Ephesians 6:13-14 - “Not the Swiss…?”

Ephesians 6:13-14 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH.

When you hear the word “swiss”, what comes to mind…? cheese, chard, miss, cake rolls, banks*, army knives*, chocolate* —> neutrality (The Swiss have not taken up arms since 1817)

As we saw last week, Paul is wrapping up this letter, and telling us that neutrality is NOT an option for the servants of the most high God.  [6.10-18]  We are to take up not just a pocket knife but the full armor of God, the panoply [google panoply and get a glimpse of what "full armor" looks like].  Because there is an enemy, an evil cunning and lying deceiver who, along with his spiritual minions [not Gru's cute yellow minions], is out to destroy the beautiful works of God.  And we must give him no quarter.  Our enemy is not our neighbor or any flesh and blood person - this is a spiritual struggle - and so we are looking at spiritual armor.  Spiritual weapons.  And we need this armor desperately, so that we will be enabled to stand firm against the schemes of diabolos, and resist in the evil day.  Well, guess what?  The days ARE evil [Paul already told us that in 5.16].  The battle is joined.  It’s on!  And the word “resist” means to oppose, to go against.  Which is why neutrality is NOT an option - AND why we need this armor.  So that you will be enabled to oppose, to go against the spiritual forces of evil - right now.  And Paul wrote this 2000 years ago.  Obviously it doesn’t appear as though evil is crashing furiously onto the shores of our individual lives every day - but all around us, every day, stories of evil are playing out.  Brokenness.  Man’s inhumanity to man.  All that is in opposition to the true knowledge of God, to the experience and celebration of His breathtaking goodness.  It’s not all bad.  But all we need to do is turn on the news.  Open up our news feed.  Brokenness.  And stories of evil.  Not to mention, this enemy, this diabolos, the accuser, the slanderer - his fiery arrows of deceit and temptation and discouragement can rain down at any time.  And we have a choice, we need to decide - is this my fight?  Sometimes we stand on the sidelines, maybe we think we can be like the Swiss.  Sometimes we’re tempted to just want to stick our head in the sand…

Let me say again that, in this struggle, there is no neutrality.  There is no “N” on the shift lever.  Lukewarm is not an option - not according to Jesus.  I would that you were cold or hot…!  All it takes for the triumph of evil is for what…?  Good people to stay neutral.

So notice that the main command, take up the full armor - which Paul is repeating, so he is emphatic about this - is in the aorist tense.  Which means a simple action.  The idea here is that you put it on once.  A simple action.  Not a repeated action per se - Paul is not saying, take up and put on the armor repeatedly, as in every day.  Altho I think there probably is some sense in which we do remind ourselves daily of these truths - but the aorist tense command means, do it once and for all.  The commands take up and put on the full armor, stand firm, and take/receive the helmet/sword are all aorist imperative.  Decide once and for all to take up the armor and put it on.  Take up arms in this battle, the battle of the ages.  Choose to stand firm, to go against these forces of evil.  And take the helmet and the sword.  Once and for all.  You and I need to come to this place where we shift our thinking, decide to get off the sideline.  We decide to get into the game.  Only this is no game.  The stakes could be no higher.  Life and death, eternity, and the glory of God.  Put me in, Lord.  Sign me up, Lord.

I do think it speaks into what we decide to do with our time.  With our days, the days of our lives.  With our vocation.  With our avocation.  With our lives.  Some of us are deciding what to do about that right now.  Or maybe we are re-deciding.  Make the most of your time, Paul says, because the days are evil.  Make the most of the time the Lord has entrusted to you and me.  Make the most of the life God gave you.  When I interned at Kodak back in the day, one rotation I was involved in the production of these instant cameras (which Kodak doesn't even make anymore).  And it hit me, do I want the outcome of my life to mostly be one of trying to make a better camera?  Or do I want my life to count for something more than that?

What is very interesting is the one present tense action Paul gives us down in verse 18.  After we suit up, that is how we fight.  That is what we proceed to do in the present, every day.  But first let’s get suited up.

So he says, take up this full armor [13] - once and for all - and having done everything - which means to work towards/work out.  This is about preparation and production.  Having done everything.  And having prepared, having done everything, then we can stand firm.  Firmly NOT moved away from Jesus, NOT moved away from one another.

