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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. Therefore put on the full armor 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. (Ephesians 6:12-13)

As Pastor Michael mentioned yesterday, the command we\u2019re given in the Armor of God passage of Ephesians 6 is not to go marching or retreating, but rather, to stand. \xa0That word \u201cstand\u201d is repeated again here\u2014twice. \xa0And it will not be the last time you hear it. \xa0

In this, Paul is echoing Jesus himself, who in the great end-times passage of Matthew 24 speaks of all sorts of terrible things: \u201cwars and rumors of wars,\u201d \u201cfamines and earthquakes,\u201d persecution, and death. \xa0At that times, he says \u201cmany will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other.\u201d Indeed, \u201cthe love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.\u201d (See Mt. 24:4-13)

The question naturally arises: if all we\u2019re to do is stand\u2014why does Paul resort to battle imagery like armor to describe our stand? \xa0I think the battle imagery keeps us alert to the fact that we had better have our wicks trimmed and lamps lit. \xa0That there is an urgency to our standing. \xa0A preparedness that comes with it. \xa0We\u2019re not loitering. \xa0There\u2019s an enemy prowling around like a lion, looking for someone to devour. \xa0There is evil crouching at our door. \xa0The battle is real, even if our only orders are to stand.
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Who is this enemy? \xa0In a word: evil. \xa0Not sin, but evil. \xa0And we can very quickly stumble down an endless trail of speculation should we attempt to surmise much more than that. \xa0But that\u2019s not the point. \xa0Notice that what Paul displays most of all here, is restraint. \xa0He does not indulge our curiosities on evil. \xa0He mostly seems interested in making one, single distinction by telling us what the enemy is not: the enemy is not the flesh and blood people with names and faces around us. \xa0Those people we are called to love. \xa0They may sin, they may even by vectors of some of the evil we experience\u2014but they are not themselves the enemy. \xa0And in standing against the day of evil, our love for them is not to grow cold. \xa0

We hold two things in tension then: firstly, that our enemy is disembodied and mostly beyond our perception, but secondly, that the battle is nevertheless still real. \xa0That\u2019s all the more we get from Paul on the subject in this letter. \xa0Paul does not give us the tools for deciphering the cryptic work of evil. \xa0Instead, he gives us the armor of God.\xa0
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And what are we to do with this armor in the battle against the enemy? \xa0We could go on the offensive, crusading against evil and defining ourselves by what we\u2019re against. \xa0We could go on the defensive, cowering in fear and paranoia of not knowing where evil will come from or how it will show itself. \xa0We could also plug our ears, stick our heads in the sand and ignore it altogether, living with Laodicean lukewarmness. \xa0But all of these miss the call of Ephesians 6. \xa0Which is not a call to retreat, nor a call to advance onward, nor a call to loiter\u2014it is instead, simply a call to stand firm where we are. \xa0And where we are, is not in the clutches of evil. \xa0Where we are is in Christ, the Lord\u2014surrounded and guarded not by our own might, but by His mighty power.\xa0

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:17-21).