July 2010 Meditation
Standing vs. Wrestling
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (verses 6:10-11)
I want you to notice that Paul says that he wants us to be able to stand. He does not tell us to get down and tumble with the enemy. “Stand” is the key word in this verse. We call this a spiritual warfare passage, but it really ought to be labeled a “spiritual standing” passage. Paul really does not talk about waging war. He is talking about standing.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (verses 6:12, 13)
If we have done all the things we have discussed up to this point, we will be able to stand. If we come into a spiritual conflict having done these things, we can put on the armor of God and be certain that we are going to be able to stand unmovable.
Paul uses two different analogies here. He mixes his metaphors in this passage, something which he does at other points in his writings as well. In II Timothy 2:3-6, he sifts from a soldier image to an athletic image, and finally to a farming image in just four little verses. In the passage we are studying in Ephesians, the word “wrestle” comes from the sports or athletic arena. Wrestling is not something done on the battlefield; it is a form of entertainment. When you go to the battlefield you don’t wrestle -- you do warfare. Paul says, “We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood.” We have all seen pictures of the famous Greek statue of the discus thrower who is clad only in his discus. The Greeks had no embarrassment with the human body. They felt that it was a creation of the gods and that it was beautiful. Therefore, at the time of Paul’s writing, these sports events occurred in the nude because they didn’t want any hindrance in their movements. In fact, the Greek word for “exercise” literally means, “nude training.” The same is true today. We don’t go out to play tennis in a three-piece suit and top hat. We wear the briefest of sports apparel because we know that any added weight can hold us back. In fact, I had friends on the college swim team who shaved their heads and their whole bodies because they knew that even a hair would give resistance and slow them down -- and this was in the ’70 when all the guys were wearing shoulder-length hair!
It is in order to confront this naked opponent, Paul tells us to put on the armor of God. Just imagine these principalities and wicked spiritual creatures in high places gathered together in their corner of the ring ready to have a wrestling match with the Christian, expecting him to come into the ring in his “birthday suit.” The door opens from the other changing room and out comes the Christian dressed in a girdle, a breastplate, a helmet, shoes, a sword, and a shield. When the demons see a fully-armored warrior walking out, you can imagine how they have to regroup. Just guess who will win such a wrestling match. Dr. Lester Sumrall once said it this way, “When you appear with all of heaven’s gear on, every devil in hell recognizes it.”
In Colossians 2:15, Paul expands the discussion of the devil’s nakedness. “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” The literal meaning of “spoiled” is “stripped him naked.” It is rendered this way in some modern translations, vividly reiterating the scene being set here. The imagery behind this wording comes from the ancient practice of defrocking the kings and other political and military leaders of conquered nations. When those defeated enemies were brought back from the battle, they were totally humiliated by being marched through the streets naked -- no longer with royal robes or regalia of rank. Through the wording here, Paul paints a vivid picture to awaken his reader to the fact that the opponent against whom we are to stand is an already defeated foe.
Think about any wrestling match you have ever watched. How much time is spent standing up? Almost none of it! The two opponents start in a locked position; but as soon as the whistle blows, one of them knocks the other to the floor, and they spend their time tumbling and tossing on the floor until one is able to pin the other down and hold his shoulders to the mat for the ten count. Wrestling matches are not held standing up. But Paul tells us time and again that our position is not tumbling nip and tuck on the floor. Our position is to stand. We are told to put on the armor of God that we will be able to stand. Verse fourteen repeats, "Stand, therefore.” Our position is not a wrestling position of tumbling on the floor, but it is a standing position. Why is it that we can walk into spiritual conflict and have such a position of authority? If we take care of these first five and a half chapters of instructions -- you might call them our layers of underwear -- we can put on salvation, knowledge, truth, etc., and walk boldly into the face of whatever the devil tries to do. We will recognize that the devil’s tactics are tricks and lies, and we can withstand them and we keep on standing.