So here’s this other caveat - Don’t expect to stand firm until you’ve done everything.  Following Jesus is not the time to bring it in weak.  This is no time for some half-baked, half-hearted, perfunctory effort.  There is no place for lukewarm following in the Christian life.  We must be prepared to go all the way in our devotion to the Lord AND one another.  It’s not how little can I do in order to get by.  Squeaking through those pearly gates with my fire insurance.  Having done everything, Paul says.  Making every effort.  And it’s a collective effort.  Remember, all these commands are plural.  Paul is writing to a group.  The church.  We are all in this together.  One body - remember?  Family.  We march out together, and we help one another.  We build one another up.  We watch each others backs.  We fight together - as we’ll see in v 18.  Together, we stand firm and go against the enemy.

But look where the suiting up starts - Loins girded with truth.  We don’t march out until we’ve done this, in other words.  Why do you think Paul starts here?  The image is that we’re taking that long tunic/robe, which would hang down to my ankles, and binding it up around me, around my waist area - which is around my guts, my vitals, and this makes me mobile.  This frees us up to move around.  Freedom.  And what Paul is saying is that, truth is freedom.  Truth is freedom.  I think we need to take off our shoes and squish around in this profundity for a bit.  Truth - is freedom.  Sadly, people often gaze at Christianity from the outside and assume that it is just a bunch of rules and regulations.  It’s about restrictions, not at all about freedom.  As a young skeptic, that’s what I thought.  I’ll have to give up the 10 things I most like to do, and start doing the 10 things I least like to do.  Or something like that.  No more fun.  No more enjoyment.  Because we equate freedom with this idea of NO restrictions.  

And truth can feel restrictive.  We have refined our senses to the place where we not only want no restrictions on what we do, we want no restrictions on what we believe.  We want things to be wide open, options open, choices out the wazoo.  Relative, so that we are free to believe whatever we want.  Because the very idea of "truth" feels restrictive.  And from a certain perspective, that’s right.  Truth implies only one way.  2+2 equals 4.  There is only one way to add that.  Truth implies error.  Falsehood - to come up with any other answer is to come up with something false.  But so, moderns in search of no restrictions are wont to try and dispense with this idea of absolute truth.

”One of the greatest difficulties is to keep before the audience’s mind the question of Truth. They always think you are recommending Christianity not because it is true, but because it is good. And in the discussion they will at every moment try to escape from the issue ‘True-or False’ into stuff about a good society, or morals, or incomes of Bishops, or the Spanish inquisition, or France, or Poland—or anything whatever. You have to keep forcing them back, and again back, to the real point. Only thus you will be able to undermine…their belief that a certain amount of ‘religion’ is desirable but one mustn’t carry it too far. One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.” -CS Lewis

Truth is absolute.  It does not change.  Talk about standing firm.  Today we’re in a battle for truth.  Truth is said to be relative.  There are no absolutes, it’s all relative.  Truth is different for every person.  ‘Well, that might be true for you - but it’s not true for me.’  In other words, truth becomes whatever I want.  Which is the same as saying there is no truth.  Truth devolves to whatever I want it to be, whatever suits me at the time, in the moment.  When everyone does what is right in their own eyes, the result is not freedom.  It is anarchy.  Lives being built on foundations of sand.  Chaos.  Confusion.  But the world doesn't really work that way - even relativists appeal to an absolute moral truth.  Do whatever you want, just don’t hurt anyone.  Well says who?  And this relativism is untenable - I can’t even insist that there is no absolute truth without insisting on an absolute truth.  "There is no absolute truth" - well, is that absolutely true?  It is logically self-defeating.  And this is not even something unique to our day and age.  Paul wrote to the church in Rome about this:

Romans 1:18   For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

Romans 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Romans 2:8 …To those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.

