6:13
So we are involved in a war against “the powers of this dark age” and the “spiritual forces of evil”. Should we be scared? No. We should certainly take it seriously, but we do not fear. The Bible is full of promises and commands to be strong and courageous for God is with us, if we are with Him. So we do not fear, but we take the matter seriously be putting on the full armour of God, We are fighting evil spiritual forces, so we need God’s armour in order to fight the battle. So that when the evil days comes we can stand our ground. Look at how often the church gives ground to the world, perhaps the most obvious example of this today is over sexual morality. It is a stupid mistake to give ground to the enemy. Note , that it is not us who get defeated, nor us who retreat, when we follow God’s ways. If we stand in the name of the Lord then it is the enemy who will do the retreating.
6:14
So we are to stand firm, and Paul now expresses the various attitudes we are to have in order to enable us to do this. First is the belt of truth. Making truth the foundation of our stand, or the part that holds everything together, is so different from the way the world operates. Normal politics is perhaps the most obvious place, where lying, or at least “being economical with the truth” is part and parcel of normal political discourse. If we look at the even more serious examples of the horrendous dictatorships, such as Germany under the Nazis, or Communism. The regimes are founded on lies, lies become central to keeping the whole edifice going. The LGBT agenda cannot cope with the truth, nor can the pro-abortion lobby.
The breastplate of righteousness can be looked at in two ways. One is our character, and we should indeed seek to be of good character. The other is the righteousness given to us in Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment