The Christian Ministry II: Help for Today’s Pastors: Ephesians
Now, Ephesians presents us with a problem, because it is not a specific letter at all. It is the least personal of Paul’s letters. He only tells us one thing about himself in the whole letter, and that is that he is a prisoner. There is no list of greetings. There is only one person mentioned by name in the whole letter: Titicus. We’re not even absolutely sure who the recipients of the letter are. The words “in Ephesus” are missing from several good, early manuscripts. Scholars think that it is probably a circular letter sent to a network of smaller churches in the city of Ephesus, and perhaps around it with a number of Gentiles in the churches who have been converted since Paul left. He’s writing to some people that he doesn’t know.
Now, I certainly could stretch it. I mean, I could follow the previous course. I think we can see how Ephesians would be appropriate for Ephesian, Asian Christians; artemis worship, a center of magic, astrology, lots of teaching about principalities and powers. So, there is a lot in the letter that really is appropriate to those Ephesian Christians, but there’s nothing more specific than that. There are only two references to false teaching. (4:14 and 5:6). They’re pretty brief, general references. We’re not aware of any crisis or any problems that the church is wrestling with. I very much like the statement of someone who said, “Ephesians is more of a prophylactic medicine or nutritional supplement than a remedy for a known malady.” That’s a concise way of expressing what I’ve been trying to say. A nutritional supplement. So, that’s how I want to use it today, as a nutritional supplement, to focus with you on how Ephesians can help us with obvious weaknesses in 21st century Evangelicalism. Gaps in our witness that disfigure and damage us.
So, I’m not going to attempt to complete an analysis of the epistle, and I’m also going to pass over one or two areas where I think that we are relatively strong. For example, soteriology in chapter 2. I feel we, as a group of men, are pretty well in that. Or realized eschatology. We looked at that several years ago in Colossians. We already have in Christ all that we need, and Paul comes back to that a great deal here. There’s not much on the crucifixion of Christ; he’s not dealing with justification. It’s Christ on the throne, on the blessings. We’re going to pass over those. I’ve made a rather arbitrary selection, although I think there’s a flow. I want us to look at four points: the majesty of the gospel, the centrality of the church, the priority of unity, and the reality of warfare. I think these are lessons that we, as pastors, need to learn.
First then, the majesty of the gospel. We are aware at once, as we begin to read, that this is a different style. This is a different Paul. In fact, his style is so different that some liberals and scholars doubt Pauline authorship of Ephesians. I have a fairly simplistic to that area of study: if it says that Paul wrote it, then I believe it. I don’t teach any courses on authorship to my students. I get them to read the introduction, and I say I’m not going to waste time on that. I’m not going to spend an hour trying to prove that Paul wrote Ephesians. 1:1, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.” If you don’t believe the Bible, you shouldn’t be here, but the style is certainly different. It’s elaborate; it’s stately; it’s formal. One writer says it’s liturgical. You will know that from verse 3 to verse 14 of chapter one is one long sentence of 202 Greek words. Very, very unusual.
There are participles and prepositional phrases and relative clauses. Paul uses a variety of—I was going to say synonyms, but I don’t think there are any synonyms in the Bible. They’re near synonyms to emphasize key thoughts. The purpose of His will; wisdom and insight; the counsel of His will; the praise of His glory; the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. Now, we don’t believe there are any wasted words in the Bible. There aren’t, but if we were going to ever say that Paul’s style was slightly redundant, it would be Ephesians. We’d say he’s taking a number of words to express what he wanted to say. There’s a profound atmosphere of worship and prayer. It’s like stepping into a cathedral when you start reading Ephesians 1.
There are many parallels with the old Jewish Baraka Prayer. The Prayer of Blessing that was used in the synagogues. The Baraka Prayer had three elements. It began with a description of blessing to God. Secondly, it gave reasons why God should be blessed. And thirdly, there was a refrain, a repeating chorus throughout the Baraka Prayer. If you look at that opening passage in Ephesians, that’s a Jewish Baraka Prayer. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s the blessing. Why is He blessed? “Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, gifts.” He gives the reasons, and then, three times you have the refrain, “To the praise of His glorious grace,” verse 6. “To the praise of His glory,” verse 12. “To the praise of His glory,” verse 14.
