But it is not only that there is a line of conduct to follow, a model to
imitate, a Spirit with whom one may be filled, it is not only relationships
between oneself and God, and those in which we stand here below; this is
not all that must occupy the Christian. He has enemies to fight. The people
of Israel under Joshua in the land of Canaan were indeed in the promised
land, but they were in conflict there with enemies who were in it before
them, although not according to the rights by which Israel possessed the
land through the gift of God. God had set it apart for Israel (see Deut.
32:8); Ham had taken possession of it.
Now, with regard to us, it is not with flesh and blood that we have to
fight, as was the case With Israel. Our blessings are spiritual in the
heavenly places. We are sitting in Christ in the heavenlies. We are a
testimony to principalities and powers in the heavenlies; we have to
wrestle with spiritual wickednesses in the heavenlies. Israel had passed
through the wilderness-had crossed the Jordan; the manna had ceased; they
ate the corn of the land. They were settled in the land of Canaan as though
it were all their own without striking a blow. They ate the produce of this
good land in the plains of Jericho. So it is with regard to the Christian.
Although we are in the wilderness, we are also in the heavenly places in
Christ. We have crossed the Jordan, we have died and are risen again with
Him. We are sitting in the heavenly places in Him, that we may enjoy the
things of heaven as the fruit of our own country. But conflict is before
us, if we desire to enjoy them practically. The promise is of every
blessing, of all the promised land, but wheresoever we shall set our foot
on it (Joshua 1). For this we need the Lord's strength, and of this the
apostle now speaks. "Be strong," he says, "in the Lord." The enemy is
subtle. We have to withstand his stratagems even more than his power.
Neither the strength nor even the wisdom of man can do anything here. We
must be armed with the panoply, that is, the whole armour, of God.
But observe first, that the Spirit turns our thoughts upon God Himself
before speaking of that which has to be overcome. "Be strong in the Lord."
It is not, first of all, a refuge from the face of the enemy; we are in it
for ourselves before we use it against the wiles of the enemy. It is in the
intimacy of the counsels and the grace of God that man fortifies himself
for the warfare from which he cannot escape, if he would enjoy his
christian privileges. And he must have the whole armour. To be wanting in
one piece exposes us to Satan on that side. The armour must be that of
God-divine in its nature. Human armour will not ward off the attacks of
Satan; confidence in that armour will engage us in the battle only to make
us fall in combat with a spirit who is more mighty and more crafty than we
are.
These enemies are thus characterised; they are principalities and
powers-beings possessing an energy of evil which has its source in a will
that has mastery over those who do not know how to resist it; they have
also strength to carry it out. Their energy they have from God, the will
that uses it comes from themselves; they have forsaken God; the spring of
their actions is in their own will. In this respect it is a source of
action independent of God, and the energy and the qualities which they have
from God are the instruments of that will-a will which has no bridle except
from outside itself. They are principalities and powers. There are good
ones; but in them the will is only to do that which God wills, and to
employ in His service the strength they have received from Him.
These rebellious principalities and powers rule over the darkness of this
world. Light is the atmosphere in which God dwells, which He diffuses all
around Himself. Wicked spirits deceive and reign in darkness. Now this
world, not having the light of God, is entirely in darkness, and demons
reign in it; for God is not there-except in supreme power after all,
turning everything to His glory, and, in the end, to the good of His
children.
But if these principalities rule in the darkness of this world they do not
possess merely an outward force; they are in the heavenlies, and are
occupied with spiritual wickedness there. They exercise a spiritual
influence, as having the place of gods. There is then, first, their
intrinsic character, their mode of being, and the state in which they are
found; second, their power in the world as governing it; and third, their
religious and delusive ascendency, as lodging in the heavens. They have
also, as a sphere for the exercise of their power, the lusts of man, and
even the terrors of his conscience.
To resist enemies like these we need the armour of God. The manifestations
of this power, when God permits it, constitute the evil days. All this
present period of Christ's absence is, in a certain sense, the evil day.