Paul says that we may be buffeted when the enemy attacks. “There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.” (II Corinthians 12:7) When such literal attacks come, we have to add a second line of defense -- withstanding as well as standing. Withstanding carries a lightly different meaning from standing. When we stand against the enemy, we are simply exerting our authority; however, when we withstand the enemy, we may be actually taking some blows in the process. To understand this concept, let’s take a quick look at a parable that Jesus told about withstanding. In his story about the houses which the wise man and the foolish man built, we read, “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” (Matthew 7:25, also Luke 6:48) Notice that the house actually endured the hollowing winds and the crashing waves. Although there is a difference between standing and withstanding in terms of actually taking a few punches along the way, the end result is the same -- we wind up standing rather than falling because we are anchored into the solid rock of faith. The rock is a foundation that the enemy cannot topple, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) Faith is a shield that the enemy cannot penetrate, “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (Ephesians 6:16)
This message seems to be the focus of his second letter to the Corinthians. When Paul wrote this letter, he had a specific message that he wanted to communicate. He spells it out fairly directly in verses three through seven of the first chapter -- in every difficulty, we are comforted by God so that we can become comforters to others. The problem that he was addressing in this letter is the same one that is dealt with in the book of Job -- why do bad things happen to good men? Paul was certainly a good man, but he certainly had a lot of bad things happening in his life. Several times in this letter, he lists the things he had to endure for the gospel’s sake. (verses 2:4, 4:8-12, 6:4-5, 11:23-28, 12:7-10, 15) These lists of attacks makes us realize how easy we actually have it when we confront our little obstacles. However, we are amazed when Paul sums up his trials as “light affliction.” (verse 4:17) He could say such an unthinkable thing because the real issue he was dealing with wasn’t, “How come?” Instead, his mind was set on the question, “How to overcome?” In chapter six, he presents a sequence of phrases that depict the problems he has faced, the approach he took to dealing with them, and the results he obtained.
But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. (verses 4-10)
He lists his persecutions (the problem) as “in” in verses four and five. The ways he overcame them (the approach) are listed as “by” in verses six, seven, and eight. The results of his defense (the result) are listed as “by” -- a different preposition in Greek -- in verses nine and ten. Interestingly, the approaches he used in his conflict are not the ones that we generally would list as our weapons for spiritual warfare; however, he calls them his “weapons of righteousness on the right hand and on the left.” (verse 4:7, MKJV)
Paul used this same word for weapons or armament in two different places in the book of Romans. We find it translated as “instruments” in Romans 6:13, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” In Romans 13:12, it is translated as “armor,” “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.” From the context, we can see that weapons are actual implications of the godly qualities of light and righteousness. In other words, Paul’s power to overcome was not the “spiritual warfare” we might think of as screaming at the top one’s lungs, rebuking the devil in tongues. Instead, his victory came through using the godly man’s arsenal of righteous qualities.
Even though he described himself as suffering serious blows, he always seemed to bounce back victoriously. He was like the good man described in Proverbs 24:16 who, even if he falls seven times, always gets up again. The roly-poly toys we know as weebles can help us understand the powerful spiritual truth that dominated Paul’s life. We’ve all enjoyed the amazement of “socking” the punch toy as hard as we can and watching it plop all the way to the floor -- only to immediately bounce back totally erect. The lesson -- as we all already know -- is “Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down.” When we learn to use the total arsenal that God has provided for us, we’ll soon be able to show forth that same resilience in our lives -- no matter how much we may wobble, we’ll always bounce back! Because Paul had become a weeble for God, he was able to say in chapter ten verses three through five that the weapons of his warfare were not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. That’s why he could say in chapter two verse fourteen that God always caused him to triumph. This was the grace that he had to deal with thorn in flesh and Satan’s messenger -- the “Timex watch grace” to take the licking and keep on ticking. (verse 12:9)
Another side note to this passage is that Paul describes having the weaponry in each hand. It seems that the significance of this concept might go back to the time of the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem under Nehemiah’s direction. In Nehemiah 4:17, we read, “They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.” These were two-fisted warriors who were slapping mortar on wall with a trawl in one hand and threatening their enemies with a sword with the other. Building the wall was a passive form of defense while yielding a sword was an active form of defense. In this approach, we see a great lesson for all believers -- build yourself up in your faith as a passive resistance to the enemy’s attacks while also aggressively challenging him every time he shows up!
