Fighting the Spiritual Battle Together

by Pr. Mei Wong

Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own.
(Eph 6:13, MSG)
In the previous chapters of Ephesians, Paul instructed the Christians to live out the gospel of cosmic reconciliation and be united as God’s new humanity. In this final chapter, Paul appealedto them to be prepared andfight the spiritual battleTOGETHER. Paul’s language of warfare was not foreign to the Christians there as theywere very familiar with the practice of magic and the powers of the occult.

Paul himself had suffered much for the sake of the gospel. He knew what was coming up against the church of God. So, he warned them to be corporately prepared for the onslaught of the enemy. Satan would attempt anything to destroy unity in the body of Christ, be it disobedience to God, dissension, misunderstanding, greed, falsehood, anger or impurity (Eph 4). And Paul knew that it would be far more than they could handle on their own (Eph 6:13). Hence, the reminder to fight the spiritual battle TOGETHER.

To stand against Satan’s attacks on our life TOGETHER as Christ’s new community here, we must put on the divine armour of God (Eph 6:14-17), pray (Eph 6:18) and fight as ONE!This means that truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation and God’s word must all be in place in the body of Christ. When all these are in place, we will be protected. Then we can stand.

Notice that the divine armour has only one piece (sword) that is to be used for attack. This reminds us that Christ has conquered the territories and now we are to ‘stand’ or hold our territory and not allow Satan to encroach on what belongs to us. The idea of ‘to stand’ is repeated in verses 11,13 and14.

Without God’s armor, the church will be defeated by the devil’s ‘schemes’which have been effective since ages past.So let us unite, stand and fight the battle TOGETHER!