BE STRONG IN THE LORD

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
Ephesians 6:10-11

I have always been one who was fascinated by the Armor of God. Truth be told, this is probably my favorite Biblical topic. And why not? Are we not soldiers in His army, and as such much fit ourselves in His gear. But before we are even given gear, we are given something else. Do you know what it is? It is a command. We are given the command to be strong in the Lord. Why? Well let’s take a minute to look. