“Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the
full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full
armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your
ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the
belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness
in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the
gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with
which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” –
Ephesians 6:10-17 NIV
Because Christian life is going to be hard as Jesus states
in Matthew
16:24-25: “Whoever wants to be my disciple MUST deny themselves and take up
their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it,
but whoever loses their life for me will find it;” we should always wear the
armor of God, for the word of God states in 1
Peter 5:8-9:
Be alert and of sober mind. Your
enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to
devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the
family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of
sufferings.
Why and who is the devil? 1
John 5:19 answers this question: “We know that we are children of God, and
that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” Satan, the devil
uses material things to make us to turn away from God who is our heavenly
Father (Ephesians
4:6), and Satan has advantage in this. This is because we are all born in
this evil world and are sinners from the beginning. For this reason, Jesus
Christ was crucified on the cross to make us right before God:
You were dead because of your sins
and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive
with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges
against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he
disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his
victory over them on the cross. For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be
the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through
Christ. (Colossians
2:13-15, 2 Corinthians 5:21)
Because the Lord is the way of the truth and the life (John
14:6), we have to stand FIRM before Him with the shield of faith, the belt
of truth, the breastplate of the righteousness, and with the Gospel, which is
the word of God, “the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.”
Whatever happens, conduct
yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and
see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm
in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without
being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them
that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. (Philippians
1:27-28)
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