So, the whole effect is solemn and exulting and elevating and ennobling. You feel you’re on holy ground, and the style is appropriate for the subject matter. For Paul is stepping back from the crisis and the controversies behind the other letters. He looking at the big picture. He’s setting before these Gentile believers the magnificence of what God has been doing, and their place in the great plan and purpose of God. It’s the biggest picture possible. Paul’s canvas is the created cosmos. Not only the visible world, but five times he uses the phrase, “In the heavenlies.” He doesn’t use it in that form anywhere else in his writings. By “in the heavenlies” or “in the heavenly places,” I don’t think he means Heaven so much. It’s the realm where spiritual forces are at work which affect our lives.
So, it’s the visible and the invisible cosmos. It’s not only the geography which is big, it’s the timescale. He begins in eternity. “He has chosen us from before the foundation of the world.” Then he takes us in verse 21 of chapter 1 to the age to come. So, this is a huge canvas that Paul is painting for us. He’s describing a cosmic battle between good and evil, between truth and falsehood. He’s showing us these mighty, spiritual powers which have rebelled against the Lord God and, as a result of their rebellion, there’s a rift at the heart of the cosmos; there’s a brokenness; there’s an aliennation. Human beings are enslaved by unseen, spiritual, anti-God forces, and this enslavement has resulted in separation from God and in division among themselves.
Paul’s explaining the world and he’s telling us that God has an eternal plan to heal this brokenness, to reverse this state of hostility, to overthrow the powers of evil, and to reconcile human beings to Himself and to each other. God has revealed that His agent in this is His Son the Messiah. In a very paradoxical way, He has done it by His death and suffering. He has healed the rupture at the heart of the cosmos, between God and humanity. He has broken the powers of evil, and He’s now in the process of knitting the universe back together to the glory of His name. Chapter 1, verse 10, “According to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in Heaven and things on earth.”
Paul’s subject is the history and future of the universe. God’s eternal, overarching plan for all reality. The scope, brethren, is breathtaking, from the immensities of space to the change in one human heart. “For God works all things, all things, according to the counsel of His will.” (1:11). So, it is the most majestic theme imaginable. That is why, among the perceptive, Ephesians is so highly valued. It was John Calvin’s favorite New testament book. It’s been called “The crown and climax of Pauline theology,” the distilled essence of the Christian religion. B.B. Warfield described it as, “The poem among the epistles.” Martin Lloyd Jones says, “If Romans is the purest expression of the gospel, Ephesians is the sublimest and most majestic expression of it.” It emphasizes throughout the glory and grace of God.
So, the challenge for us is simply this: is the gospel we preach majestic and huge and awe-inspiring and noble and mighty? Is this what our people are committed to when they say, “I’m a Christian”? Do they have an awareness, “I am someone who is caught up in the majestic, cosmic purposes of God for the whole universe”? Or do they just think, “I have some good little personal goodies from God that will make me a little bit happier and get me to Heaven in the world to come”? Is this the message that the world is hearing from the Christian church? Do they think of Christians as people who have an enormous idea, who have a huge message? Like it or don’t like it, believe it or don’t believe it, it’s awe-inspiring!
Karl Marx had an awe-inspiring message. A new society! A new world! Millions of people were captured by the breadth of his vision. Islam has a strong ideology. It’s a sick joke, of course, but they teach the brotherhood of all men. Of course, they’re murdering each other, but the theory is the brotherhood of all men in submission to Allah. We smile, but there are millions of people, particularly in the African continent, who were oppressed and ill-treated, and Islam touched something in their hearts, the breadth of it and the grandeur of it. Is the Christian gospel commanding the unwilling respect of thinking people as a profound, serious analysis of the biggest issues that human beings can ever face or think about? The majesty of the gospel.