The reason I don’t want to hear about truth - is because my heart is not right with God.  And then I try to redefine it.  I will swap it out for a lie, or even a half-truth - whatever it takes to further my agenda.  Which is, to put ME first.  Man first.  And it then becomes a religion - we all must obey the lie, bow down to the lie, this worldview and this lifestyle which is in error, not right, where I perpetuate a lifestyle and a mindset that is not right with God.  Not how He designed it.  Where God is not first.  Or where He simply is not.  To exacerbate it all, the enemy, diabolos - he is the father of lies, a liar from the beginning.  Opposing the truth.  And so we have this ongoing age-old battle for the truth, questioning God, questioning truth, questioning His Word.  "Did God really say...?"

Our founding fathers wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with the inalienable right to liberty…”  Freedom.  Well, truth and freedom go hand in hand.  Truth IS freedom, liberty.  This liberty we so desire - Jesus said, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.  Not from some king.  Free from uncertainty.  From shame and guilt.  From fear.  Free from error.

[Consider freedom and skydiving - this plays out at different levels.  If you wanted to be free of classes, you would not gain the freedom of the ability to skydive.  If you drove freely/recklessly on your way to airport, you could very well lose the freedom of getting to enjoy the opportunity to skydive.  If you give in to fear in the plane on the way up, you would forfeit the freedom of to pursue your greater desire.  If you jump out of plane w/o checking your parachute, you could very well lose your freedom from destruction/error.]  And that’s the thing about life.  Until you get it right, make sure of the truth, gird your loins, there is always this nagging sense of worry.   Morpheus said it in the Matrix: "What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad."

A splinter in your mind.  This sense of doubt.  Uncertainty.  Did I pack my parachute right?  Did I turn off the oven?  We can medicate it or push it down or try to ignore it, but the unanswered question allows doubt and worry to linger.  Truth then is the anchor for our soul - without it we are just adrift on the seas of life, tossed here and there by the waves.  The truth will set you free.  What is truth?, Pilate asked Jesus.  And He says, “I AM the Truth.  How happy is the one who has no doubts about Me…!”  And if the Son sets you free, you will be really free [Jn 8.36]  Jesus is the one true anchor for our soul.  This - He - then becomes our starting point.  My freedom, my mobility in life - AND my ability to shift out of spiritual neutral, to NOT wind up like the Swiss - begins with the truth I’ve wrapped around my loins.  The truth about Jesus, the Truth that IS Jesus.  Do you know Him?  

Ephesians 6.10-14a - The Nature of Power

Ephesians 6:10   Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore…

[Maybe you've seen the raw power in that video where the lions take on some cape buffalo?]  Well, at this point in the letter to the Ephesians, finally, Paul is wrapping things up.  Finally, he says, be empowered in the Lord.  By the Lord, the King of the universe!  Why is this important?  Well, all these things Paul has been talking about for the past three chapters, guarding the oneness, and building up one another, laying aside the old self and all bitterness and wrath and impurity, truthing in love and speaking no rotten words and being kind to one another, ranking ourselves under one another, flowing our wants together with what the Lord wants - all of this and more - it is all humanly impossible.  It is not only entirely unfathomable but unachievable - in our own strength.  We cannot hope to achieve any of it without God’s supernatural power.  Without the help, the power of His indwelling Holy Spirit.  It is to your advantage that I go away, Jesus said - because then I’ll send the Helper, and He will not only be with you - He will be IN you!

So, power.  Paul uses three different Greek words for power here.  And there are so many ways to describe the power of our Almighty Omnipotent God.  How much power are we talking here?  Limitless!  [The power that sustains a billion billion stars!]  Be empowered by the Lord, Paul says, and in the strength of His might.  [recall Eph. 1.19]  I ask the Lord to enlighten the eyes of your heart, so that you will know and understand how surpassingly great His power is toward us who believe.  Limitless!  Unfathomable!  whatever "this" is, THIS is not too difficult for the Lord.  Nothing is impossible for the Lord.  His is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.  And who can do that?  Who can bring something dead back to life?  Who can create life out of dust?  Out of nothing?  Science has yet to even whiff at that.  Sure they have created chains of amino acids in test tubes, but the miracle of life - even the tiniest single-celled creature - what kind of wherewithal is required for that spark of life?  You bring me that tiny creature, and I squash it in front of you - what kind of power does it take to bring that creature back to life?  Other-worldly, unfathomable power, that’s what kind.  This is the same power which is at work in us - and through us!

