“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
(Eph. 6:11-13)
I seriously doubt there are many scriptures I have studied, preached on, and wrote about more than the Christian’s armor, as found in Ephesians 6 — and, I may add, tried my best to appropriate in my personal life. What I am going to present to you I am not dogmatic on; but for some reason I feel comfortable with it, that is, I can live with it. If you doubt its accuracy, no problem on my part.
In meditating on the above portion of scripture recently I was drawn to the wrestler and soldier in our text. My dilemma is a man attempting to wrestle in a suit of armour. It is just not done, to my knowledge. The wrestler in such cases would have the advantage. But if the soldier refused to wrestle and chose to fight using his sword, then the whole scenario changes. No wrestler, completely stripped, other than his trunks, would have a chance.
Jesus tells the story how He entered the strong man’s house (Satan’s) and spoiled his goods. “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, He taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils” (Lk. 11:21-22). Notice when Jesus defeated Satan He left him armor-less, leaving him only two means to fight, by wrestling or by words.
The “Wherefore” in our text seems to me to indicate we are not to wrestle with Satanic powers, but stand our ground with our sharp twoedged sword. I don’t know about you but from henceforth I am not going to get into the ring with Satan as an opposing wrestler; it’s a losing fight. I’m going to enter as a soldier with God's armour on and His sword in hand, like our Lord, when He defeated Satan by saying, "It is written"; thrice over; three quick slices with the sword. And we're told after this, "the devil leaveth Him." (Matt. 4:11)
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