At the Reformation, our forefathers turned away, rightly, from external impressiveness. Gothic churches, stained glass windows, robes, 16-part chorales. They say they got in the way of spiritual reality, but their theology was huge, was noble, was majestic, was profound. The tragedy is that modern evangelicals have not only moved away from transcendance, they actually avoid transcendance. They don’t want transcendance. Preaching is horizontal, man-centered, foxy, common-sense sermons. You can do it, and the people digest.
Worship. It’s accessible; it’s feel-good. You must not have anything that will disturb or alarm or seem strange to the man in the street who walks in. By that decision, you have destroyed everything you hope to achieve, because if somebody can come into the presence of God and there’s nothing strange or alarming or disturbing, what sort of God are we talking about? So, it’s a totally self-destructive strategy. Totally self-destructive. The minister is now a competent manager or an entertaining nice guy. There is very little awe or wonder or mystery or reverence or worship. There is very little sense of being overwhelmed by the greatness and the grandeur of it all. Somebody was mentioning the other evening how often do our people feel constrained. All the depths, the wisdom, and the knowledge of God, and then we are surprised the world isn’t impressed. What is there to impress it?
Our young people are drifting away. They’re idealists, and they’re not getting ideals set before them. Evangelicals are going back to Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. You know what that is? It’s a hunger for transcendence and all irreverence. They’re looking in the wrong place. That’s not the answer, but it is a substitute. They would rather have that than just a purely horizontal, man-centered situation. Ephesians calls us back to the majesty of the gospel.
O’brien, in his commentary, says, “It challenges and redefines the superficial understanding of the gospel prevalent in our own day.” As ministers, we’ve got to devote our lives to hard, prayerful study of these stupendous truths, and we have got to comport ourselves and to conduct ourselves not as silly, little men with trivious, little messages, but men who have the greatest, noblest, most glorious, and majestic message entrusted to human beings. And to preach sermons which, however feebly, seek to express the grandeur and the glory of it, so that people say, “This is a great thing. This is a marvelous God.” We want to paint the big picture for our people, that we’re all caught up in something transcendent and amazing, far bigger than any of us or all of us, far greater than our personal happiness and well-being: these mighty forces and the purpose of God. So that would be my first challenge to us as Evangelicals: the majesty of the gospel.
Secondly, we have the centrality of the church. For many Christians today the church is a mixture of a grocery store and a community center. It is a place where you can obtain spiritual food for the coming week, and it’s a place where you can enjoy activities with like-minded people. A grocery store and community center. There’s a customer mentality. There’s a what’s-in-it-for-me mentality. One Christian writer wrote of the church and, sadly, he was serious, “We have to recognize that as church, we are in a competitive situation for people’s leisure time.” We’re like the bowling alley or the golf course. We’ve got to offer something that will attract them. People change churches easily. It’s like going to a different grocery store. “They’ve got a few specials, well, I’ll go there.” That is what happens.
People have no sense of the authority of the church. “Never mind discipline.” They outrage at the church’s attempt to discipline them! “We’ve got privatized religion.” Have you Jesus as your own, personal Saviour? You have the parent church organizations. Some Christians describe the church as a parentheses. Some professing Christians are recently describing churches as a mistake, and have urged their cultish followers to avoid the church and stay away from the church.
When we come into Ephesians, we enter a totally different thought-world. It’s just a different universe altogether. You, men, will know that Paul’s use of Ecclesia in Ephesians is not his normal use of the word. He normally uses it to refer to local congregations. In Ephesians, he uses it to refer to the church, universal, to all believers considered as a unity. It’s the focus of his writing. One commentator says, “If Colossians stresses the Christ of the church, Ephesians stresses the church of Christ.”
Staggeringly, it appears that the church is the beneficiary of the reign of the exalted Christ. 1:22, “He gave him as head over all things to the church.” For the benefit of the church, and this is because the church “is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” I found a helpful phrase in the IVP Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, it paraphrased this phrase “The church is His body, the fullness of Him.” It said, “The church is the concentrated expression of Christ’s sovereign rule. The concentrated expression of Christ’s sovereign rule.” It’s not saying He doesn’t rule sovereignly everywhere. He does, but the concentrated expression of His rule is the church.
