Isaiah - Verse By Verse | Walk thru Eph #144

Walk thru Eph #144

versebyverse | April 22, 2008 19:45

Thought: To me, there is no standing against evil in our own strength.

Question: Do I see my need for the "putting on" of "God's armor"--God's power?

Scripture: Ephesians 6:13 (NIV): "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."

As stated, it's God's armor, God's strength. Notice too, it is His full armor. No piece must come up missing. No chink in the covering must exist. Once we have Him protecting us thoroughly and directly, we will "be able to stand", even in "the day of evil."

What is "the day of evil"? Rather than interpret this as a singular, future day, such as the most totally evil day of AntiChrist's reign, shall we say, or the day Jesus was crucified, or whatever, we should, I think, interpret it, rather, as any day that presents itself to us as evil. It will vary from individual to individual. What is your day of evil? Perhaps it is when your weakest points were under attack. Thus we can stand even in our weakest condition. What would our weakest condition consist of? How about total failure? Can we stand in the midst of utter failure, of overriding sin? Yes! If this is not true none of us could ever stand. As the psalmist teaches, if God counts iniquities, who could stand? We only stand in Christ--our iniquities not counted because of Christ's blood. That's the whole point. If we could realize this deeply enough we would easily pick up God's armor without having to be encouraged, because we would well be familiar with how much we need it. We would "stand in Christ", apart from self-effort and legalistic endeavors. We would wear the armor every moment.

"After you have done everything, stand..." We still like to try things in our own strength. I feel this is what Paul addresses here. Stress the first word, (after), and you begin to get Paul's drift here. We'll always try in human strength to live righteously, etc., to some degree, but that's often the part of the warfare we lose dreadfully. Then when God comes to our rescue, He becomes the true energy of His own power, and the way, the true way, the only true way, of standing.

Prayer: Lord of Victory, thank You for Your "armor"! Help me put it on in its completeness so that I may stand against evil. Amen.