Power - Jesus said apart from Me there is nothing you can do [Jn 15.5].  But all things are possible to those who believe!  And Paul says, be strong.  Be presently, constantly, daily, ongoingly empowered by the Lord, by the strength of His might.  Again, how strong is the Lord?  How much power does He have?  Is anything too difficult for Him?  Is there any situation, is there anything even the worst enemy could throw at you, that He can’t handle?  God’s power is perfected in weakness, don’t you know… [2Cor 12.9]  You feel weak?  Now you’re ready!

And may I add that the world is DYING to see this power unleashed through God’s people.  They don’t need a new creed or a clever mission statement.  They sure don’t need fancy buildings or slick programs.  They don’t need to see how happy we can be when everything’s going our way, when we’ve got everything handled, when we have lots of stuff.  I’d like to suggest that the greatest power in the world - is love.  Especially when it's unleashed in the face of difficulty.  I have loved you with an everlasting love, He says.  Before the world began, I loved you.  Abounding in lovingkindness, He says.  I have wonderful plans for you.  The unfathomable power of enduring love.  

Lamentations 3.22-23  The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

Isn’t this what Paul told the Corinthians?  You can have all the spiritual gifts in the world, but without love, you got nothing.  You can have all the wealth in the world, but without love, you’re truly bankrupt.  Love is the power to turn the other cheek.  Power to forgive.  Power to love my enemies and pray for those who persecute me and to bless the nations.  Power to stand firm - not moved away from the Gospel and not moved away from one another.  Power to love one another.  Power to love my spouse.  And my kids.  And my neighbor.  And the Lord with all my heart.  What kind of power does that require?  It’s not in our nature.  God, fill me with Your Spirit, with Your power, with Your love.  We do not have because we do not ask.  We must come to the end of ourselves - as Paul said, God’s power is perfected in us when we are powerless…

And here’s what Paul tells us next.  God’s power positions us to Stand firm - to stay in place, like a stake in the ground.  Immovable.  He says it three times in this section.  Tap into God’s limitless power so that you can stand firm.  Standing firm doesn’t mean we’re not moving forward, not seeing forward progress of the Gospel in our lives and in our world.  But we are staying put.  God’s power empowers us to stay in place, like a stake.  We’re NOT moving away from one another.  Like Samwise Gamgee - I’m not leaving you, Mr Frodo.  We’re continuing to guard the oneness.  We’re loving one another, encouraging and building one another up.  And we’re definitely not moving away from the Lord.  Peter says our adversary is like a prowling lion [1Pet 5.8].  What do lions like to do?  How do they hunt their prey?  Lions don’t attack a healthy herd, certainly not the whole herd.  What do they do?  They target those who are weaker or smaller, and try to isolate them from the herd. 

Stand firm, he says.  And where am I standing?  Right next to you.  Right next to my brother.  Again, as Americans we default to the singular.  We think it’s all about me-myself-and-I keeping my own spiritual act together, just trying to survive the arrows and the schemes that are thrown at me.  But these commands are all plural.  Yes, Paul is writing to a group - but that’s entirely the point.  That’s what he’s been saying to these believers for the past three chapters.  You are a family.  You are one body.  And I implore you, I beg you, make every effort to guard the oneness.  Be standing firm - side-by-side.  Because not only is life full of brokenness, broken people, not only is the body full of broken messy people, but there is an enemy.  And here’s the thing - you are not my enemy.  We are not wrestling against flesh and blood, Paul says.  My enemy is NOT the person next to me.  My enemy is not the one sitting across from me.  If you’re married, you are not sleeping with the enemy.  Our real enemy is not any person.  There is... another.  

Diabolos, Paul calls him.  Our English word ‘devil’ derives from this.  The Greek word means, to throw across.  One who throws across.  Slanderer.  Throwing accusations.  Throwing lies and deceptions.  Talk about rotten words - diabolos deals them out in spades.  We are most like the devil when we are handing out rotten words - words about people, words that tear down.  Which is why we need to be strong in God’s mighty power, and put on His full armor, so that we can stand firm against the rotten words and against the schemes of diabolos.  That word gives us our English word, methods.  Methods.

