Lesson 2: Spiritual Armor from God

Ephesians 6:10-11
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

While our jobs for Jesus are ambassador and priest, we must be equipped as soldiers. When Paul wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus, he was a prisoner in Rome, guarded by the elite soldiers of the Praetorian Guard – the Emperor’s best soldiers. Paul was chained to one or two of them at all times, so he had a very personal look at the armor these greatly-feared soldiers wore. Remember, Rome was the last civilization in history to rule the entire earth – and they ruled because their soldiers were the best in the world.

Paul’s words, “be strong in the Lord” meant we should be as strong in our battle against evil today as these Roman soldiers were to their enemies in their day. But our strength does not come from us – it is from Jesus’ might! A Roman soldier had the authority from his government to carry out his orders, and death and destruction was almost always the solution to any obstacle the soldier faced. And Ephesians 1:19 calls Jesus’ power “immeasurable power” – power that cannot be measured by anything on earth.


We are in a war! It is not just difficulty that we wish we could avoid, or circumstances that if we were just smart enough we would be able to avoid. We are in a war, and as we will learn in the next lesson, with beings we cannot see! Only God’s armor can be good enough or strong enough to protect us.

How do we successfully stand against the devil’s schemes? Matthew 10:38-39 gives us Jesus’ definition of success – take up His cross to carry it for Him, give up every dream for your life on this earth, and count this earthly life as being worthwhile only as it serves Him. How can we carry a cross while we are wearing His armor? Because He helps us carry our burden – Matthew 11:28-30. Our goal, unlike the Roman soldier, is not how many we can kill; our goal as a soldier for God is how many we can bring to Him for eternal life. Our battle is never for ourselves, even though we must stand against personal temptation; our battle is for those we can bring to victory and life.

Our soldier-duty is not to run and fight, to chase the enemy away. Our battlefield is the enemy camp where others are chained in darkness and held prisoner. We must stand! We stand to tell a person how they can be free even while the enemy’s arrows and weapons are being thrown at us. We stand because the prisoner in chains cannot move, and we protect them too from some of the attack of the enemy. We use our weapons to free the prisoners and bring them outside the camp, to Jesus (Hebrews 13:11) so they can find forgiveness and eternal life in Him.

*How has your focus for your life changed by understanding your true war?