Remember God’s purpose? “To unite all things in Christ.” That’s the purpose of history. Where do we see that purpose fulfilled? Where’s the only place we see it fulfilled? Where do we see God and man reconciled? Where do we see man and man reconciled? In the church. The community of the reconciled. The church is the earthly revelation of the mystery of Christ, “That the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus, through the gospel.”
Brethren, it is in the church that the world sees the reality of the reconciliation, which is God’s purpose for the universe. The church is a pilot plant of Heaven. The church is a visual aid to display the redeeming power of Christ, and, furthermore, the church is also the agent of reconciliation. Not just the example of reconciliation, but the appointed means by which this process of reconciliation will be carried on in the world, because the church has been entrusted with the message of reconciliation. It’s through our ministry that the cosmos becomes reconciled. It’s a stupendously high view of the church. It’s even more than that. “The church [says Paul] is a cosmic witness.” It’s a witness to the principalities and powers of evil, that they are doomed. Our existence is proclaiming to the demons and Satan. “You’re doomed! Your day is over!” And it is also a demonstration to the holy angels of the grace of God. 3:10-11, “So that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. According to the eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
You’ll know that Paul describes the church in those three eloquent, suggestive metaphors: the building and the body and the bride. Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. I’m not going to take any time to apply this. I believe that every man in this room is committed to the centrality of the church. I know you are. With all our weaknesses, we’re convinced of that. We need to persuade our people, we need to show the world. Calvin says, “If we do not prefer the church to all other objects of our solicitude, we’re unworthy of being counted among our members.” Psalm 137: 5-6, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!” The church.
Thirdly, we have the priority of unity. This is logical, since it is God’s overarching purpose to unite all things in Him. Therefore, since this is God’s purpose and plan for His universe, this uniting, this unity must have priority for His glory. Paul, in Ephesians, develops it in two spheres: firstly, in the church, and secondly, in personal relationships.
Firstly, in the church. What is the mystery revealed in Ephesians? What is the cause to which Paul dedicated his life? It’s what he learned that day on the Damascus road, when the risen Christ appeared to Saul of Tarsus and said in Acts 26:18, “The Gentiles—to whom I am sending you, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” God said, “I’m going to bring mankind together. I’m going to heal the split. I’m going to end the division, and you, Paul, are my agent.” So he can say in 3:1, “I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles.” “That’s who I am, [he says] that’s what I’m about.” This is what he has often shed his blood for. This is what he’s going to die for.
He says in 3:13, “I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.” He wants these Gentiles to understand the wonder of what has happened to them! “That you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints.” 2:13-14, 19, “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one. So, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household.” So, this is people who were alien, who were hostile, who had no time for each other. They’d been brought together, and in the coming of the Gentiles into the churches, Paul sees a crucial, new stage in redemptive history. He sees the healing of the break, of the rupture. He sees Heaven, and he celebrates it, and He gives God glory for it. So, it’s imperative that the church keeps and protects and displays this unity to the watching universe. That’s really the force of the second half of the letter.
O’brien says chapters 4-6 are, “Fundamentally a call to unity.” Unity in the church first. 4:1,3, “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” In other words, brethren, the church is a witness not only to God’s redeeming grace, but to God’s oneness. “There is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” A divided church is proclaiming a lie about God! A divided church is denying the efficacy of the reconciling work of Christ! A divided church is saying, “It didn’t work. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t manage it. He couldn’t bring us together.” This unity is not monolithic. It is unity in diversity. The risen Lord gives apostles, prophets, Evangelists, pastors, teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. As these gifts are used together, as the diverse members cooperate, “We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head.” (4:15). When each part is working properly, it makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
I have, reluctantly, to disagree with the assessment of James Renihan in the Banner of Truth magazine for August-September 2004. He here argues, in his article, that the officers given by Christ to the church are to do three things. He goes with the older interpretation. “The pastors/teachers are to equip the saints, to do the work of ministry, and to edify the body of Christ.” Have any of you read this article? I’m not persuaded by his argument. I don’t think he’s correct. He wants to guard the honor and the dignity of the Christian ministry. He wants to argue against a dissipation of the authority of the ministry, but I looked at a number of places where Paul uses these two prepositions: prós and eis. In five other instances I found, the second phrase is always subordinate to the first phrase. It modifies its meaning; it narrows its meaning. So, I don’t want to pontificate on it yet. I still have an open mind, but I think I certainly would still lean to the more modern understanding that the pastor/teachers are given to equip the saints and the saints, then, do work of service and edify the body of Christ, but I leave that with you. The unity of the church.
