Lessons #265 and 266
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual exposition not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GWT = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Complete spiritual armor in the spiritual warfare (Eph 6:11-13)
11 Put on 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…
The final exhortation of the apostle in this epistle, as we have indicated, is to live as a Christian in the spiritual warfare. We indicated that to expound on this message we will consider several major points. The first major point we have considered is that living as a Christian in the Spiritual warfare requires the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. So, we move to the second major point which is that living as a Christian in the spiritual warfare requires that believers should put on the complete spiritual armor that will consists of offensive and defensive weapons in order to be able to resist evil forces that are waging war against believers.
You may think that you have been on the side line watching the spiritual warfare rage on because of the much conflict and confusion that you see take place among people on this planet. You may think that you are not involved in it, that is, that you are a neutral spectator which, of course, is not true. If you think that you are neutral in the spiritual warfare, the reality is that you have fallen victim to it so that you are oblivious to it. You may be among the Christians that know that there is a spiritual warfare taking place and so you may believe that you are involved in it but you probably are not so sure to the extent you are involved in this warfare. Or you may be aware of the spiritual warfare but are not quite serious about it. Well, if you belong to this category then the Holy Spirit through the apostle tells you that you should be fully involved in it. You should recognize its importance and urgency so that you begin immediately to be involved in it with the certainty that you are assured you will not be defeated.
There is a sense that what we have said is a prep talk to wake you up to recognize the importance of the spiritual warfare and the urgency of it in your spiritual life or its priority in your life but before you get fired up let me remind you that you need to be prepared for it. Those of us who have been in a war front know that there are commanding officers who know how to inspire soldiers into action. I have had the experience in the battlefield where a top commanding officer gave rousing speech to soldiers about their enemy that all of the soldiers were ready to go and engage the enemy because they were emotionally charged up as a result of the fiery speech of the commanding officer. Regardless of how fired up soldiers are, they know that they cannot go into the battlefield without weapons and expect to be victorious over their enemy. They must be first, well trained in the use of their weapons before they engage the enemy in the front line. This scenario is similar to what we have in our passage. The Holy Spirit has informed us that we need His empowerment to go into the spiritual warfare, that is, we need to be strong in order to be successful in this spiritual warfare? But how do we get to be strong? It is through being equipped with the proper weapons necessary for the spiritual battle just as a strong military is determined by superior military weapons. Therefore, we need to be dressed for battle since a soldier normally does not go into battle with his civilian clothes and his own weapons unless he belongs to an impoverish army; otherwise, he must be dressed in soldier’s attire in order to go into the battlefield and be equipped with the proper fighting weapons. It is for this reason that the Holy Spirit through the apostle tells us that we need to immediately dress up for the spiritual warfare.
Dressing up for the spiritual warfare is important, urgent, and a top priority so that the Holy Spirit issued the command Put on the full armor of God of Ephesians 6:11. This command, although it does not have any connective to the previous verse where we are commanded to be strong, it actually answers the question as to how we are to be strong for the spiritual warfare that no doubt involves the filling of the Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit commands us in verse 10 to be strong with respect to the spiritual warfare and so beginning here in verse 11, He tells us how we are to be strong, which is to put on the full armor of God as it is given in our passage.
The expression “put on” is translated from a Greek word (enduō) that we are encountering a second time in this epistle. We first encountered it in Ephesians 4:24 where we indicated that the word was used in a figurative sense of the taking on of characteristics, virtues, and intentions of God as they are fitting to the new person He created. So, let us review what we said then about the Greek word, so we can understand how it is used in our particular passage of Ephesians 6:11. It has two general, related meanings in the NT Scripture. It means to put on clothing or apparel on someone, that is, “to dress, to clothe” so it is used to describe the Roman soldiers in the Praetorium in Jerusalem dressing Jesus in His own clothes after they removed the robe they had put on Him to mock Him as recorded in Mark 15:20:
And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
It is under this first category of meaning that the word is used by the compassionate father in ordering his prodigal son to be dressed in the best robe in Luke 15:22:
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Another category of meaning is to put any kind of thing on oneself, that is, “to clothe oneself, put on, wear.” Under this meaning, it is used both literally and figuratively. Literally, the word is used in the instruction of the Lord Jesus to believers against worrying for anything including how to clothe themselves in Matthew 6:25:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Figuratively, the verb is used of the taking on of characteristics, virtues, and intentions of someone, specifically God. This figurative usage is found also in the OT since it is our Greek verb that is used in the Septuagint to describe Job’s claim of acting rightly and justly when he made decisions with respect to the oppressed in Job 29:14:
I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.
