September 10, 2023
‘Be Strong in His Mighty Power’
Ephesians 6:10-20
Reverend Yongchoel Woo
Last Sunday afternoon, I started to feel pain in my left molar. It was probably caused by a viralinfection. The next day was Labor Day. Even though I still felt tooth pain and a little tired at the same time, I went out for a run in the early evening, thinking that running would help me feel better. However, unlike my expectation and hope, I ended up experiencing muscle pain all over my body. The next day, Tuesday, I was slowly relieved of the pains after taking medicationsprescribed to treat both tooth and muscle pain. (slide1) As I received prescription drugs called Amoxicillin for tooth pain and Naproxen for muscle pain from the Rite Aid pharmacy with a couple of explanatory documents that shows the details of the medications, that is, what the drug is, how to use it, what side effects could be, and so on.
Ephesians is like a ministerial prescription that Paul made for the early church of Ephesus where the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians were experiencing conflicts and crises due to racial, religious, and cultural differences. And today’s scripture in Ephesians is like a part of the side effects or precautions in the prescription advisory description paper. (slide 2) Through the scripture today, Paul explains to the Ephesian Christians what kinds of situations they could faceand how they should prepare themselves before implementing Paul’s suggestions for them.
To better understand the kinds of prescription aftereffects or precautions in today’s scripture, let’s remind ourselves of what Paul prescribed for the church. (We have shared that prescription through sermons over the past few weeks.) (slide 3) He wanted the Jewish and Gentile Christians to focus, not on their differences, but on what they have in common. He wanted both groups to know that they had sinned against God and were destined to die, but God had forgiven them in Jesus Christ so that they had become new creatures (forgiven children of God) and were able to live a new life in Christ. Then, Paul continued to explain that they should now live their lives of love to offer fragrant sacrifices that were pleasing to God. And that they should live lives of light to bear the fruit of goodness, righteousness, and truth in their lives. In addition, Paul encouraged them to live a life accompanied by the Holy Spirit to be able to better know His will for their lives.
In today’s scripture, we see that Paul did not forget to remind them about the side effects or precautions with his prescriptions. Paul made the Ephesian Christians know in advance what kinds of bad situations they could face and how they should respond to them. Paul told them that they could be tempted, challenged, and attacked by the spiritual forces of evil, (slide 4) described as ‘ ‘the rulers, the authorities, and the powers of this dark world, and the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms(v.12) as they live their new life in Christ with their new identity as forgiven children of God.
(slide 5) Paul understood that these evil forces had such tremendous destructive power that Christians cannot fight against them on their own, but can be victorious over them with the help and power of God, who is stronger that the evil forces.
Knowing well that in the book of Isaiah (slide 6, Isa. 11:5 “Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist”,( slide 7), 52:7 “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”, (slide 8) 59:17 “He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head”), God is depicted as the strong warrior, who is wearing His armor and fighting against the enemies to His people, Paul adjusted some verses in Isaiah in order to tell the Ephesians Christians to equip themselves with God’s armor to fight against the spiritual forces of evil.
Paul explains in detail the kind of divine armor with which they should fully equip themselves (v.13-17) : (slide 9) the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Holy Spirit( the word of God).
What does each piece of armor signify? I am convinced that we can easily relate them all to Jesus and what he has done for His people.
The belt of truth means that Christians should have strong faith in Jesus who accomplished salvation for His people through His sacrificial atoning death on the cross, through which His people have been saved. (slide 10 John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” ). The breastplate of Righteousness means that Christians should know that they become righteous, not by the law or doing good, but by their faith in Jesus. (slide 11, 2 Cor 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” ) The shoes of peace mean that, in Christ, Christians have been reconciled to God and to one another. (slide 12, Ephesians 2:14, “Christ himself has brought peace to us.”) The shield of faith means that Christians should have a strong faith in Him so they can live a new life in Christ (slide 13, Gal 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”) The helmet of salvation represents what Jesus accomplished on the cross for His people. (slide 14, Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.) The sword of the Holy Spirit is the word of God, which means that God specifically tells Christians what to do and how to do as they wage spiritual warfare, and follow the instructions and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Putting the meanings of the armor of God together, (slide 15) we can see that Paul wanted the Ephesian Christians to stand firm in their faith in Jesus and fight against the evil spiritual forces that strove to distance His people from God’s love and power. Simply speaking, (slide 16, Paul wanted them to “clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 13:14)
Paul’s message to the Ephesian Christians also provides a powerful message for us today.