What do we do with that? Is there anything that should make us more ashamed? The splits, the suspicion, the estrangement, the quarrels, the jealousy, the ignorance, and the remoteness. One writer says, “The principalities and powers laugh at the church. A case study in divisiveness, territorialism, and exclusivism.” I’ve no easy answers. I know that there’s a real, spiritual unity. We experience this unity in Christ, don’t we? We know that God’s purposes are infallibly carried out, but, surely brethren, there must be a sense in which this unity is more absorbable than it at present is. It’s got to be seen. It’s not a mystic thing that we just assume somewhere exists. It’s not impossible.
Paul prays that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known, and later he reminds us that the One to whom he prays, “Is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him, [to the One who is able to do more abundantly], to Him be glory in the church.” Our divisions—probably the tragic thing is that we don’t feel the burden of them. We’re not even putting ourselves in the way of looking for an answer and expecting an answer. We can’t read Ephesians and feel comfortable about our present Ecclesiastical setup. You read about the oneness and the unity and the witness and the reconciling of people. I’ll leave it with you; the priority of unity in the church.
Secondly, the priority of unity in personal relationships. The Ephesians are new people in Christ. He uses the phrase, “In Christ,” 34 times in this one letter. It’s fundamental to his thinking. So, he says, “You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.” (4:17). Much could be said of Paul’s ethical teaching here. It’s hand and hand with his doctrine. Gresham Machen writes, “It is useless to try to attain the lofty ideal of the conduct of chapters 4-6 without attending to the heavenly vision in chapters 1-3. You’ll not get the conduct if you don’t have the heavenly vision. Just as on the other hand the vision itself grows faint and disappears unless it is made effective in holy living from day to day.” So, that’s a beautifully balanced statement from Machen.
What struck me on looking at Ephesians this time—I’m looking now at 4:25 following—is how anti-social these sins are against which he warns us. Falsehood, anger, stealing, corrupting talk, bitterness, wrath, slander, malice, sexual immorality, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talk, crude joking—these are all hurting people. These are damaging people. They’re splitting the fellowship. They’re dividing the body. These anti-social sins are to be replaced by Christ-like virtues. Speak truth, doing honest work, sharing with the needy, good talk that builds up, kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, walking in love, giving thanks.
Paul’s touchstone for Christian ethics is given in 4:25. “For we are members one of another.” That’s the great principle, and you can see it’s the principle of unity, of reconciliation, of oneness. This is what God is doing in the universe; this is His purpose; this is what we see in the church and now in our personal relationships. We have been made one! We belong together! He focuses on the sins which damage our oneness, and he focuses on the virtues which cement and strengthen our oneness. That is beautifully illustrated on what it’s fashionable to now call, “The household code” of 5:22 to 6:9. It basically is the extended household, including the master and the servants. Children and parents, servants and masters, and especially husbands and wives. It fits in perfectly with his theme of unity in plurality. Unity in plurality. Two separate, diverse people become one flesh. It is the cosmic purpose of God.
A true story in the French Parliament is told in the late 1800s. They were having a debate about something and one of the deputies said, “Mr. President, after all, men and women are different.” Some little, enthusiastic deputy jumped up out of the back and shouted, “Vive la différence!” “Long live the difference!” They are different, and they become one flesh. A glorious, beautiful, fruitful unity. That unity is fulfilled in Christ by mutual love and mutual self-giving. The husband: sacrificial, purposeful, servant leadership. The wife: willing, constructive, submission.
