Armor of God

Ephesians 6:10-20

A man was coming out of church one day, and the preacher was standing at the door, as he usually did, to shake hands. He grabbed the man by the hand and pulled him aside.
The pastor said to him, “You need to join the Army of the Lord!”
The man quickly replied, “I’m already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor.”
Pastor questioned, “How come I don’t see you except at Christmas and Easter?”
He whispered back, “I’m in the secret service.”

One month ago, Lebanon was living a normal life of summer tourism and excitement. Suddenly the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers turned Lebanon into a war zone. Now after 35 days of meaningless fighting there is a fragile ceasefire. Israel claims to have won the war by invading Lebanon and weakening Hezbollah’s forces. Hezbollah claims to have won the war by defending its positions. Both are wrong. No one won the war. More than 1000 lives were lost. More than 4 billion dollars of destruction and waste; Environmental disaster of oil spill all over the Mediterranean Sea; and worse, militant people on both sides think they can continue this war towards a final victory.

Paul invited the Christian church to enter into a battle called “The Spiritual War.” Our war is against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (vs.12). This is not a joke. UN resolutions will not help this war. It does not belong to their realm. Therefore, Paul urges us to be armed to face this war.

I hate war. I was raised in the Middle East in the atmosphere of war. My school uniform was that of a soldier, so we will always remember that, even when we were in the classroom, war is coming soon, and we should be ready to face it. Later in Lebanon, when I was serving, the Civil War disturbed our daily life for many years. Now I look at Iraq, and I wonder when it will all end. I hate war, and I wish no one will experience war in their life.

We cannot escape from spiritual war. In our Sunday School classes we used to make shields, helmets and breastplates so we can visualize what is going on. We are familiar with the passage. But is it possible that we are so familiar with it that we don’t truly understand it? Perhaps we don’t want to think about this passage because it is about war and arms.

1. With exception of the sword, the Armor of God is a defensive way of facing the enemy. God is not giving us spears to attack the enemy. Lately a new movie came called “The End of the Spear” came out. It talks about how violence killed four missionaries. And then how the love of God won the war of hate when the wives of these missionaries continued the “spiritual war” in the same tribe.

Last week Knel Tourian was telling me a story from Lebanon in 1982. Israel invaded Lebanon again in 1982. Knel was there in Lebanon to help the Lebanese stand on their feet. One group of Christians went to a Shiite part of the city and helped these Moslems to rebuild their homes, which were destroyed by Christian artillery. One of the leaders of that Shiite group shook Knel’s hand and said. “I can not understand how much love you have toward us in rebuilding our homes.” It was only the love of God that made these militant people put their weapons aside. Knel was saying that he witnessed there the love of God which is stronger than the mighty war weapons that are used to destroy and control humanity.

God’s armor includes offensive and defensive weaponry. Offensive in not allowing the evil to conquer us, and defensive in not allowing evil to spread all over our lives. We need to understand that this war is God’s war. Our war is His war in our lives. Therefore , Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. God is empowering us to face this battle.

How? We will continue in English.