The Full Armour of God for Pacifists Everywhere

And so we get to our last passage in Ephesians – and it is probably the most familiar – the “Full Armour of God”. Much loved by Sunday School teachers and those looking for an easy to understand illustration while the kids are in the service.

And that is probably where we end up positioning it – a nice passage that helps young folk grasp what God is about. We probably all know the armour – truth, righteousness, peace, faith and salvation. But exactly who are we fighting?

Let’s take a read from verse 10 and not the usual verse 13.

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. Ephesians chapter 6:10-20

Paul is in prison and he is under no illusions – we are at war. There are spiritual forces and the Devil himself has schemes to derail us from our Christian mission. Some people look at v12 and create elaborate schemes of the ranks in the Devil’s army. While it all looks very clever, it has little basis in the reality of what Paul is saying in this passage or elsewhere when he writes about the Christian fight.

Paul is in prison, or at least under house arrest depending on the exact time the letter to Ephesians was written. Just as Jesus told parables using the things around him at that moment – the man sowing seed, the fig tree, the mustard tree – so does Paul. But as he is being held captive, he uses the guard at his door as a metaphor or parable for how we need to protect ourselves from the Devil and the evil in the world.

Many have mistaken Paul’s words over the years to give some kind of assertion that we can fight a worldly fight in the name of Christ. And there is nothing here to say so. And if we look at context of the rest of Paul’s writing, he was a man of peace. In fact, one of the facets of the armour is the Gospel of Peace attached to our feet.

A few years before he wrote Ephesians, Paul wrote to a quite a different church about the Christians’ military involvement.

We do not fight from worldly motives. The weapons we use in our fight are not the world’s weapons but God’s powerful weapons, which we use to destroy strongholds  2 Corinthians 10:3-4

If we look back further to Jesus, non-violence was at the heart of His message. While I could write at length about pacifism and non-violence, Martin Luther King put it much more eloquently than I could:

Violence brings only temporary victories; violence, by creating many more social problems than it solves, never brings permanent peace. I am convinced that if we succumb to the temptation to use violence in our struggle for freedom, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and our chief legacy to them will be a never-ending reign of chaos. A Voice, echoing through the corridors of time, says to every intemperate Peter ‘Put up thy sword’. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations that failed to follow Christ’s command. Martin Luther King

So my conclusion from this passage is that the content of the armour is key – truth, righteousness, peace, faith and salvation – these are the principles that should undergird our Christian lives. Whether we believe the Devil is a real embodiment of evil or we just believe that there is bad stuff out there is sort of irrelevant. The daily battles we fight against apathy, selfishness, greed, unkindness, gluttony will only be won if we taken on the armour of God.

And so we are done. Our journey through Ephesians is complete. Paul concludes his letter with these personal words about the person delivering the letter and a final blessing.

²¹ Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. ²² I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.

²³ Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.

So grace and peace to you as you continue on life’s journey.