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EPHESIANS - Be Filled With The Spirit
Meditations, Reflections, Prayer and Questions over the Epistel to the Ephesians

Part 3 - An Introduction into the ethics of the apostle (Ephesians 4:1 – 6:20)

A brief digression: The whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18)


Ephesians 6:10-13
6:10 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”
(Eph. 6:10-11).

In translating the New Testament into German in the Wartburg castle in Eisenach, Dr. Martin Luther is supposed to have thrown the full ink-well at Satan, who had cunningly appeared to him. It may well have gone similarly for the Apostle Paul, in his imprisonment in Rome, who at the end of his valuable letter cried out to the saints in Ephesus to take up the power of almighty God against the clever attacks of the evil one.

Be strong in the Lord (Eph. 6:10-11)

The captive apostle did not say: Pay attention, exercise your bodies, your souls and your spirits, so that you can become strong through your regular training and then be able to overcome the strength and cunning of Satan. No, for no one can gain a victory in this battle with his own strength and intelligence. Just the opposite is true; the one who is primary evil will instead employ the limited earthly capacity of the well-minded warrior to bring about a fall that will end in his shame and disgrace.

The apostle inculcated into the faithful in Christ that He alone, the Lord Jesus, had the power and the wisdom to overcome the primary enemy of God. Therefore, he wrote to them: Be strong in the Lord and in the “mighty power of His indwelling might!” We need to meditate more over the texts of the Bible that describe the strength of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. We can then implore this power of the Lord for us and for our service. Through faith its potential can be realized and carried out in the name of Jesus. However, this being armed with the power of God is tied together to the crushing of our own honor, as well as the laying off of the innate piety in the boastful. No one should reach the conclusion he possesses the right to fight against the devil just using the Bible. As long as there is still a hidden sin in his heart, pumping its poison throughout his body, he will come no further in this battle. Johannes Seitz is reported to have said to a friend something like: If together we are to solve an evil, intricate problem, through our prayers and faith, then first prove your own self. If you find a wrong in your life that has not been dealt with, correct it immediately. Confess your transgressions to the Lord Jesus, so that He can forgive you your sins, and so that the evil enemy will have no power over you.

The Lord Jesus called us, incapable and unworthy as we are, to follow Him, to remain with Him, to rest in Him and to fight with Him. Then we will be able to recognize the victory of His love, and to testify that He alone is the Victor. Do you know the song-verse of Martin Luther by heart? Have you experienced its reality?

Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing, Were not the right Man on our side, The man of God´s own choosing, Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is He, Lord Sabaoth His name, From age to age the same, And He must win the battle.

Paul further commands: “Be strong in the Lord!” He is your firm fortress, your air-raid shelter, your radiation shield and your experienced, fully authorized escort. With Him and in Him alone will you gain the victory. We must learn to listen to Him, to not do more or less than what He tells us, to believe His word and to trust Him, even when now and then there are some shabby defeats. Don´t look at all the negative developments and at your own failure, but look to the Lord! He does more than we ask or think. Christ is the almighty Victor!

Whoever remains weak and lowly will experience that the Lord is his strength. Unto Jesus alone has all authority in heaven and on earth been given (Math. 28:19). He has sent His Holy Spirit into all the nations, endowed with His power and wisdom (Rev. 5:7). Whoever stands on His side, stands on the side of the Victor. In the event you are weak in body and in soul, learn the assurance of Jesus for Paul by heart, who besought his Lord three times to be freed from a satanic assault, even while not receiving the answer he had hoped for: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9).

Who is the arch enemy of God, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit? (Eph. 6:12-13)

6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Eph. 6:12-13).

Whoever has had the opportunity to visit a Buddhist monastery in Leh, in the mountains of Kashmir in India, with a three-story high Buddha statue, will in the end be able to view a dark painting on a wall head-high to the smiling face of the Buddha. This picture portrays the “nothingness” (Nirwana) of Buddhists as the goal of world history. This nothingness, however, is not empty, but full of spirits, dark angels and bizarre forces, that are held up by the outstretched arms of the chief devil, who all run, fly, act and fight according to his will. Whoever thinks there is no Satan and no unclean spirits in our world can, in this lonesome monastery, get a look at a shocking picture of reality in the world of the hereafter.