To put on righteousness and justice is, as we have indicated, Job’s way of saying that he practiced righteousness and justice. In fact, the translators of the TEV eliminated the figurative use of putting on clothes in that they rendered the verse as I have always acted justly and fairly. It is in the figurative sense that the word is used in the promise of Jesus Christ to the disciples of the empowerment of the Holy Spirit they were to wait upon, as stated in Luke 24:49:
I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
The Apostle Paul used our Greek verb in the figurative sense in the instruction to Roman Christians in Romans 13:14:
Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
To put on Christ is a complex action in that it means not only putting on His character but also depending on Him to be our defense in the spiritual warfare. There is certainly emphasis on taking on Christ’s character in this passage of Romans 13:14 since believers who are in Christ have already been clothed in Him, as the apostle stated in Galatians 3:27:
for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
The point is that the Greek verb we are considering is used for taking on virtues as the apostle used it in encouraging believers to reflect the virtues he mentioned in Colossians 3:12:
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
In keeping with the fact that the apostle often compares the Christian’s spiritual resources with military weapons, he used the Greek verb we are considering to describe how believers should equip themselves by putting on faith, love, and hope in 1 Thessalonians 5:8:
But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
It is under the second general meaning of putting on something on oneself that the apostle used it in Ephesians 6:11.
The command Put on in the Greek suggests first that the believer is not merely commanded to put on what is specified but that that his participation in what is commanded will be quite beneficial in the spiritual warfare to that believer who obeys the instruction. We are saying that it is to your benefit as a believer who wants not to be defeated in the spiritual warfare to carry out the command to put on something. You should immerse yourself in the command given. It is not only that the command implies that it is beneficial for the believer to obey it but the Greek also indicates that it is a matter of urgency and matter of priority. In other words, the Greek conveys that the believer should make this command a top priority. There can be no delay on your part. You cannot be lazy with respect to this command because it is a matter of survival in the spiritual life. If you do not see the importance of this command and obey it then you almost guarantee yourself that you will be a casualty in the spiritual warfare. I will think that every believer wants to be victorious in the spiritual warfare; if this is the case with you, then you should see the urgency of the command put on.
The thing that a believer who wants to stand his grounds in the spiritual warfare is to put on is described in the phrase the full armor of God. The expression “full armor” is translated from a Greek word (panoplia) from which we derive the English word “panoply” that is used in the hymn “Soldier of Christ arise” in the third stanza that reads “But take, to arm you for the fight, The panoply of God.” The Greek word means the complete equipment of a heavy-armed soldier of the ancient world so means “full armor.” Our Greek word is used in the Septuagint of 2 Samuel 2:21:
Then Abner said to him, “Turn aside to the right or to the left; take on one of the young men and strip him of his weapons.” But Asahel would not stop chasing him.
The word “weapons” as used here in the NIV is of a limited translation since we have a Hebrew word (ḥǎlîṣāh) that refers to what is stripped of a slain person in war that may include weapons, garments, and other belongings. Anyhow, it is our Greek word that is used to translate the Hebrew word that has the meaning we have indicated. Our Greek word is used in literal sense for the full armor of a heavy armed soldier but could refer to an individual being armed to defend himself. It is probably because of this that the translators of the NIV simply translated our word as “armor” instead of “full armor” in the other usage of our Greek word in the NT outside Ephesians, that is, in Luke 11:22:
But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.
Our Greek word eventually transitioned from a literal to figurative meaning of spiritual armor as it is used in our passage of Ephesians 6:11 and in verse 13.