It is likely that (slide 17) the more we try to live a new life in Christ with a clear understanding of our identity that we are saved by Jesus, the more the spiritual evil forces will work to make us lose our faith and give up on our faith journey.
If so, we need to first ask ourselves this question: (slide 18) in what situations do we think that we are engaged in spiritual warfare? I am convinced that we should not think of spiritual warfare as something that may happen only in a spiritual, mystical, surreal, or metaphysical realm. Instead, we need to understand that spiritual warfare is something we will experience in our thoughts, consciousness, habits, attitudes, relationships, faith communities, and many other aspects of our lives as we live out our everyday lives as God’s children.
(slide 19) Let’s think about spiritual warfare as it relates to our life goals. If I try to live my life focusing on achieving my ambitions, hopes, and dreams by myself, and not on seeking out and living by God’s goals and purpose for my life, it is ignoring Him and at the same time, serving myself to be the master of my life. It is one of the spiritual warfare situations, in which I should fight against myself.
It is very important to make our lives stable and safe by accumulating material possessions and an adequate income. However, we should clearly understand that we should not live our lives focused only on those things, but instead, we should recognize that we are those who live by His grace, love, and blessings. (slide 20) We need to be convinced that God blesses us so we can be prosperous in material possession and accumulating wealth. With the help of the Holy Spirit, weshould know what He wants us to do with our material blessings and possessions. Otherwise, the spiritual evil forces can tempt us to think of material possessions and wealth as ourachievements and waste them to meet our desires and satisfactions.
Faced with serious physical illnesses and diseases, we are apt to fall into deep despair and powerlessness, not praying and coming close to Him. (slide 21) In our times of suffering and afflictions, we need to stand firm in our faith in God. Otherwise, the spiritual forces of evil can overtake us.
If we tend to see ourselves from the viewpoint of worldly standards or perspectives, we may feel disappointed with our abilities and lives, thinking that we are nothing. We may develop aninferiority complex or become trapped in defeatism. We may be worried about our future life and succumb to serious depression. (slide 22) Instead, we need to see ourselves and one another from God’s perspective. We are His precious children, no matter what we are and where we are now.
Something can happen at any time regarding our relationships with family members, friends, or our church family. Broken relationships, or failures in family and marital life can happen at any time. (slide 23) In those situations, we need to pay attention to what expectations God has for our relationships with others and our family and ask for His help, not allowing the spiritual evil forces to lead us in the wrong ways.
Regarding our personality, habits, and attitudes toward life, there are some things we should spiritually deal with. (slide 24) For example, if we have an anger issue, it can become a spiritual obstacle to our new life in Christ. If we get addicted to things that may briefly satisfy us physically and psychologically, we may lose control of ourselves at some point and experience the devastation of our soul, mind, body, and life. Because it is not the life God expects us to live, we need to fight against the spiritual evil forces that can lead us to failures in our life and faith journey.
Let’s summarize. As we live out our physical, mental, and social lives, we will encounter many situations when we need to fight against the spiritual evil forces that strive to prevent us from living our lives as God’s children.
How should we stand against these spiritual evil forces? The answer is to equip ourselves with the armor of God and fight against them. We should be able to clothe ourselves with the LordJesus. (slide 25) We can interpret this statement of faith in several ways: We should believe that He is also fighting beside us. We should be engaged in spiritual warfare with God’s wisdom and love, believing in His protection and mighty power. We should see others or certain situations with His spirit, heart, mind and perspective. Before we do something, we should ask ourselves this question which will be helpful for us to continuously live our lives in harmony with His will and expectations for our lives, “What would Jesus do in this situation?”
As we experience each day of this coming week, let’s focus on what it means to live our lives wearing His full armor and how we can fight against the spiritual forces of the evils that strongly try to influence us to not live our lives grounded in our faith in Jesus. Let’s go forward praying for the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit who will make us victorious over evil.