Paul was a spiritual counsellor who had, in his many discussions with burdened souls as well as in his prayers in lonely hours of prison isolation, painfully experienced that the evil enemy is a reality. Jesus called him the prince of this world, who has already been judged and been driven out by the Son of God (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). In the Lord´s Prayer He revealed a new name for him: “the evil one”, as opposed to the “Father”. Our life-course runs between these two forces (Math. 6:9-13). Blessed is the one who lets himself be redeemed by Jesus from the dominion and right of Satan, and who believes in the victory of the Son of God over the one who is prime evil (Rev. 12:3-4; 7-12; 12:13-19:21; 20:10). In His earthly life Jesus always saw through and recognized the temptations of Satan, knowing that he wanted to dissuade Him from going the way of the cross. However, the Son of God overcame him with the word of God and indirectly opened to him a last chance to repent, which the evil one did not accept (Math. 4:1-11). On the cross the Lamb of God not only bore the sin and suffered the punishment for all mankind, but much more He, although being in the greatest possible bodily weakness, committed no sin. The Crucified One loved all His enemies even to the end (Luke 23:34), trusted in the presence of God as “His” God, and held fast to Him (much like Jacob), even when He abandoned Him (Gen. 32:26-27; Math. 27:46; Mark 15:34). He did not give up hope even when there was no more hope for Him (Luke 23:46). That was the victory of Jesus over Satan! In all our temptations we will find no other way to overcome the devil than to love our enemies, to believe on the presence and the help of our lord, and then to rest our hope upon His faithfulness, power and love, even when we believe we will have to die.

Paul indirectly confirmed the military structure in the host of the evil one, not to lead us into the mysteries of Satan, but to witness to us of the victory of faith and the certainty of hope: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39). When Jesus drove out the demons from a man possessed, in the region of Gadara, the unclean spirit confessed that his name was Legion, which defined a Roman military regiment of thousands (Mark 5:9). Furthermore, German revivalist of the 19th century, Johann Christoph Blumhardt, in extensive spiritual encounters with the unseen world, noted a subordinating of some spirits to those of higher rank.

We do not want to allow ourselves to be impressed by some of the “black masses” taking place around us, where Satan is worshipped. Neither should we have anything to do with the esoteric, secret meetings of spiritists, who nurture contact with spirits and restless dead, thereby themselves becoming troubled and fettered with evil. Furthermore the placing of horseshoes over entry doors or the pouring of lead on New Year´s eve, a practice to determine the future, open up burdensome contact to strange spirits. Businessmen, politicians and military officers sometimes stand in long lines to have fortune-tellers timely determine the course of future events for them. Spiritist medium employed in Berlin, and who have registered their occupation with city financial and tax offices, are larger in number than the total count of Catholic priests and Protestant ministers of the city. In Islam there are more than two hundred various “tariqas” (ways) of the Sufis (mystics) who can, according to their statements, call for the spirits, only to send them away again after they complete their service. At the time of Paul, the members of the house-churches in Ephesus brought all of their books of magic and occult artefacts and burned them publicly, the value of which was fifty thousand pieces of silver (Acts 19:19). This demonstration showed just how contaminated the Roman provincial capital was with unclean spirits.

The Bible is very guarded in describing the spirit powers of the unseen world, and when it does it speaks mostly of their being defeated and overcome. At the end of time, the antichrist will appear and place his power and his throne at the disposal of Satan (Rev. 13:2). In his service he will employ a false prophet and worker of fantastic miracles (Rev. 13:11-17), as well as the highly qualified whore of Babylon, who will possess a magnetic attraction (Rev. 14:8; 17:1-19:5). Their end, however, has been programmed in advance, for Christ remains the Victor (Rev. 19:11-21). To be sure, in the end times the antichristian forces will increase, ultimately filling the entire earth with a veil of smoke. Nevertheless, the Lamb of God is going to spectacularly prevail (Rev. 9:1-11; 17-21; 16:12-14).

Dr. Martin Luther composed a verse in his creedal song that truly speaks from the heart:

And though this world, with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us, We will not fear, For God hath willed His truth To triumph through us: The prince of darkness grim, We tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, For lo, his doom is sure; One little word shall fell him.

Paul summoned the churches to arm themselves for the confrontations with the spiritual powers of the evil one, to lay on the so-called armor of God, and to practice the usage of it. He did not prophecy just of a single temptation, or of a temporary attack, but witnessed to the Ephesian church leaders that they needed to be ready, day and night, to take up the battle with the devil and his evil servants. However, the weapons that Christ places at the disposal of His followers have been proved by generations of trusted witnesses and found to be flawless.

The main premise for the coming spiritual conflict, however, is the word of Jesus Christ, which He spoke at the beginning of His discourse over the future of the world:

“Take heed that no one deceives you!” (Matt. 24:4)

For many will come in My name, saying, `I am the Christ`, and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name´s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.

Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come (Math. 24:4-14).

Prayer: Father in heaven, we worship You because of Your righteous judgments that our world and the evil spirits will encounter. Help us to confess all of our sin and have faith in our justification through Jesus Christ, so that the evil enemy will have no power over us. Send Your messengers into all the demon-contaminated nations, so that many might come and open themselves to Your gospel, and, by so doing, be saved from the dominion of Satan. Amen.

Questions:

  1. How can we become strong in the power of the Lord?
  2. As Christians, why do we not need to fear all the devils and demons of this world?

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