, right now, once and for all, because we need to be standing firm, like a stake.  standing against whatever evil comes our way.  Paul actually talks quite a bit about being steadfast in the faith.  Steadfast, firmly established, immovable, long-suffering (1Corinthians 15.58; Colossians 1.11, 1.23; 1Thessalonians 1.3; 2Thessalonians 3.5).  The language here and elsewhere makes ours sound very much like a defensive posture (defense wins championships!), a goal of withstanding and bearing up against the onslaught of evil.  While that is not entirely our situation, we do want to be standing firm and not moving even a fraction of an inch away from Jesus, from trusting and hoping in Him. and again, that which enables and empowers us to be able to stand firm in this grave battle against the rulers of darkness is the full armor of God.  We’re not talking about some walk in the park.  No leisurely bike ride, this.  We’re not merely donning some safety helmet.  This is war, full-out spiritual battle.  Make no mistake - we ride out - every day - into the valley of the shadow of death, against a cunning, determined enemy.  We don’t necessarily hear the bullets, or the screams and moans of the wounded and dying, though they are all around us.  Sometimes we see the bruises, the frowns on their faces.  Most likely we see pain and brokenness spilling out into someone else’s streets on some news channel or social media.  But rest assured, the battle is real, and the closer we endeavor to follow Jesus, the more we will find ourselves on the front lines.

-And so Paul says we must prepare everything.  Everything.  Not one detail can be missed.  Because the goal in battle isn’t to only get hit a little bit.  It is to not get hit at all.  Zero bullets.  Zero casualties.  It is said that the soldier who stops getting better stops being good.  There’s a darn good reason why every new US army recruit goes thru a full ten weeks of intense combat training - boot camp - with weeks and even months of advanced infantry training to follow.  War is serious business.  Prepare everything.  Don’t forget even a single item, not one piece of that armor.  Prepare as best you can, and strive to be the best soldier of Christ Jesus that you can be (2Timothy 2.3-4), so that you can fight the good fight (1Timothy 1.18, 6.12; 2Timothy 4.7).