Christ has been rejected by the world, of which, while in it, He was the
light, and is hidden in God. This power, which the enemy displayed when he
led the world to reject Christ, he still exercises over it: we oppose it by
the action and the power of the Holy Ghost, who is here during the Lord's
absence. But there are moments when this power is allowed to shew itself in
a more especial manner, when the enemy uses the world against the saints,
darkening the light which shines in it from God, troubling and leading
astray the minds of professors and even of believers-days, in a word, in
which his power makes itself felt. We have to wrestle with this power, to
resist it all, to stand against everything in the confession of Christ, of
the light; we have to do all that the confession of His name requires in
spite of all and at whatever cost, and to be found standing when the storm
and the evil day are past.
Thus we have not only to enjoy God and the counsels of God and their effect
in peace; but, since these very counsels introduce us into heavenly places
and make us the light of God on earth, we have also to encounter the
spiritual wickednesses which are in the heavenly places, and which seek to
make us falsify our high position, to mislead us, and to darken the light
of Christ in us on the earth. We have to escape the snares of heavenly
spiritual wickedness for ourselves, and to maintain the testimony here
below incorrupt and pure. [see note #28]
Now by the power of the Holy Ghost, who has been given to us for this
purpose, we shall find that the armour of God relates first to that which,
by setting the flesh aside, and by maintaining the existence of a good
conscience, takes all hold from the enemy; then, to the preservation of
complete objective trust in God; and next, to the active energy which
stands with confidence in the presence of the enemy, and using the weapons
of the Holy Ghost against him. The defensive armour our own state, comes
first. The whole ends with the expression of the entire and continual
dependence on God in which the christian warrior stands.
We will examine this armour of God, that we may know it. It is all
practical-founded on that which has been accomplished, but in itself
practical. For it is not a question here of appearing before the bar of
God, but of resisting the enemy, and of maintaining our ground against him.
Before God our righteousness is perfect, it is Christ Himself, and we are
the righteousness of God in Him: but we do not need armour there, we are
sitting in the heavenly places: all is peace, all is perfect. But here we
need armour, real practical armour, and first of all to have the loins girt
about with truth. The loins are the place of strength when duly girt, but
represent the intimate affections and movements of the heart. If we allow
our hearts to wander where they will, instead of abiding in communion with
God, Satan has easy hold upon us. This piece of armour is then the
application of the truth to the most intimate movements, the first
movements of the heart. We gird up the loins. This is done, not when Satan
is present; it is a work with God, which is done by applying the truth to
our souls in His presence, judging everything in us by this means, and
putting a bridle on the heart that it may only move under His eye. This is
true liberty and true joy, because the new man enjoys God in uninterrupted
communion; but here the Spirit speaks of it with respect to the safeguard
which it will be to us against the attacks of the enemy. At the same time
it is not merely the repression of evil thoughts-that is its consequence:
it is the action of the truth, of the power of God, acting by the
revelation of everything as it is-of all that He Himself teaches, bringing
the conscience into His presence, keeping it thus in His thoughts; all that
God has said in His word, and the unseen realities having their true force
and their application to the heart that stirs in us, so that its movements
should have their character from God's own word and not from its own
desires, everything going on in the presence of God.[see note #29]
Satan has no hold on a heart thus kept in the truth, as revealed by God;
there is nothing in its desires that answers to the suggestions of Satan.
Take Jesus as an example. His safeguard was not in judging all that Satan
said. In the wilderness at the beginning of His public service, except in
the last temptation, it was in the perfect application of the word for
Himself, for that which concerned His own conduct, to the circumstances
around Him. The truth governed His heart, so that it only moved according
to that truth in the circumstance that presented itself "Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
No word has come forth-He does nothing. There was no motive for acting. It
would have been to act of His own accord, of His own will. That truth kept
His heart in connection with God in the circumstance that met Him. When the
circumstance arose, His heart was already in intercourse with God, so that
it had no other impulse than that which the word of truth suggested. His
conduct was purely negative, but it flowed from the light which truth threw
upon the circumstance, because His heart was under the absolute government
of the truth. The suggestion of Satan would have brought Him out of this
position. That was enough. He will have nothing to do with it. He does not
yet drive away Satan: it was only a matter of conduct, not of flagrant
opposition to the glory of God. In the latter case He drives him away; in
the former He acts according to God without concerning Himself with
anything farther. Satan's device totally failed of its effect. It simply
produced nothing. It is absolutely powerless against the truth, because it
is not the truth; and the hearth has truth for its rule. Wiles are not the
truth: this is quite enough to prevent our being caught by them, that is,
if the heart be thus governed.
