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As I was reading Ephesians 5&6 Wednesday morning and doing some background research on chapter 6, I stumbled on something very interesting dealing with the Armor of God. Paul related the Armor of God to what the Romans soldiers wore in battle, because that is something that society could relate to very easily. Just like we could if Paul would have described a modern day solider. I hope you are tracking with me on this, but here is the interesting part of it. When the Roman soldiers were engaging in a battle they were trained to stand their ground and not retreat, by any means. History tells us that their tactic was very successful. They would stand together on a flat, open field and not break rank, they say that their legions were considered virtually invincible. The best visual I can give you is, from the movie 300 Spartans, where they face an evil army of thousands and this group of men huddle together like a football team going over the next play. They would form a circle leaning on one another for support, forming a turtle like shell all around them and let the enemy charge at them. Once the enemy is done charging the Spartans break, they wheel their swords to create havoc on their enemies.
We like the Spartans, are to fight this spiritual battle together as a group not as individuals. We are taught in the scriptures not to retreat, but to stand our ground against our enemy. But, see here is were we differ from the Spartans, their whole life was built around preparing for battle – so retreating was not in their nature. We, on the other hand, have not prepared our lives for battle and that is why we retreat on occasion and get beat from time to time. We often times go into this spiritual battle unprepared, we forget sometimes to put on the whole Armor of God and what we do put on we are not skilled enough to know how to use it properly.
Paul is telling us here to stand in readiness for spiritual combat. Recognize our demonic enemy, he is behind much of what comes against us to harm us. We consciously, each day need to put on the spiritual armor that God supplies us. Learn and appreciate the nature of this divine protection God has provided. If we do, we will be like the Roman soldiers who stand together – we will be virtually invincible!
I love the first seven verses of chapter 5, especially in The Message- it just really jumps off the page at me. In the first two verses, Paul is telling us to model our lives after Jesus, imitating Him rather than others. Paul wants us to understand that Jesus is the perfect example of the love God requires. Paul is basically giving us the guidelines for maturing in Godliness. It is my opinion that few books talk as clearly to this subject as Ephesians. Here, Godliness is exhorted in terms of behavior, motivating dynamic, and example. Simply put, love like there is no tomorrow!
Then, verses 3-7 in the Message, the talk is very in your face and straightforward. I feel that my take on this passage does not give it all the props that it deserves. This is a simple passages and easy to understand, but I found myself having to read it two or three times to wrap my mind around it.
In verses 3-5, Paul is telling us to avoid and reject any impure or immoral talk or behavior. Paul is letting us know that this contradicts our profession of faith in Christ. Paul tells us in verses 6&7, when you hear an eloquent speaker in the church beware. That’s harsh talk because we hear people trying to be eloquent in the church all the time. Then one of my favorite lines in the Bible “God gets furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but want nothing to do with him. Don’t even hang around people like that.” We are not just to get mad but FURIOUS when people try to impress us with their speech. But we can’t stop there, we can only get furious when we know that the love of God is not in them. I don’t know about you, but I can just tell when someone loves the sound of their voice better than they love the Lord. So watch out and beware.
Paul is speaking in these two chapters, as a man with authority and power. That’s one of the great things I like about Paul, he doesn’t mind speaking the truth and he does so with authority and boldness. I especially see this in chapter 3:14-21, some call this section of passage the “Prayer of Empowerment” and rightly so.
I like what he says in verse 16 “…strengthened with might”. To me this means I am mighty, I am strong by His power – the power that the Holy Spirit has given me, who lives & dwells inside of me.
Then, Paul again amazes me with his powerful words he uses in verse 17 towards the end “rooted” and “grounded”, rooted like a tree that can’t be easily swayed and grounded like a building on a strong foundation.
Lastly, I love verse 19 were Paul say’s “…all the fullness of God“, that means we can have great knowledge, it speaks of more than one experience or one aspect of God’s truth or power. It is pointing to a broad-based spirituality, balanced through participation in all of God’s blessings, resources, and wisdom. That’s awesome! That’s what our wonderful God has given each believer.
Paul keeps on speaking to me with God’s wisdom and authority. Someone’s got to.
We are so lucky that we serve a loving God! Think about all the trouble we humans make for ourselves and for God, fighting against our fellow man, selling young children into the sex trade industry, racial fighting, & not to mention all the stuff we do in secret.
After reading Ephesians 1&2 today, I did a quick evaluation of the past year of my life and I could think of enough stuff, that I would not even allow myself into heaven if I were God. All the times I wasn’t as faithful to Him as I should have been, the times I should have told someone about Christ but didn’t, and all the other ways I disappointed God that we won’t get into. God truly is a gracious God.
Paul reminds us in the first couple of verses of chapter 2 that we were of the world and followed the world’s ways, we lived such a way that we deserved God’s wrath. But then in verse 4 we see God’s nature, a nature of love. ” 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.” This type of love, I believe, is hard to understand, because we find it difficult, nearly impossible, to love like this ourselves. A love that is so strong that you would be willing to let your child die for a group of people that you know will disappoint you time and time again. God however does not see with human eyes. He sees with heavenly eyes that sees the good in people and is willing to go after that.
He loves me that much, that makes me want to stand up and shout praises to God. In knowing how much He loves me, I should feel all the more compelled to tell others about the love of God, but sadly I, like you, at times get slack in this area. But thank goodness for verses like these that give us a good swift kick in the pants to get us back on track and remind us of just how lucky we are to be loved by God!
Ephesians 1&2, what can I say there is a lot of great stuff packed in two small chapters. Two verses I particularly like are verses 13&14, “…you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession-to the praise of his glory.” In the 1st century a seal was made of wax. A wax seal would have a mark of ownership or identification stamped on it, stating that the contents inside were of great importance. This gives me great joy in knowing that God thought I was important enough to mark me with his seal. I have meaning, worth, & value.
Then, in verse 14, God gives us the Holy Spirit as a deposit, literally meaning a guarantee. The Holy Spirit invested in us is God’s title to possessing us entirely and forever. We as Christians should see this as a reassurance that we are redeemed, but we are waiting for the completion of the redemption process – going to the Promised Land. What we do between now and then is very important. We need to make good use of our time here on earth. I believe that is another reason why God gave us the Holy Spirit to give us boldness & strength so that we can share the Gospel. The Gospel that means so much to us, the Gospel that we should be so proud of that people think we are fanatics in our faith.
A fanatic gets things done. A fanatic has passion. A fanatic has a one-track mind. I believe God wants us all to be fanatics – at least that is my take on Ephesians 1&2. Ephesians 1&2 is truly two great chapters packed full of great information for the growing Christian.
