Yesterday we finished up the Fruit of the Spirit. I hope you enjoyed walking through it as I did.  I mentioned before that there is another passage that I’d like to dig a little deeper into, the Armor of God, as found in Ephesians 6: 10-20.  We’ll take some time the next while digging into this passage, talking specifically about what each part of the armor means and how it helps us fight against evil.  Today, let’s look at the passage in whole again: 

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power; 11 put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, 12 for our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on the evil day and, having prevailed against everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand, therefore, and belt your waist with truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness 15 and lace up your sandals in preparation for the gospel of peace. 16 With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, so that when I speak a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.

One of the reasons I think this passage is so important is because it tells us about reality.  This passage tells us about spiritual realities.  We understand things in terms of physical realities. What we see, what we touch, smell, taste, our senses, our reason, our mind, things such as this. We know what we experience; we trust what we experience.  That, for us, is reality. 

Paul today paints a completely different picture. We see reality.  We see our spiritual reality. 

We aren’t fighting or battling against people.  They aren’t our enemies. They aren’t who is against us.  Now, we have an enemy. We have someone who is against us. We have someone who longs to and wants to destroy us. 

But that someone isn’t another person. For we are told, we wrestle not with flesh and blood but with spiritual enemies. We wrestle with the powers and rules of this dark age. Our enemy is the devil; he and his spiritual forces, they are the enemy.  

As we read this passage over the next few days, we’ll come to better understand who our enemy is (we’ll do that tomorrow).  And then we’ll look at the tools at our disposal in this fight. 

But today, understand this. That person you think is your enemy; they aren’t. Today God’s Word tells us that enemy is not another person. It is the author of evil, the father of lies, the devil.  Know your enemy, and know how to fight. That’s what we’ll do the next few days. 

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