SPIRITUAL WARFARE PART 2 Eph 6:10-11 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. (11) Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Now that we have identified that God in this scripture is concentrating on us - to strengenthen us and give us vigour, I will try to elucidate on put on used by the great Apostle Paul. This two words put on in the original greek are NOT two separate words but one word! Put on comes from the greek enduo and it means (in the sense of sinking into a garment); to invest with clothing (literally or figuratively): - array, clothe (with), endue, have (put) on. enduo is used forty-eight times in the New testament. I am shocked to notice that put on does not have the sense of someone who is naked and takes up a clothe to do the active process of putting on the clothes as we know it today. It is not dressing up! This is an expression that deals with two things: first meaning is to be dressed up by someone else, the person in the dressing does not actively do the dressing up himself and the second meaning is remaining in what had ALREADY been put on. Put on can be used in both physical sense and spiritual sense. For want of space, I will concentrate on two spiritual usage and two physical usage. Jesus used this word in Lk. 24:49. These are the very words of Jesus! It was translated with the word endue. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. (Luk 24:49). From the scripture above, we cannot put on spiritual things by our own effort as illustrated above; Jesus is the one who endues with power (spiritual). He put on power on us! We are passive in this issue of actively putting on. A good illustration is found in Acts. 10:44. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. (Act 10:44) Peter was simply teaching the word of Salvation to a gentile family and suddenly, Holy Ghost fell. Peter was not in control of the enduement with power here. The gentile family did nothing but were simply listening to Peter and God put on on them the Holy Spirit. Another example is illustrated in Mar. 15:20 when Jesus had been beaten up. The word used this time was on. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. (Mar 15:20) It says ......they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him..... They put his own clothes on Jesus. Who put his clothes on Him? They! They put it on him....Jesus did not put the clothes on by himself. He had been beaten beyond recognition at this stage. Isa. 53:2. The dressing up was not done by Jesus, rather it was done on him by those who had beaten and mocked him. A more clear usage is in Mar. 15:17 where the word clothed is used. This verse says ......and they clothed him with purple.. If we look closely at Rev. 19:14, we see that Jesus was clothed as well. This is the same greek word in use here. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. (Rev 19:14) In the sense of the usage above, it referred to remaining and displaying what he wore. Here, the dressing-up is not meant....the act of dressing up is not the reference but his display of what had been worn. You will find this usage again in Rev.1:13 and Rev. 15:6 One more scripture I will use is Mark. 1:6. in this verse, the word clothe is used by Peters amanuensis Mark. And John was clothed with camels hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; (Mar 1:6) The scripture above is not talking about the process of putting on clothe by John here. The process of clothing had been done. Here, his habitual display of what he has on is referred to here.... what people saw on him in the wilderness. The active dressing up had been done in his closet but what he has on is what is referred to. This is the usage of the word enduo in the greek culture. This is exactly what brother Paul has in mind here! This gives a clearer picture of Eph. 4:24 and other places where Paul used put on. God has actively, by himself endued, clothed or put on us the whole Armour; we are to remain arrayed in them. We are to remain in the power of his might. We are to stick to what he has given us -his vigour. God is concentrating on us. How he loves us with love beyond understanding. This is why we cannot willy-nilly take off the Armour at night before bedtime and willy-nilly put on this Armour in the morning before going out. God gave it to every christian at the point of salvation. Paul is admonishing the Ephesians to trust in it for that is the means by which the vigour of God grows within them. The Ephesians were facing some fierce battles....and they needed something more, they wanted something more effective. Paul, not allowing there emotional state to override him, Told them finally......be strong in the Lord ....... stay with this armour, invigorate yourself and that is all that is needed. Are we truly sticking to this armour? This battle is not an individual battle neither is it a private battle. The battle of the devil against God and the church is a big campaign and we as a church are in it together with God. If christians see this battle as individual and private, we are bound to be defeated. We have to see ourselves as an individual unit in a great army of God. As the devil has a campaign, so also God has his own campaign. His first campaign is to see that we stay with and in his vigour. We must be closely knitted together in the war and we must not break our ranks. Devils campaign is to stand behind man against the church but Gods campaign is that we sit at his right hand with Jesus and stay invigorated by his armour while God is in front. He is the Lord of Hosts. The captain of our salvation is the Lord God. The battle must be done his own way. Put on the whole Armour of God.........stay arrayed, stay clothed, trust in the armour you have been clothe or endued with........then you will remained ABLED to withstand the tricks that the devil brings into your mind. This battle is a mind battle. Is there any other example of a warfare where this principle was used? Yes. The case that readily comes to mind is that of the children of Israelites in the wilderness. This time around, they were being beaten by snakes. These snakes had been in this wilderness all the while but something went wrong. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. (Num 21:9) This church in the wilderness were in a serious dilemma. Act 7:38. They did not go about killing the snakes! No! They were given a simple and potent instruction to behold the serpent of brass that Moses made. As long as they beheld the serpent of brass, they overcame and remained standing. They beheld Christ who was lifted up and vigour was transmitted to them. This has always been Gods way for us in warfare. Others who transposed the instruction died. Those who exchanged the beholding for another method died in the wilderness. This is in similarity to what Paul is saying here! We are to be strong in the Lord and remain in the power of his might. The word beheld translated means: to scan, that is, look intently at; by implication to regard with pleasure, favour or care: - (cause to) behold, consider, look (down), regard, have respect, see. They scanned the brazen serpent, they looked intently at it. This same way, we are to scan and look intently at the POWER of his might....the armour of God. I shall dwell on that in Part 3. Paul is saying to the church in Ephesus that they should array themselves in the whole armour of God in other to get vigour that will make them stand and remain standing. So far in this chapter of Ephesians, we have not been told to face the devil and his cohorts; we have only been told by Paul to be in the power of his might by arraying ourselves in the whole Armour of God. Watch out for Part 3.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 13:50:10 +0000
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