For Narnia fans, let’s take a look at the magnitude of the battle of good and evil as best depicted in human dimension in the movie, Chronicles of Narnia.

The actual battle taking place in real time in the non-movie world has unseen dimensions. (But God in us empowering us is greater than Satan and victory is God’s). Imagine going into such a battle… without an armor.

We were thrust into this battle we didn’t enlist for right in the middle of the crossfire between the forces of good and evil. The person who oppresses, the difficult circumstances zoom out as minutiae in light of the enemy being the rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms and the objective of this enemy is to destroy US! We were focused on a wrong suspect all along! That’s like in the movie, SALT, when you discover that the real traitor is not who you thought it was after all! The real traitor is…Satan! And we CAN defeat him with God’s way of fighting this battle.

We got the cue. We know who the real enemy is. We know we belong to God’s side and He has the victory waiting for us. His lesson of the day:

Eph 6:11 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.

Twice (v11, 13) we see the phrase “put on the full armor of God“. In between these two duplicate reminders is the ID of our enemy: the formidable (but beatable with God) rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

“Put on” means it isn’t there naturally. We have to intentionally be willing to wear it and believe that it will protect us. We are admitting that we need it. If we had a previous armor on, such as pride or prized huaman stratagems, we have to remove that which we previously put our faith in. If it were our own fighting suit, that would have to go because we are going to put on THIS particular prescribed one.

“the” refers to a particular thing. It is not just any armor, but THE specific armor of God. God may have taught us different things in different parts of Scripture but this time to fight the spiritual battle this way, He will tell us certain components of what we need.

“full” means it is the entirety of the prescribed armor, not a multiple choice selection but each and every part of the prescribed armor all together.

“of God” tells us that the (full) armor we need for this battle is the one that is God’s. Nothing else. No one else’s. Can’t put our own armor, our parents’ armor, an influential friend’s armor. Has to be God’s.

“so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes“(v11) shows us that putting on the full armor of God is what will enable us to take our stand against the devil’s schemes. The verse tells us that the devil having schemes are a given. That necessitates a plan of action on our part in preparation for this given. The prescribed solution is the full armor of God SO THAT we can take our stand against the devil’s schemes.

Verse 13 follows the ID of the enemy. “Therefore” is in light of the revelation of this enemy. Let’s not take this enemy for granted. This enemy has to be taken seriously. And our response should be (repeated again for the second twice) to put on the full armor of God… so that WHEN (not “if”, therefore, it is definitely coming, we just don’t know the exact time)

1 Peter 5:8
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Verse 13 continues to repeat verse 11’s message (a repetition is to put emphasis so that we will surely not miss it) that putting on of the armor will enable us to “stand our ground“.

“And after you have done everything, to stand”. The immediate goal is to keep standing (a position of victory). In just two verses v11 and v13, the word “stand” occurs three times.

The enemy will throw darts and arrows at us to stumble us, use people and circumstances of loss, treachery, hurt, suffering to knock us down. But with the full armor of God, we can remain standing.

2 Corinthians 4:8-10 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

The full armor of God will keep us standing! Now, we know we need to put on the full armor of God. Whatever it consists of, we know we will not take them as piecemeal but put on every component of the armor. Let’s find out the components of this full armor!