40 Days Blog - Day 13
It’s remarkable that Paul uses the imagery of a Roman soldier in his piece about spiritual warfare. After all, at the time of writing, he was under house arrest in Rome; presumably under the guard of Roman soldiers; and at the mercy of the emperor. The Romans are not generally known for lavishing the milk of human kindness on those who resisted them, but the current emperor was a beast.
Emperor Nero’s persecution of Christians is well documented; many modern scholars consider him as the man whose number is 666 (
Revelation 13:18, where letters of a name are replaced with their numerical value in Hebrew). But more sinister is the statement that the beast received his authority from the dragon, “
Who is called the devil, or Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (
Revelation 12:9); “
We do not fight against flesh and blood…” (
Ephesians 6:12).
The devil wears many masks to hide his true identity, and some may be particularly grotesque, but many are quite the opposite. The devil can portray himself as very attractive to human beings who are enthralled by power and wealth. Recall how the devil tempted Jesus! (
Matthew 4:1-11) Satan is at his most dangerous when he comes quoting scripture.
I’m sure there were many people who thought the Roman Empire would stand forever; it was almost at the zenith of its geopolitical power when Paul was in Rome. But it did eventually fall, due to some very current factors; climate change, migration, and financial and political crisis which lead to the inability to sustain an army big enough to resist its enemies. If we want to ‘stand’ and continue to stand as Christians, we must take defence seriously.
The devil is out to deceive us, that is why it’s of first importance to ‘gird’ ourselves with truth (
Ephesians 6:14). Historically we were told that our supreme rule of life and faith is the Bible (equated with the ‘truth’), but actually it is Jesus; He is the truth, just as He is the way and the life. Get to know the Bible by all means, it’ll do you no harm, but it’ll do you no good unless you get to know Jesus through the teaching of the Bible.
It is perhaps best to think of righteousness (
v14) in terms of relationship; being in a right relationship with God. Righteousness is the consequence of believing in and knowing Jesus as our Teacher, Saviour and risen Lord; as the Word of God and Son of God; as well as friend and confidant.
As important as head protection is (particularly in these days of social media and concern for mental health), intellectual assent is not faith. Faith has feet (
Ephesians 6:15), it takes us places, sometimes where we’d rather not go (
John 21:18). Taking up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit is a statement of intent; we are going out to join battle; no point in having a shield if we’re not enlisted.
A Prayer
Eternal Father strong to save, in the face of so many perils and dangers we look to You. I thank You that Jesus came to expose the works of darkness and overcome them. Give me courage to be faithful and true in the defence of the Gospel, and to stand firm against all the devices of the devil.
Amen.
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