One writer says, “Marriage is a living sacrament to the church of what it should progressively become.” I prefer another word to “sacrament,” but leaving that aside, “Marriage is a living example to the church of what the church should progressively become.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Unity and diversity to the glory of God. Brethren, doesn’t that give you material for preaching to your married people? Doesn’t that put marriage on an incredibly exalted and noble plane? Right at the heart of God’s cosmic purposes for His universe: unity in diversity to the glory of God. What a role for the Christian home and the Christian family! It’s unity and diversity to the glory of God.
I’m stressing this because I think Paul is reminding us here that Christian living is primarily relational. It’s holiness in community. That Christian living is largely—don’t misunderstand me, I‘m not denying in any way our primary relationship to God, but the outliving of the Christian life is primarily how we treat our fellow human beings. It isn’t so much sitting polishing our lonely halo to get it brighter and brighter in isolation from everyone else. It’s loving our neighbor as ourselves. It’s not Christ-like to be a hermit. It’s not Christ-like to be a social misfit. It’s not Christ-like to be an Ishmael with your hand against everyone. We’ve got to help some people in our churches who just haven’t got that dimension of the Christian life.
Paul is saying a great part of the Christian life is how we relate to each other and love each other and help each other. Perhaps some of us need our own personalities expanded. Perhaps some of us are naturally shy, introverted men, fond of books and to study, uncomfortable around people. The outworking of holiness is unity and diversity, ministering to one another. Is there anything more relevant for our lonely, cruel, tear-stained, divided world? Is there anything more attractive? We talk about attracting the world. This is how to attract the world, not by having bands and a show of lights flashing from the ceiling. No, no! It’s people who love each other, who love God. That all fits in, you see, to his overall theme.
In our church meetings, we never allow a raised voice. As soon as anybody raises their voice, I say, “I can’t hear you.” Nobody’s allowed to be angry. “If you can’t control yourself, leave.” We just don’t allow it. I’ll come down on that, as a pastor, more than anything else. I’ll bear theological confusion, people getting mixed up, people falling into sin, but if you get a nasty spirit, I’m against you. I have a ruthless side to me, but I will not have it. I won’t have it, because I’ve seen what it’ll do to churches. And my fellow elders, we stop it dead in its tracks. “It’s not going to happen in here.” We have to be adamant defenders of the kindness and courtesy of our discourse and our relationship. It’s inappropriate, because if you allow one person to raise and then somebody else raise and then before you know where you are, what’s happening? You’ve a war in your midst. So, the priority of unity.
That brings us, lastly, to the reality of warfare. Now, Martin Lloyd Jones preached 52 sermons on this, and someone wrote 1189 double column pages. So, you’ll not expect me to expound it in 10-15 minutes. But note the marvelous balance and wisdom of this pastor. I love Paul. So far, the letter has been warm and glowing and joyful and exulting, and we’re up in the heavenlies. It’s glorious. It’s like a bath. It does your spirit good, but he can’t end there. He knows the world these people are living in. He’s a wise pastor, and so, in chapter 6, verse 10-20, he alerts the people. He says, “Remember in all of this, there’s a war going on.” Now, that’s a cliché. We all know there’s a war going on, but has it penetrated our Christian thinking and the thinking of our people? We are in a wartime situation. There are constraints; there are sacrifices; there are limits; there are things we can’t do; there are places we can’t go; there are things we must endure. We’re in the camp; we’re out in the field; we’re not sitting at home in our armchairs; we’re fighting a battle; we’re fighting a war. Do our people think that way?
Martin Lloyd Jones says, “It is a stirring called, ‘A battle.’ Do you not hear the bugle and the trumpet?” Surely that’s lacking in the modern church. Forty years ago Frances Chafer warned us. He said, “Christians are going to settle for personal peace and affluence, and that will be enough to buy them.” That is exactly what has happened! Chafer was prophetic. The world has said, “We’ll allow you to be healthy, and we’ll leave you pretty much alone.” “Personal peace and affluence.” Too many of our people have bought into that, and we need a revolution in attitudes.