The apostle did not at this point tell us what the “full armor” is but he did so later in beginning in verse 14. Nonetheless, the recipients of this epistle would know the literal meaning of what full armor means since such was well known at that time, which will then enable them to understand its figurative usage in our passage. In the ancient world, a full armor consisted of both defensive and offensive weapons. In the OT Scripture, the defensive weapons were primarily the shield and the helmet, as indicated in Ezekiel 27:10:
“‘Men of Persia, Lydia and Put served as soldiers in your army. They hung their shields and helmets on your walls, bringing you splendor.
In addition to shields and helmets, a soldier would wear boots, as implied in Isaiah 9:5:
Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.
He may also wear a body armor as we can gather from Saul’s attempt to dress David to go to fight Goliath, as we read in 1 Samuel 17:38:
Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head.
The phrase a coat of armor is more literally a body armor which was a garment made of interlocking metal rings or small scales that were tied together with leather thongs. It is probably because of the makeup of the body armor that some English versions, such as the NJB, rendered the phrase as a breastplate. The offensive weapons of the ancient world consisted primarily of the sword and spear or javelin that was like a small spear. The spear as an offensive weapon is mentioned in Deborah’s Song in Judges 5:8:
When they chose new gods, war came to the city gates, and not a shield or spear was seen
among forty thousand in Israel.
That sword is an offensive weapon is implied in Joshua 6:21:
They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.
Sword and spears and javelins as offensive weapons are evident in David’s address to Goliath as he approached him, as described in 1 Samuel 17:45:
David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
David indicated that in contrast to Goliath whose weapons were physical, his were spiritual in nature that involve the presence of the Lord. In addition to the sword, spear and javelin, there are other small offensive weapons. The sling is an offensive weapon as that was David’s offensive weapon against Goliath, according to 1 Samuel 17:40:
Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
Another small offensive weapon was the bow and arrow, as implied in 2 Kings 9:24:
Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot.
Both the major defensive and offensive weapons that we have described can be seen in the portrait of a skilled soldier of the ancient world, specifically that of Goliath, as he was described in 1 Samuel 17:4–7:
4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.
This description of Goliath indicates that he had an additional protective piece of armor worn over the shank of the leg known as “greaves.”
The Apostle Paul being well acquainted with the OT Scripture was aware of both the defensive and offensive weapons of soldiers in the OT period. However, as he wrote this epistle, his mind would have been focused on the Roman soldiers as his readers would also have been more familiar with the weapons of Roman soldiers. According to information available to us, the Roman soldier’s equipment remained the same for centuries with minor variations in size. The defensive weapons of the Roman soldier were the shield with different shapes, depending on whether one was an officer or ordinary enlisted soldier, the helmet with crests, greaves, and breastplate or coat of mail for the wealthy. Later, the greaves were abandoned or disappeared only to be seen as items worn by officers during parade but there was emphasis on the use of shoes as part of the equipment of a soldier. The offensive weapons were primarily the sword (on the left), dagger (on the right), and javelin. Of course, during the later imperial period, effort was made to lighten the defensive weapons in order to make the offensive weapons more effective. In addition to these defensive and offensive weapons, soldiers carried entrenching tools and provisions. As we indicated, the apostle was quite familiar with the defensive and offensive weapons of the Roman soldier so that when he eventually described the full armor that believers are commanded to put on, he did so following the analogy of the dressing of the Roman soldier in terms of his defensive and offensive weapons. In the meantime, the apostle was more focused with providing us several facts he wants us to bear in mind before he gets to the description of the full armor he had in mind in terms of defensive and offensive weapons.