The Apostle John amens this truth when he says that we can actually become immune to the effects of the work of the enemy, “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” (I John 5:18)
Several years ago I went to see the prehistoric pagan shrine Stonehenge in England on June 21, the only day of the year that the British government grants permission for people to go inside the fence surrounding the monoliths. The sun-worship cults demanded their religious rights and convinced the government to open the gates on this one day so they can do their ceremonies on this particular day when the sun rises over the central altar. As I was touring the site, one of the sun worshipers stood up and began threatening our group because he felt that we were desecrating the sun worshiper’s event by talking. One of the guys in our group -- a huge hunk of a man -- walked around to the man making all the threats and started cracking his knuckles as if he were ready for a fight. The sun worshiper whimpered and went back to his devilish chants trying to pretend that we weren’t there. This big hunk of a man never had to get down and tumble on the ground. Our “hero” never had to do anything physical to anybody. He just walked toward our opponent and stood there. His massive presence demonstrated that he was in authority. When he cracked his knuckles he sent out such a strong message that the challenger simply left us alone. The sun worshiper knew that he had met more than his match. Our friend defeated the enemy the same way Jesus did Satan during His temptation when He stood firm on His authority -- in Jesus’ case, the Word of God -- until the devil left Him. Imagine how much more authoritatively we can stand now that we have the New Testament to add to the Old Testament authority on which Jesus stood.
Paul is telling us that we Christians can go into spiritual warfare with confidence that we will not fail. If we have done everything to properly prepare, we can walk onto the battlefield and stand our ground. We don’t have to get down and roll on the mat with the devil. We can walk in the kind of authority that makes the devil shiver.
If we submit ourselves to God and resist the devil, the enemy has to flee. (James 4:7) The devil doesn’t tumble around on the floor with us and maybe win one round and get in a couple of good blows -- instead, he gets up and runs! He may try to growl, but he cannot stand against us because we are walking in authority. However, we cannot get that authority by just starting in chapter six verse ten. We get that authority by starting in chapter one verse one and making sure that we have on all our layers of underwear. Then we can put on our spiritual armament and we walk out on the battlefield, able to stand. Having done everything, we stand.
When my three sons were children, I would wrestle with them. They would grab me around my legs and begin jerking and pulling. Eventually I would lie down for them so that we could roll and tumble a little bit. That made the boys feel more like my equal. Paul declares that if we have this armor on, we will not be on the floor with the devil. We will be able to stand. He is not our equal. We can stand firmly if we want to. It is only when we lie down willingly (perhaps through ignorance of our authority) that he can get us to the floor.
Standing without giving up is what putting on the armor of God is all about. The Word of God is replete with admonitions about standing:
We stand in faith. (Romans 5:2, I Corinthians 16:13, II Corinthians 1:24)
We are instructed to stand in our divine election. (Romans 9:11)
We must stand in God’s ability. (Romans 14:4)
We can stand in the power of God. (I Corinthians 2:5)
We are admonished to stand in the gospel. (I Corinthians 15:1)
We are told to stand in liberty which Christ has given us. (Galatians 5:1)
We are required to stand in one spirit. (Philippians 1:27)
We can only stand in the Lord. (Philippians 4:1, I Thessalonians 3:8)
We are able to stand in the Word of God. (II Thessalonians 2:15)
We will stand in the will of God by intercessory prayer. (Colossians 4:12)
We victoriously stand by the grace of God. (I Peter 5:12)
We triumphantly stand in the day of wrath. (Revelation 6:17)
We must learn to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:11)
This article is an excerpt from Delron’s book Finally, My Brethren. To obtain the entire book, make an online donation in any amount this month.