Now, they’re only a few things I can say, but let me set 4-5 points very briefly before you as to the nature of this warfare.
First of all, it is spiritual in nature. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.” Paul does not mean that the warfare is otherworldly. It is earthy in the extreme, and very physical. But he’s saying that these are instruments in the hands of the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic powers, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Our warfare is spiritual in nature. From which we can draw two simple conclusions.
Firstly, the nature of the weapons is determined by the nature of the war. You don’t fight a desert campaign with the same weapons you fight a sea battle. It’s a different kind of war. The nature of the war determines the nature of the weapons. So, we must use spiritual weapons. It’s a spiritual war!
Secondly, we must remember who the real enemy is. Listen to John Calvin. He’s commenting on this statement of Paul, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.” Calvin says—let us remember this statement—“When men’s injuries provoke us to revenge, those who annoy us are nothing more than darts thrown by the hand of Satan. While we are employed in overcoming them, we lay ourselves open to be wounded on all sides. We must go straight to the enemy.” Isn’t that wise advice? If somebody hurts you, you focus on them. That’s not the problem. Just leave them to God. He’ll deal with them. Don’t get obsessed with our physical injurers. “Let’s go,” says Calvin, “to the real enemy. They’re only darts that he’s throwing at us. Spiritual in nature.
Secondly, it’s corporate in context. All the verbs in this passage are plural. It’s quite astonishing how Ephesians 6 has been preached on for the last hundred years or so, as if all the verbs were second person singular. It’s been preached to individuals. “You have got to stand. You have got to put on the full armor of God.” Is that the way soldiers fight? Would you expect to hear in your news broadcast, “Oh, we’re sending a soldier to Iraq tomorrow, and then the next day we’re going to send another soldier. We hope they get on well.” No! Together! Together! Body! Unity! Paul’s talking to the regiment. Paul’s talking to the army. Their success depends on cooperation. It depends on unity! This is still his theme. He hasn’t gone away from his theme. In other words, we’ve got to teach our people, “Don’t allow yourself to become isolated. You’ll get picked off. If you get isolated from the body, you’re easily meat for the enemy. Got to stay together!” It’s corporate in its context.
Thirdly—I wasn’t sure just how to entitle this. I originally had it, “Self-contained in its strategy.” I changed that to, “It’s Christ-sufficient in its strategy.” Still not satisfied. The point is that the armor of God, he mentions here, except for the sword, is all defensive armor. It’s used to resist the enemy who is coming at us, and the key verb he uses is defensive. “To stand.” He uses it four times in verses 11, 13, and 14. It’s a Greek military term for holding your position. “Hold your position,” he says, and the armor is mostly defensive. That bothered me quite a bit, because how do we reconcile that with the triumph of the exalted Christ and that we are taking the battle to the enemy? We’re not waiting for them to come to us. We are to assault the enemy. Is that not the picture that our Lord gave us that we so often misinterpret? “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” And people think, “Oh, the gates of hell are going to come to attack us!” Well, gates don’t attack you, you attack gates! He says, “I’m going to build my church, and you’re going to go smashing through the gates of hell. They’re not going to be able to stop you.”
So, how then do we cope with this here? Let me put this to you. Paul has taught us that in Christ we already have everything that God has for us. Chapter 1, verse 3, “God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Chapter 2, verse 6, “God has seated us with Him in the heavenly realms.” So in that sense, we have in Christ all we need. We don’t need anything else. There’s no other blessing we need to capture. There’s no other blessing we need to go out and win and get. We have it all, and Satan’s only possible strategy is to make us forget what we have in Christ. Can we think of this as if we are a crew of soldiers in a huge, impregnable tank which is rolling forward against the enemy? All we’ve got to do is stay in the tank. If we stay in the tank, nobody can stop us. Nobody can beat us. We have the armor; we have the weaponry. Paul is saying here, “Put on the armor of God.” It’s a defensive war, but we have everything. We are operating from a position of strength. All we need to do is use the weapons and the armor which God has provided for us.
