I remember very well how, over 20 years ago, one of my sons was dressed up like a soldier in church, as a living illustration of Ephesians 6. We pointed out all the various pieces of his armour to the congregation, with my son being a mixture of proud and shy. Much of the symbolism would have gone over his head, but you never know how much of it still influenced him.

I do know that my other son, who was present at the time, would develop aspirations to go into the army. He didn’t end up there, but at the age of 30 (in two days he will be 31) he still likes uniforms. In his spare time he is a volunteer traffic regulator and he’s part of a lifeboat service. More importantly, he seems to understand that in our world a battle for our minds is taking place. I am not saying this was all caused by that scene in the church, but again, you never know.

Cosmic powers of darkness

The apostle Paul writes, “For our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”.

An old saying goes that we have to pick our battles or our fights. And I think this is absolutely true. There are simply too many things that confront us and seem to ask for a firm response, to be able to take care of all of them. You would soon be exhausted. That would make you weak and then you would never win any battle. So Paul helps us here by pointing out our priorities as Christians.

Now we can start by wondering what he means by those authorities and cosmic powers, which is kind of intriguing, but wondering is never a good idea when you want to know the meaning of a text. So let’s start by looking at the clues that are already present. First of all it says our struggles are not against blood and flesh. That means our priority is not to take part in any physical fights that will harm other people. Of course we may be forced by our government to take up arms, so that we have no choice, or so it seems, but that can never be our priority.

When you think about it, and especially when you realize that the actual issues are of a spiritual nature, as we shall see, it is even kind of silly to think you can solve those issues by hitting, shooting or bombing the enemy. History shows time and time again, that most violence and military action is followed by more and even worse violence from the other side. I cannot help comparing this to the way bar fights often escalate. Someone is hit, and then friends step in to “defend” who they think is the victim, then friends of the perpetrator step in, and so on. It is not unusual that when the dust has settled, and the bar is demolished, people don’t remember or never even knew what started it!

So as our text is not about physical fighting, it must be about another, largely invisible fight. That is confirmed when Paul talks about heavenly places. At first it seems strange that he mentions forces of evil in heavenly places, because heaven is supposed to be free from evil. Jesus said in Luke chapter 10 that he “saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven”. And Revelation 12:9 speaks of his angels being cast out with him.

To be honest, it is not always clear to which times and events these texts refer, partly because the word “heaven” can have a range of meanings. But it is safe to say that in this case the word heaven means the invisible realm in which an invisible battle takes place. And we are all involved in it, whether we want to or not.

Elisha and the army of angels

It may remind you, as it reminded me, of the story in 2 Kings 6. More than once Elisha had been able to successfully predict where the soldiers of the enemy would travel. He was like the intelligence. To disable Elisha, Aram sent an army to capture him. But Elisha was not afraid and said to his servant “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them”. Elisha prayed and then his servant could suddenly see the angelic army that had been invisible to everyone else except Elisha.

Note how Elisha expresses himself. He speaks of those who are with us, not of those who will take over from us. We ourselves are just as involved. If you read the rest of the story, Elisha still has to pray to God, lead the enemies away from the city and into Samaria, pray again, and make sure the enemies were treated well so that they were no longer enemies.

It is the same with the battles that should have priority for us. We can count on divine assistance, but especially so when we keep praying and take the necessary action. And that action may well include, as in the case of Elisha, breaking the vicious cycle of violence and hatred.

Six tools of resistance

We are told to do 6 things in order to be prepared and resist the wiles of the devil. Since English is not my native language, I had to look up the word ‘wiles’. They turned out to be: “devious or cunning strategies to manipulate or persuade someone to do what you want”. The biggest part of the battle is therefore defensive. Most of the armour mentioned is not used to attack, with the possible exception of the sword, which is only mentioned towards the end.

