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"Finally, 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.” Ephesians 6
Merry Christmas and a …
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"Finally, 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.” Ephesians 6
Merry Christmas and a healthy New Year. I recently came across a phrase that piqued my interest because of how it was being used to emphasize a specific point. The phrase is this: “Putting on the armor of God.”
I began to wonder, what exactly does it mean to put on the armor of God and what is the armor of God? The passage in the Bible that is related to this phrase is from Ephesians 6:10-20. This is a letter Paul had written to explain to the Ephesians that, even though God continues to defeat evil, it remains active in the world. So to protect yourself from this evil, you need to put on the armor of God.
Well, you can imagine what some people may think this means, but I can assure you there are no material weapons involved.The armor we are to use is the word of God (truth, righteousness, peace, faith). It is to proclaim the “gospel of peace” (verse 15). God wins victory in ways that are not our ways, by bringing peace through the violent death of the cross. The imagery we see in our minds is armor for violent battle; however, the strength advocated is not the might of armies, but the world-reconciling power of God embodied in the cross of Christ.
Where things become confusing is when this text from Ephesians is used to label those with whom we disagree as evil, and so we self-righteously dehumanize those we find on other points of the political, social or religious spectrum. When this happens, it is not putting on the armor of God, it is self-righteousness. Paul tells us that we are called to “spiritual warfare.” We are to see the true evil and turn from it to the ways of Jesus Christ.
Only God can and will finally defeat all the forces of evil. However, the church is already the sign and the promise of what God will do for the world through Christ. We have been enlisted into this mission, and we can respond boldly only because God has already won the war and set us free. We have been given all that we need to stand strong against the losing efforts of anything that opposes God’s peace.
So take your armor (truth, righteousness, peace, fatih) and go out into the world doing God’s work and loving your neighbor. Amen.
(Donna Putney is the pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in Powell.)
