Ephesians 6:16-18

11 Put on the the full armor 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 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.

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.

In this passage, Paul describes the Christian life in warrior’s terms, being in “full armor” against all the evil influences that this world can bring to bear. This is not about going forth and conquering in the name of God, but about defending one’s own soul.

First, Paul cautions that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood;” our fellow humans are not the real enemy when it comes to battles of faith. (Would that modern political parties understood this!) Instead, our attention should be against the “rulers,” “authorities,” and “powers of this dark world”–in essence, Satan and more “spiritual forces of evil.” Spending more time defending against spiritual attack and less time attacking other humans will make us all readier for the faith battle ahead.

Next, Paul breaks down what “the full armor of God” means:

• the “belt” of truth, holding up other parts of the armor;
• the “breastplate” of righteousness (God’s righteousness, not ours), defending our soul;
• feet fitted with “readiness” from the gospel, enabling us to act decisively and prayerfully;
• the “shield” of faith, a usable defense against the world’s influences;
• the “helmet” of salvation, guarding our minds from corruption;
• the “sword” of the Spirit, giving us the spiritual tools we need to combat negative influences against us.

Notice that all these attributes–truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, and the Spirit–are all parts of the Christian character. Not only that, but Paul’s descriptions of “Christian armor” closely mirror Isaiah’s descriptions of the Messiah’s symbolic armor. Our best defense against the world’s evils, then, is to be of Godly character, acting, speaking, and being as much like Christ as possible. (This does not mean that the Devil will stop attacking us: far from it! But when he does attack, we’ll be ready.)

Lastly, verse 18 reminds us of the most important part of wearing the “armor of God”–prayer. If we don’t stay in contact with the One who has blessed us with such armor, we will find ourselves fighting a losing battle. And, as Paul says again in the last half of the verse, we should be praying for each other, too!

In total, these verses show us how to live more God-centered lives, and depict how each value is crucial to building Godly character. For certain, acting and speaking in Christian ways every day is not easy, but with the right “battle gear,” we’re more able!

Ephesians 4:1-3
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Though he’s addressing the ancient Ephesians, the apostle Paul could be writing to any modern Christian church. He urges us–not just suggests to us–that we as Christians should live a life that praises God, that is worthy of the sacrifice Jesus made for us. Part of living that God-honoring life is to be “completely humble,” “gentle,” “patient,” and unified in spirit when we Christians deal with each other on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis. We should “bear with one another in love.”

But how often do we see this “Christian love for each other” cast aside in the church when a petty disagreement erupts into a full-on social feud? How often do we see gossip flow around the church faster than encouraging words? And how often in the church do we see impatience, pride, and verbal brutality passing itself off as “honesty,” instead of humility, gentleness, and patience?

The answer: far too often, far more often than any of us would care to admit. We might be Christians, but we still sin, and social sins which occur within the church are sometimes the hardest to expunge because we want to pretend they don’t exist. The Ephesians were having difficulty with this concept, too–this is not a new problem. That’s why Paul wrote to them, to encourage them to relate to each other as Jesus related to us, to see each other as God sees us.

What does this entail? This means forgiving someone who took “our” parking space at church last Sunday, or speaking an encouraging word to that person who never seems to have a good word for anyone. This means accepting a fellow member’s admission of guilt when they have done something wrong, and not holding their past sins over their heads as if we have the power to judge and forgive.

This seems like such a simple concept, but it is VERY hard to enact in real life–thus, why Paul has to repeat it a lot in his letters. We must make an effort, every time we are in church, to see the other people around us as children of God, spiritual works in progress, and to treat them accordingly. That’s how we become ONE family of God, not “a bunch of different social cliques who all happened to show up at the same building on Sunday morning.”

Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Paul makes it clear, in this letter to the Ephesians, that God’s grace (provided through Jesus’ suffering and death by crucifixion) is what saves us as Christians, even today. God loves each one of us enough to want to reconnect with us through our faith, and if we accept by faith Jesus’ suffering and death as payment for our own sins, God welcomes us home.

And yet, there are some Christians today who do not truly believe that. Oh, they go to church, they do all the right things and say all the right words, but they don’t truly believe they’ve been saved by grace. They, instead, believe that they were saved by their own good works, which made them “good enough” to go to Heaven when they die. I’m sure this description puts you in mind of a few people you know, just as it does for me.

Being saved by works is a fallacy; much as it might sound good to the Christian ear to “work for salvation,” it is not needed, and indeed can even hinder salvation by causing boasting and ill feeling between Christians. (And if we can be “good enough” for God to save us on our own merits, then why did Jesus suffer and die, anyway?)

The Ephesians, too, were having trouble with this concept of being “saved by grace,” so Paul spells it out to them in this verse. Salvation is wrought by God and not by our own works; we don’t have to worry about working for God’s approval, because He already loved us enough to send His Son to pay our sin price.

We may lead an almost completely pure life, and we may spend almost every waking moment in service to God, but we still need that grace to be saved. No one is exempt, and no one can boast of anything else, as Paul says.

Ephesians 5:21-24
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Note the first verse of this excerpt: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Paul isn’t saying that the husband equals the Lord and the wife should abase herself before him. This passage is the beginning of an analogy, showing the similarity between a marriage relationship and the relationship between Christ and the church. “Submitting” in this context does not mean that there should be inequality or superiority/inferiority between husband and wife.

A past boyfriend of mine quoted this to me as proof that the Bible supports male superiority. I disagreed, and the larger section from which these verses are taken (Ephesians 5:21-33) disagrees with that assertion as well. Christian submission in marriage means voluntarily compromising, helping, hearing and acknowledging the other person’s viewpoint, and ultimately respecting each other. As we submit to Christ’s teachings and God’s will, so must husband and wife submit to helping each other.

This means that neither husband nor wife will always get their way; this means a lot of emotional work and maintenance throughout married life. It also means that each person’s pride and selfishness is put aside in favor of seeking God’s will and what is best for the other person. This is, after all, how Christ commanded us to treat each other–serving each other and putting God first.