A first fact is that just as Roman soldiers do not normally provide their defensive and offensive weapons but are provided by the state, so he wants believers to be aware that it is God who provides for us both the defensive and offensive weapons. It is this fact that is conveyed in the phrase the full armor of God. Because the phrase of God is translated from a genitive case in the Greek, the phrase the full armor of God can be fully unpacked in the English in one of at least two ways, that is, it can be interpreted in at least two ways. It can be interpreted as the full armor that belongs to God, that is, God wears, or the full armor derived from God, that is, supplied by God. In reality, in this particular passage, there seem not to be any significant difference between the two interpretations. This is because a believer putting on the full armor that belongs to God or putting on the full armor derived from God conveys the same concept of reliance on the full armor that belongs to God. The OT Scripture describes God in terms of defensive and offensive weapons associated with Him. The psalmist as he appealed to God to deal with his enemies, described Him as having the defensive weapons of shield and offensive weapons of spear and javelin in Psalm 35:2–3:
2 Take up shield and buckler; arise and come to my aid. 3 Brandish spear and javelin against those who pursue me. Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”
The word “buckler” is another word for a large shield that covers the whole body so that the defensive weapon the psalmist implies belongs to God is the shield. Prophet Isaiah indicates that God has the offensive word of sword in Isaiah 34:6:
The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat— the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom
The same prophet ascribed the defensive weapons of breastplate and helmet to God in Isaiah 59:17:
He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
Prophet Habakkuk assigned the small offensive weapon of bow and arrows to God in Habakkuk 3:9:
You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows. Selah
You split the earth with rivers;
Of course, both the psalmist and the prophets we cited, do not mean the defensive and offensive weapons in a literal sense as that will be absurd. No! They described the defensive and offensive weapons of God in a spiritual sense. The fact that God is described as possessing these defensive and offensive weapons of the ancient soldier although in a figurative sense means that the believer is to put on that which belong to God or that which originate from Him. In effect, the Holy Spirit through the apostle wants us to recognize that God does not expect us to put on something that originates from us. For after all, we are incapable of furnishing ourselves with both offensive and defensive weapons that belong to God. The provisions have already been made by Him. So we are invited to take that which belongs to God and put on in course of the spiritual warfare that we are engaged. Hence, the first fact the apostle wants us to recognize with respect to the full spiritual armor that he is concerned with it is that such originates from or belongs to God.
A second fact the apostle wants us to know with respect to the command to put on the full spiritual armor is that it has a purpose. We usually take an instruction serious if we know its purpose and if we are convinced that the instruction will benefit us. The Holy Spirit through the apostle could have simply commanded us to put on the spiritual armor without any reason other than He is God and so should be obeyed. But that is not what we have. Instead, we are given the purpose for the command with respect to spiritual armor. We are to put it on so that we will be in a position to resist the crafty scheming of Satan. It is this reason that is given in the last clause of Ephesian 6:11 so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
Believers by virtue of their position in Christ are in effect victorious over Satan. We have the Holy Spirit in us so that by His power we will be able to resist Satan; for, unless we are equipped to resist him then the Holy Spirit would not have commanded us to resist Satan with the assurance that we will succeed, as in James 4:7:
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
You will notice that the command to resist the devil is preceded by a command to submit to God. When a believer submits to God that will mean that such an individual is obedient to God’s word. A person who is obedient to God’s word is an individual that will enjoy the filling of the Spirit. Because of the filling of the Spirit, the believer can then resist the devil, for we are not strong on our own to resist him but if we are filled of the Spirit we have the power to resist the devil.
The Holy Spirit knows that once He empowers us we can resist the devil but the problem is to be in a position to recognize that we need to resist the devil. You see, if a believer knows clearly that Satan is after him then he could call on His Heavenly Father, who would provide the power of the Holy Spirit required to resist the devil. But what if the believer does not know of the danger before him then he would be overcome by the enemy. So, the concern of the Holy Spirit through the apostle with respect to the matter of spiritual warfare is that quite often we may not recognize the danger that we are in because of not being well equipped for the spiritual warfare we find ourselves. Hence, it is not a given that a believer can resist Satan if he does not even know of the spiritual threat he faces, so it is necessary to have the capability of not only recognizing the danger but also of being able to hold one’s ground through being equipped with the spiritual armor. The word “can” in the clause so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes is translated from a Greek word (dynamai) that means the capability for experiencing or doing something, whether because of a personal, or external factors so that the word means “to be capable, can, am able.” The purpose of the capability a believer needs is to be able to resist the crafty schemes of Satan.
