The Sound of Forehands Clapping

My friends and I are going through Ephesians 6:10-15 tonight. It’s a very familiar passage to me, but I’ve been giving it some new thought. It begins with:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

I’ve been reflecting on what “the schemes of the devil” means. We know from Scripture that Satans goal is the spiritual death of as many as possible. It’s also been said by many Christians that Satans fall back goal (if he can’t prevent salvation that is) is to keep us bound so that we do not do the work of Him who called us.

The breadth of Scripture presents Satan as the liar, the deceiver and the accuser of the brothers. His goal is death and his means are most often lies. So what are his “schemes?”

A World Heavy Weight Champion
A professional fighter trains himself thoroughly in such a way that he has a large array of different attacks. I’ve heard it’s quite common that before a match, a fighter and his coach will watch video, a lot of video, of the opponent. Seeing where his opponents strengths and weakness are, the fighter will tailor his fight to take advantage of these.

Usually when I hear “the schemes of the devil” I think of them in very broad terms, but when Satan looks upon me and is scheming against me I don’t think he is just saying “duhhh I am gonna get that guy!” On the contrary, his plans are extremely well thought out in regards to my past, what my weakness are internally and the temptations of my present circumstances.

My point is simple and I think on track with this passage. What are his schemes against you? What attacks has he used on you in the past? Has there been a common pattern? If there has been, then I’d urge you to look at the armor of God presented in the next section of Ephesians 6 with those past attacks in mind.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

Prepare yourself with a defense to match the attacks of the past.  We should be able to say with Paul that “we are not ignorant of [satans] designs” so that we can answer Peters call for us to “be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  

My hope is that this passage wouldn’t just be about generic schemes of the devil and generic defenses against them, but instead would evoke in us thoughtfullness about how he has decieved us in the past and an eagerness to prepare ourselves by the Spirit through the Word of God to destroy those pathetic attacks when they come.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 11:17 am and is filed under Bible, Stirring One Another Up. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.