Fourthy, it is Christ-centered in its equipment. Those of you who have preached about this passage will know that the commentators are divided as to precisely the meaning of the armor. Is this objective armor or subjective armor? The arguments are finally balanced. I think it’s best to do what John Stalk does and to take it in both senses so that, for example, the belt of truth is the belt of objective truth, the Word of God. We bind the Word of God around ourselves, and the belt of sincerity and uprightness in ourselves, which is a subjective thing. “The breastplate of righteousness [Stalk would say] is the imputed, alien righteousness of Christ, and it is also our sanctification.” The imparted righteousness, perhaps that’s having the best of both worlds, but I’m not comfortable with coming down on one side or the other exclusively.
However, what we have here is Old Testament language speaking of the Warrior Messiah. This is Messianic language, the leader and the representative of His people. Isaiah 11:5, “Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.” Isaiah 59:17 is even clearer that this is the King Messiah. “He put on righteousness as His breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head.” So, when Paul writes, “Put on the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation,” where did he get that language? It’s quite clear he got the language from the armor of Messiah. Jesus has worn this armor. Jesus has been victorious in this armor, and now in Him—34 times “In Christ”—we are to put on Christ. “Put on the whole armor of God. Be strong in the Lord.” Closeness to Christ, conformity to Christ, dependence on Christ.
In fact, if you have time, look sometime at Romans 13, verses 12 and 14. In verse 12, Paul says, “Let us put on the armor of light.” In verse 14 he says, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” So, it looks very much as if he’s saying that the two things are the same thing. “Put on the armor of light.” What is that? It’s to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s Christ-centered in its equipment.
Fifthly and lastly, this warfare is prayerful in its conduct. Verse 18, “Praying,” a present participle governing everything that he has just said. “Praying.” He says, “Praying at all times.” The Greek is kairos (καιρός). I wonder, does that mean at all times? Or does that mean praying in every strategic moment? Isn’t that what a kairos is? Of course we ought to pray at all times. I’m not denying that, but as Paul here is saying, it’s something a little bit more focused. “Praying at crucial moments,” and that would make sense of the phrase in verse 19. “To this end, keep alert.” Then you have the corporate idea, again, “For all the saints.”
Calvin is wonderful here. “The necessities of our brethren ought to touch us.” If at any time we are cold in prayer, or more negligent than we ought to be, it’s because we do not feel the pressure of immediate necessity. We’re comfortable! Let us instantly reflect how many of our brethren are worn out by varied and heavy afflictions, weighed down by deep anxiety or reduced to worst distressed. If we are not roused from our lethargy, we must have hearts of stone. Do you have anyone to pray about? Do you have anything to pray about? If that doesn’t stir us—”Praying for all the saints.”
Paul ends as he often ends and as we end this conference, by coming to a personal request. He’s an elderly man. He’s in prison. What’s he going to ask for? He reminds me of an old boxer, and the old fighter’s been down a few times. He’s bleeding from the head and the mouth; his legs are starting to go. But he’s still on his feet, and he’s still functioning. “Pray for me, that words may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.” That’s what we should pray for, brethren. We pray that God will keep your mouths open boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. If we all go away and do that, this has been a well-spent time. Let us bow in prayer.
Lord, Your Word is a great deep, and we are little children, paddling in the edge. We thank you for taking us to some extent further in and showing us the majesty and the wonder of it all, and that our little lives and that our little gifts are transformed by being used for You in Your glory and in Your great, eternal purpose of reconciling all things in Christ. Father, we pray that as we each one go back to our places appointed for us to stand—many of them obscure, apparently insignificant and difficult—that we may stand like men in Christ. May we seek to reconcile men and women to You and to each other, little by little, sin by sin, piece by piece, and to feel ourselves caught up in this great and glorious purpose. Help us to be united one to the other, to stand without a gap in our ranks through which the enemy may come. Lord, may there be the fiercest resolve in each of our hearts at this moment that by Your grace, Lord, I will stand in the ranks with my brothers, and I won’t fall out. May there not be a gap because of me. We ask it in Christ and for His sake. Amen.
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