Year 5, Day 147: Ephesians 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Ephesians 6 contains one of the iconic passages.  Ephesians 6:10-20 speaks about putting on the full armor of God.  But here’s the thing.  There are two reasons for putting on protection: either you are going on the offense or you are getting ready to go on the defense against an attack for an enemy.

Take a close look at verse 10.  What’s the point of God’s armor?  It allows us to stand against the schemes of the devil.  This is not a passage about offense.  This is a passage about defense.  This is a passage about resisting the pull of Satan through the world.  This passage is about being able to protect ourselves against the attack that will come.

As Paul says, we do not wrestle with flesh and blood.  We wrestle with the powers and principalities of this world.  We wrestle against the cosmic power.  We wrestle against spiritual forces of evil.  We wrestle against this present darkness.

What’s the point of our protection?  It gives us an opportunity to speak about the Gospel.  When we are able to stand, we are able to speak about God and His ways.  That’s the point.  We don’t put on the armor of God to go into the world and beat up the world for God’s sake.  We put on the armor of God so that we can withstand the assault of the enemy and having withstood it we can proclaim the Gospel to those who see us withstand evil and who desire to learn from it.

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