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?
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