In the second place there is the breastplate of righteousness-a conscience
that has nothing to reproach itself with. The natural man knows how a bad
conscience robs him of strength before men. There is only to be added here
the way in which Satan uses it to entrap man in his snares. By maintaining
the truth we have Satan for our enemy. If we yield ourselves up to error,
he will leave us in that respect at peace, except in using our faults and
crimes to enslave us more, to bind us hand and foot in that which is false.
How would a man who has the truth, who has perhaps even escaped error, if
his conduct were bad, bear to have it exposed to the eyes of all? He is
silent before the enemy. His own conscience even will make him silent, if
he is upright, without thinking of consequences, unless a confession be
necessary. Besides this the strength of God and spiritual understanding
will fail him: where could he have gained them in a wrong walk? We go
forward boldly when we have a good conscience. But it is when we are
walking with God, for the love of God, for the love of righteousness
itself, that we have this breastplate on, and thus we are fearless when
called to go forward and face the enemy. We gain a good conscience before
God by the blood of the Lamb. By walking with God we maintain it before men
and for communion with God, in order to have strength and spiritual
understanding, and to have them increasingly. This is the practical
strength of good conduct, of a conscience without rebuke. "I exercise
myself" always to this, said the apostle. What integrity in such a walk,
what truthfulness of heart when no eye sees us! We are peremptory with
ourselves, with our own hearts, and with regard to our conduct; we can
therefore be peaceful in our ways. God also is there. So walk, says the
apostle, and the God of peace shall be with you. If the fruits of
righteousness are sown in peace, the path of peaceis found in
righteousness. If I have a bad conscience, I am vexed with myself, I grow
angry with others. When the heart is at peace with God and has nothing to
reproach itself with, when the will is held in check, peace reigns in the
soul. We walk on the earth, but the heart is above it in intercourse with
better things; we walk in a peaceful spirit with others, and nothing
troubles our relations with God. He is the God of peace. Peace, the peace
of Jesus, fills the heart. The feet are shod with it; we walk in the spirit
of peace.
But, together with all this, a piece of defensive armour is needed over all
the rest, that we may be able to stand in spite of all the wiles of the
enemy-an armour, however, which is practically maintained in its soundness
by the use of the preceding ones, so that, if the latter is essential, the
others have the first place in practice. This is the shield, faith; that is
to say, full and entire trust in God, the consciousness of grace and of His
favour maintained in the heart. Here faith is not simply the reception of
God's testimony (although it is founded on that testimony), but the present
assurance of the heart with regard to that which God is for us, founded, as
we have just said, on the testimony which He has given of Himself-trust in
His love and in His faithfulness, as well as in His power. "If our hearts
condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God." The work of the
Spirit in us is to inspire this confidence. When it exists, all the attacks
of the enemy, who seeks to make us believe that the goodness of God is not
so sure-all his efforts to destroy or to weaken in our hearts this
confidence in God and to hide Him from us, prove fruitless. His arrows fall
to the ground without reaching us. We stand fast in the consciousness that
God is for us: our communion is not interrupted. The fiery darts of the
enemy are not the desires of the flesh, but spiritual attacks.