  1. The very first thing we need, according to Paul, is the truth. That is our main safeguard against deception. You may know the expression that in war, truth is the first casualty.
    It comes from Aeschylus, a Greek writer of tragedies. As Christians we need to pay renewed attention to the truth. That applies to the truth of the gospel, but really to all kinds of truth. It simply will not do to just repeat what someone else has said. It can do more damage than we think. The other day a pastor I know shared a satirical post insulting other Christians for something that was neither true nor properly checked. This pastor said “I could not resist it”. But of course that’s not a good reason to share something controversial.
    Following the Southport murders in the UK, the British government correctly identified disinformation as an important cause for further violence. Unfortunately they themselves were not without bias. Someone who is part of the problem (or is seen as such) will have hard time taking the right actions. The proposed censorship measures would not address the root causes of the problem and could even make things worse. As Christians we must do our homework when we feel the need to step in. But of course we should still be able to respectfully express our informed views. Both of these, homework and speaking up, are important parts of that spiritual battle against deception.
  2. The breastplate of righteousness. This means we need to resist all attempts to make us commit or support something that is unjust or cruel. Even if it is done or proposed by a party we’ve always supported in the past, or that claims they are just defending themselves. If we wouldn’t have this breastplate, our heart would be unprotected. It would become cold and indifferent. If that happens we no longer care if children and civilians are killed. It is all for the good cause, so they tell us or we may tell ourselves. Dead wrong, of course.
  3. The shoes that make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. They are whatever you need to be convinced that peace is the only solution for the world. And then also to proclaim that message. Let’s not be tempted by the foolish idea that peace can only come by taking up weapons and supporting one side of the conflict. Peace will only come by peace. So let us make sure we are thoroughly convinced of that, so that we can proclaim it. Christ is our example. He is the one that gives us peace that passes all understanding.
  4. The shield of faith is meant to stop the flaming arrows of the evil one. As Christians we can expect additional attacks, for at our confirmation we have literally “renounced Satan and all his works and ways”. The devil doesn’t like that. It is defection. So, similar to what he did to Jesus, he will give us a hard time, too. He will try to discourage us from speaking out for justice and truth, for morality and mutual respect. The Life Application Study Bible also mentions insults, setbacks and temptations. Faith helps, because it allows us to see beyond our circumstances and know that we will share in Christ’s victory. Faith also gives us the strength to admit that we are having a hard time, and not pretend nothing happened. Finally, faith will prevent us from saying “if we can’t beat them, let’s join them”. Although we remain peaceful, we do hold fast to our principles.
  5. The helmet of salvation is what protects our minds. How does it do that? Even if we are sceptical, the mere repetition of lies and propaganda can still wear people out. They get used to falsehood and no longer resist. When we are saved from the consequences of sin, we will no longer tolerate and keep listening to blatant lies. We will quickly spot the distortions, the self-justification, the hypocrisy, the window-dressing, the contradictions and the changing stories. Hopefully our own ones as well. So let’s always remember that since we have Christ, we don’t need the ruler of this world for anything. As much as possible, close the backdoors to your mind.
  6. The sword of the Spirit. That is the only real weapon in the list, for offense in stead of defense. It underlines that we are not just victims, but can actually fight. Since we are in a spiritual battle, we don’t fight people, but ideas and temptations. We fight them with the word of God and with prayer, as in the case of Elisha.

The essential seventh

All these things together are called the armour of God. But we also need His strength for protection. That is why verse 1 doesn’t just say, Be strong, but, Be strong in the Lord. The Dutch translation on the right of your service sheets is interesting in this connection. It says, look for your strength in the Lord. In other words, don’t look for it in the wrong place. Our determination and will power will not be enough. If our fight is against cosmic powers, we need more than determination.

And this is, finally, where today’s gospel reading comes in. Jesus says to the crowd (not just to the disciples) you need to eat. Yes, eat. When an army is on an expedition in enemy territory, the worst thing that can happen to them is that they are cut off from supplies. If the soldiers become weak with hunger and thirst, they have no chance. Whatever their armour or other equipment, they can forget about victory. Jesus will not let us alone just like that. But we need to do as he tells us, which is to become one with him. This is number 7 of the armour, the number of fullness and completion.

To eat Christ means that He becomes our spiritual food on a daily basis, to incorporate Him into our lives and our very being, each in our own way, but no less seriously. Like physical food maintains our physical cells, so Christ will feed our spiritual cells. This will also have consequences for who we think we are, for our identity. I wonder how many Christians, when you ask them how they identify, will immediately say they are a Christian, a spiritual sibling of Christ, as their primary identification. It is not that as a Christian, you can’t belong to any other groups, but a soldier needs a general and he cannot serve two or more masters. So hopefully we all consider ourselves part of that one united army for peace, under the banner of Christ. If not, I pray we will.

This post is also available in: Dutch