You must be strong in the Lord and put on His full armor, so that
you may stand firm against the enemy.
“Finally” means, “for the
rest,” and shows that this section is built on what precedes. Paul is saying,
“Based upon your glorious position in Christ (chapters 1-3) and in light of the
worthy walk to which you are called (chapters 4-5, plus 6:1-9), I want to
conclude by explaining to you the serious conflict in which your faith
necessarily engages you.” Because you are fighting in the Lord’s army…
1. You must
be strong in the Lord.
Paul
piles up words for strength in verse 10, using three of the four words that he
employed in 1:19-20. There he mentioned “the surpassing greatness of His power
toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength
of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead
and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.” Also, in 3:16 Paul
prayed that God would grant you … “to be strengthened with power through His
Spirit in the inner man.” As in that verse, the verb in 6:10 is probably
passive, meaning, “be strengthened in the Lord” (Peter O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians[Eerdmans/Apollos],
pp. 460-461). In other words, we are not strong in ourselves. Our strength comes
from the Lord.
Yet, at the same time, I
think that there is an active (Greek, middle voice) sense to the verb, in that
we must take the initiative to be strong in the Lord. This is illustrated in
the life of David. While he was on the run from Saul, David had wrongly allied
himself with the Philistine king and was about to go into battle against Saul
and the forces of Israel when God intervened. David and his men were sent home
from the battle. But they arrived to find their city burned with fire and their
wives, children, and possessions taken captive by the Amalekites. At that
point, David’s men were so embittered that they were talking about stoning him.
Then, in
the middle of the verse, there is a great hinge that turned things in a new
direction (1 Sam.
30:6b): “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” What a
dramatic turnaround! David was almost down for the count. God’s promise to make
him king seemed null and void. “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his
God.” The Lord graciously directed David to pursue the raiders and recover all
of their families and goods.
That same strength is
available to every Christian. You may be at your lowest point. You may be
discouraged. It may seem that God’s promises are not true. But no matter how
much may seem to be against you, you can “be strong in the Lord and in the
strength of His might.” You can strengthen yourself in the Lord your God. How?
A. TO BE STRONG IN THE
LORD, YOU MUST BE IN THE LORD.
I won’t
belabor the point, but I need to say that Paul’s command to be strong in the
Lord rests on his first two chapters, where he makes it clear what it means to
be in the Lord. To sum up his treatment, he wrote (2:8-9), “For by grace you
have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” To be in the Lord means that He has
saved you from God’s judgment by His grace alone through faith in Christ alone.
Salvation is not based on anything that you have done or deserved. As we have
seen, one of Paul’s frequent expressions in Ephesians is the phrase, “in
Christ,” or “in Him” (1:3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13). You cannot begin to
understand what it means to be strong
in the Lord unless you truly
are in the Lord through saving faith in Jesus Christ.
B. TO BE STRONG IN THE
LORD, YOU MUST KNOW YOUR OWN WEAKNESS.
This is a
continual, lifelong process that begins at salvation. We cannot trust
completely in Christ to save us until we come to some awareness that we are
helplessly, hopelessly lost and unable to save ourselves by our own good works.
As Spurgeon put it, we must see that we are convicted and condemned, with the
rope around our neck, before we will weep for joy when Christ pardons us (C. H. Spurgeon Autobiography [Banner
of Truth], 1:54).
But then
we must go on to grow to know practically our own weakness so that we take
refuge in the Lord’s strength. Jesus taught this by using the analogy of the
branches abiding in the vine, and said (John 15:5b), “for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
Peter needed to learn this lesson. He boasted that although everyone else would
desert Christ, he would remain true. But the Lord allowed Peter to go through
his terrible denials so that he might not trust in himself, but in Christ
alone. The apostle Paul had an amazing experience of being caught up into
heaven itself. Because of this, to keep Paul from exalting himself, the Lord
sent a messenger of Satan to torment him. The lesson that Paul learned was (2 Cor. 12:10b), “for
when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Our pride blinds us to our
true condition. It makes us think that we have some measure of strength in
ourselves. Pride makes us think that the longer we are Christians, the stronger
we become. But we never become stronger in ourselves. In reality, the strong
Christian is one who has come to see more and more of his own weakness and
propensity towards sin. That awareness drives him to depend all the more on the
Lord’s strength. To be strong in the Lord, you must know your own weakness.
C. TO BE STRONG IN THE
LORD, YOU MUST KNOW THE LORD’S STRENGTH.
Satan is
a powerful foe, but he is only a created being, whereas God is the eternal,
almighty Creator of the universe. If the Lord so willed, He could annihilate
Satan in an instant. He has already defeated him at the cross and resurrection
of Jesus (Col. 2:15). In
His perfect timing and plan, He will throw Satan into the Lake of Fire, where
he will be tormented forever and ever (Rev. 20:10).
From
start to finish, the Bible proclaims the mighty power of God. He spoke the
heavens and earth into existence out of nothing. He delivered His people from
Pharaoh’s clutches through the miraculous plagues and the parting of the Red
Sea. He sustained them in one of the world’s harshest environments through the
pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, where He provided daily manna and
water from the rock. When fierce enemies threatened to annihilate His chosen
people, time and again the Lord provided deliverance. In one of the most
dramatic instances, Sennacherib’s army had Jerusalem surrounded. It looked like
Israel was doomed. But in response to Hezekiah’s prayer, the Lord sent His
angel who killed 185,000 enemy troops in one night (2 Kings 19:35).
Often
throughout Scripture, the Lord reminds His people of the obvious, that nothing
is too difficult for Him (Gen.
18:14; Jer.
32:17, 27; Zech.
8:6; Matt.
19:26; Luke
1:37; Rom.
4:21). Paul has already spoken of God’s great power towards us, as
seen in His raising Jesus from the dead and enthroning Him at His right hand (Eph. 1:19-20). Paul has
prayed that we would know the power of the Holy Spirit in the inner man, so
that Christ might dwell in our hearts through faith (Eph. 3:17). Proverbs 18:10 declares, “The name of the Lord
is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe.” To be strong in the
Lord, you must know His strength in a practical way, because you have
repeatedly taken refuge in Him and seen His great deliverance in your life.
So to be strong in the
Lord, you must be in the Lord through faith in Jesus Christ. You must know your
own weakness and you must know His mighty strength. Then Paul adds,
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