Thus we can hold up our heads: moral courage, the energy which goes
forward, is maintained. Not that we have anything to boast of in ourselves,
but the salvation and the deliverance of God are fresh in our minds. God
has been for us; He is for us: who shall be against us? He was for us when
we had no strength; it was salvation, when we could do nothing. This is our
confidence-God Himself-not looking at ourselves. We have the helmet of
salvation on our heads. The former parts of the armour give us freedom to
enjoy the two latter.
Thus furnished with that which protects us in our walk, and in the
practical confidence in God, and the knowledge of God that flows from it,
we are in a state to use offensive weapons. We have but one against the
enemy, but it is one that he cannot resist if we know how to handle it:
witness the Lord's conflict in the wilderness with Satan. It is the word of
God. There Jesus always answered with the word by the power of the Spirit.
It sets man in his true position according to God as obedient man in the
circumstances around him. Satan can do nothing there: we have but to
maintain that position. If Satan openly tempts us to disobedience, there is
no wile in that. Not being able to do anything else, Satan acted thus with
the Lord, and manifested himself as he is. The Lord drove him away by the
word. Satan has no power when he is manifested as Satan. We have to resist
the wiles of the devil. Our business is to act according to the word, come
what may; the result will shew that the wisdom of God was in it. But
observe here, this sword is the sword of the Spirit. It is not the
intelligence or the capacity of man, although it is man who uses the word.
His sword is highly tempered, but he can neither draw it nor strike with it
if the Holy Ghost is not acting in him. The weapons are spiritual; they are
used by the power of the Spirit. God must speak, however weak the
instrument may be.
The sword is also used actively in the spiritual warfare, in which it
judges all that is opposed to us. In this sense it is both defensive and
offensive. But, behind all this armour, there is a state, a disposition, a m
eans of strength, which quickens and gives all the rest its power: this is
a complete dependence on God, united to trust in Him, which expresses
itself in prayer. "Praying always"; this dependence must be constant. When
it is real, and I feel that I can do nothing without God, and that He wills
my good in all things, it expresses itself. It seeks the strength which it
has not: it seeks it from Him in whom it trusts. It is the motion of the
Spirit in our hearts in their intercourse with God, so that our battles are
fought in the communion of His strength and His favour, and in the
consciousness that we can do nothing, and that He is all. "At all times";
"with supplication." This prayer is the expression of the man's need, of
the heart's desire, in the strength that the Spirit gives him, as well as
in confidence in God. Also since it is the Spirit's act, it embraces all
saints, not one of whom can be forgotten by Jesus; and the Spirit in us
answers the affections of Christ, and reproduces them. We must be watchful
and diligent in order to use this weapon; avoiding all that would turn us
away from God, availing ourselves of every opportunity, and finding, by the
grace of the Spirit, in everything that arises, an occasion (by means of
this diligence) for prayer and not for distraction. [see note #30]
The apostle asks from his heart for this intercession on their part, in the
sense of his own need and of that which he desires to be for Christ.
The mission of Tychicus expressed Paul's assurance of the interest which
the love of the Ephesians made them take in having tidings of him, and that
which he himself felt in ascertaining their welfare and spiritual state in
Christ. It is a touching expression of his confidence in their affection-an
affection which his own devoted heart led him to expect in others.
He presents the Ephesians as enjoying the highest privileges in Christ, and
as being able to appreciate them. He blames them in nothing. The armour of
God-by which to repel the assaults of the enemy, and to grow up in peace
unto the Head in all things, the preservative armour of God-was naturally
the last thing that he had to set before them. It is to be noticed that he
does not speak to them in this epistle of the Lord's coming. He supposes
believers in the heavenly places in Christ; and not as on earth, going
through the world, waiting till He should come to take them to Himself, and
restore happiness to the world. That which is waited for in this epistle is
the gathering together of all things under Christ, their true Head,
according to the counsels of God. The blessings are in the heavens, the
testimony is in the heavens, the church is sitting in the heavens, the
warfare is in the heavens.
The apostle repeats his desire for them of peace, love, and faith; and
concludes his epistle with the usual salutation by his own hand.
This epistle sets forth the position and the privileges of the children,
and of the assembly in its union with Christ.