We indicated that the purpose of the spiritual armor, specifically the defensive weapon, is to resist Satan. This is because the word “stand” of the NIV is translated from a Greek word (histēmi) that can mean to literally stand up on someone’s feet as in the instruction of the Lord to Paul at the point of his conversion, as per his testimony in Acts 26:16:
‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.
The Greek word can mean to stand firm so as to remain stable hence means “to stand firm, to hold someone’s ground”, as it is used in Romans 14:4:
Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
The first “stand” in this passage is to be understood to mean “to stand firm” or “hold one’s ground” although the entire clause to his own master he stands or falls probably meant whether one maintains one’s status or relationship to a master depends on the master’s judgment or evaluation. Anyway, our Greek word can also mean “to stand up against”, that is, “to resist.” It is in this sense that the word is used in our passage of Ephesians 6:11. Thus, the purpose of putting on the spiritual armor is to resist not Satan as such but his crafty schemes as in the phrase the devil’s schemes.
The word “schemes” used in the NIV is translated from a Greek word (methodeia) that means “scheming, craftiness, deceit.” The word appears twice in the Greek NT; both of which are in the book of Ephesians, in our present verse and in Ephesians 4:14:
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
We will say more about the schemes of Satan but for now we need to justify our use of the word “Satan” in place of the word “devil” that is used in our passage.
The word “devil” is translated from a Greek word (diabolos) that pertains to engagement in slander and so means “slanderous”, as it is used to describe people of the last days in 2 Timothy 3:3:
without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
The word also means one who is engaged in slander but in the Scripture the word is used as the title of the principal transcendent evil being hence means “devil.” The word can be used to describe anyone who has the character of the devil as the Apostle Paul used the word in his description of Elymas the sorcerer in Acts 13:10:
“You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?
The word refers to Satan as we can demonstrate in two ways. It is the word used to translate in the Septuagint the Hebrew word translated “Satan” in Job 2:1:
On another day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him.
The Greek word is used synonymously with Satan. The being that tempted the Lord Jesus during His earthly ministry is described as the devil in Matthew 4:1:
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
But this same tempter is called Satan by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 4:10:
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
The fact that devil is called Satan by our Lord confirms the fact that the word “devil” refers to Satan. Thus, we are justified in speaking of the schemes of the devil as the schemes of Satan.
What are these schemes of the devil or Satan? The apostle did not state what they were in our passage but that does not mean that the Scripture does not provide the answer, we only have to look for these in the Scripture. But before we do, there are two observations we should make. The first is that in the context of our passage of study, there are things the apostle mentioned that are methods that Satan tries to get a foothold to the believer such as uncontrolled anger, falsehood, idleness, unwholesome talks, etc., mentioned in Ephesians 4:26-31 but these are not strictly the schemes of the devil in our passage although they are ultimately part of the devil’s schemes. A second observation is that the use of the word “schemes” is different in meaning from a similar word that you will find in the NIV if you consulted a Bible concordance of the NIV under the word “schemes.” Apart from the two passages in Ephesians, the word “schemes” is listed in 2 Corinthians 2:11:
in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
The word “schemes” here is translated from a Greek word (noēma) that refers to the product of the action of the mind so it can mean either “thought” or “design, purpose, intention, plan.” Thus, the word here probably refers to the evil intentions of Satan which although can mean “schemes” but its emphasis is slightly different from that of the word “schemes” in our passage of Ephesians 6:11. The Greek word (methodeia) that is translated “schemes” in Ephesians 6:11 has the element of trickery or deceit so that in our passage, the emphasis is on the trickery or craftiness of what Satan puts before believers to cause them to sin against the Lord. In effect, he will trick with things that appear normal but underneath these things lie danger which a believer who has not properly put on the spiritual armor will not recognize until Satan ambushes and maneuvers that believer. This understanding helps us to be able to identify at least four of these schemes of Satan given in the Scripture that a believer should be able to identify, following being armed with the spiritual armor that we will examine in details later so he can resist them.