I’d like us to consider for a moment the methods of diabolos, based on what we’ve been learning - what does he try to do?  He tries to:

split up the body [4.3] AND split up families [5.31]

puff up the members [4.2] and shut down the ranking-under [5.21]

get us operating in our own strength [6.10, 5.18]

get us pursuing what we want/not inquiring of the Lord [5.10,17]

get us to waste our time and our lives on ourselves [5.15-16]

pursue sensuality [4.19] at the expense of spirituality [4.22-23]

dumb down and doubt and dispense with God’s Word [4.14-18, 24]

shut down serving [4.12]

tolerate filth (including our words) and cultivate ingratitude [5.3-4]

tear down and not build up [4.29]

cultivate unforgiveness and hiding [4.25]

keep us out of community [4.2,16, 25, 5.2]

keep us from praying [6.18] - on the defensive!

keep us from times of reverence [6.5,9], times of celebration [5.19]

In essence, he is scheming to move us away from Jesus - away from the truth and away from one another.  But greater is He Who is in you than he who is in the world!  We do not need to be moved one inch by any of his methods.  That is the whole point of what Paul is saying here.  Stand firm!

There’s one other method he tries.  Back in [4.27], Paul said do not give diabolos an opportunity…!  No space.  No foothold!  Not even a toehold!  When we allow ANY of these things space in our lives, we are giving a foothold to the enemy. [Like back on Dday, when the Allies were trying to get a foothold on the beaches of Normandy?]  For us today, the enemy is liable to try to get a foothold at a time and in a place that you DON'T expect… So Paul is saying, don’t give him any room to maneuver.  Don’t let him move you even an inch.  He’s probably not going to drop a huge bomb in your life - it’s going to be subtle.  Deceptive.  A little bit here.  A baby step of compromise there.  [which is how you boil a frog, right?]

But we’re not just holding ground.  The word resist here actually means, we are going on the offensive.  We are actively taking ground.  We are opposing - “so that you will be empowered/enabled to oppose/go on the offensive in the evil day.”

2Timothy 3:8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.

2Timothy 4:15 Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching.

James 4:7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

1Peter 5:9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

Go on the offensive, Paul says.  The best defense is usually a good offense.  Not just any offense.  Not reckless offense per se.  But we go on God-guided offensive [which is generally how you win at chess - on the offensive, but not recklessly so].  What does this look like in the Christian life?  Well, it’s tied to suiting up for battle, putting on this full armor of God.  We are wrestling against things we can’t see or touch - and so the weapons of our warfare are designed for this battle which is rather invisible.  We’ll look at this next time.  For now, we’re talking about resolve. Our calling is not to simply circle the wagons.  We’re not holing ourselves up in our Christian bunker, hoping we can make it to the end.  We are advancing and taking ground for the kingdom.  Every nation.  All the families of the earth!

In battle, used to be you would raise a red flag.  At least that what some did.  Red flag - anyone know what that means?  Anymore, that means something different.  [red flags = danger, stop the race, stop the game, get out of the water; or a communist flag]  But not for Pirates!  Time was, raising a red flag signaled the intent to give “no quarter” (red being the color of blood).  To give an enemy no quarter meant to show them no mercy.  Their blood was going to be spilled.  It meant to you were not going to provide food or housing (no quarters) for the enemy.  No quarters for them.  Take no prisoners.   Remember the Alamo?  Santa Anna famously raised a red flag at the beginning of that siege [anybody know what date that was - Feb 23, 1836].  (“No quarter” was actually outlawed by the Hague Convention of 1907 - such that now all white flags [i.e. of surrender] are supposed to be honored.)  White not red.

What we understand as believers is, that on the spiritual battlefield, things are different.  No white flags - only red ones!  No quarter!  That’s what Paul is saying here.  No surrender - and no quarter!  Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power!  This is not too difficult for the Lord!

Close the door, put out the light

You know they won't be home tonight

The snow falls hard and don't you know

The winds of thor are blowing cold

They're wearing steel that's bright and true

They carry news that must get through

They choose the path where no one goes

They hold no quarter, they hold no quarter

Walking side by side with death

The devil mocks their every step

The snow drives back the foot that's slow

The dogs of doom are howling more

They carry news that must get through

To build a dream for me and you