A first scheme of Satan that the believer who puts on spiritual armor should be able to identify is his schemes of lies. The Scripture describes Satan as the father of lies in John 8:44:
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
To say that Satan is the father of lies, means that he is the one who causes people to lie or to believe the lie. His scheme with respect to lies is that he causes believers not to believe God’s word, especially with respect to consequences stated in the word of God for failure to believe God’s word. This started in the Garden of Eden when he caused the woman not to believe what God said would happen if she and the husband ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as we read in Genesis 3:4–5:
4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Satan’s scheme was to convince the woman that God cannot be trusted because He does not care about them otherwise God would not put any restriction on them or keep them from being like Him although they were created in His image. Today, the way Satan uses his lies today is to try to persuade unbelievers that a loving God would not send them to lake of fire although they do not believe in Christ. However, for the believer this scheme works in a way that Satan tries to convince believers that little disobedience does not matter with God. Thus, a believer may face a situation that may not appear immediately to be immoral although it will eventually lead to sin so the devil tells that person that it really does not matter that much since God will not mind that little thing that the person fails to do. Take example, the matter of going to church or Bible study. Satan’s scheme may be to convince the believe that just missing this once because of, say, a visitor would not make God angry. Well the problem with that is that once a person buys that lie he has disobeyed the instruction regarding believers assembling themselves together and so the person has sinned although on the surface that may not be apparent. But that is not all; that person has become idolatrous in that the person placed a human being above God.
A second scheme of Satan that the believer who puts on spiritual armor should be able to identify is his schemes of misapplication of Scripture. This scheme was evident in his temptation of Jesus, as we can gather from Matthew 4:6–7:
6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Satan quoted the Scripture to our Lord but he misapplied it so that our Lord corrected him. This scheme is one that he perpetuates even today. The way this works is that he causes many believers to misapply the word of God so that he will defeat them. It is noble to be able to quote the Scripture but many Christians have harmed themselves and others because they misapplied the Scripture. Many quote the Scripture out of context and so when they apply it, the result is something false. The person behind such misapplication of the Scripture is the devil as that is one of his schemes of deceit. I once heard a preacher justify hatred of others because he misapplied the passage in Ecclesiastes 3 that tells us that there is a time to hate so that he gave his congregation comfort to think that there is a justifiable occasion for hatred of others as such. That no doubt was to the delight of Satan who put that scheme of misapplication of God’s word to the preacher. The point is that a scheme of the devil today is to let people quote the Scripture so they appear to be devoted Christians when in reality they are far from pleasing the Lord because they misapply the Scripture. The antidote to this misuse of the Scripture is proper interpretation of a Scripture in its context. For, only when the Scripture is correctly interpreted in its context can it be properly applied.
A third scheme of Satan that the believer who puts on spiritual armor should be able to identify is his schemes of glamor and glory. It is this scheme that Satan threw at Jesus during his temptation, as we read in Matthew 4:8–9:
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Satan continues to use glamor and glory to entice many believers into not being serious with their spiritual life. This glamor may appear in a way many believers do not even recognize. For example, some believers attend a local church because it has glamor and has many members but in reality the word of God is not properly taught in it. But because of human glory many will attend such a local church in contrast to a small local church where the truth is properly taught.
A fourth scheme of Satan that the believer who puts on spiritual armor should be able to identify is his schemes of counterfeit miracles. Satan sometimes grants miracles so as to eclipse the truth of God’s word. Many Christians are drawn to the preaching of signs and wonders as well as prosperity when those who preach these do not focus on the gospel or even on the teaching of truth that requires believers to live a lifestyle that is in keeping with God’s word. Listen to some of these prosperity preachers and you will discover that they rarely teach about sin and its effect on the believer. They focus on how people could be prosperous. Satan may grant prosperity to some because God has permitted him to do so as part of his schemes of deception. No wonder we are told that Satan appears as an angel of light in 2 Corinthians 11:13–15:
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
In the future, Satan will also use his counterfeit miracles to deceive many, as the Holy Spirit conveyed to us through the apostle in 2 Thessalonians 2:9:
The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,
In any event, the second fact the apostle wants to convey to us with respect to the command to put on spiritual armor that God provides is that it has a purpose, which is to resist Satan.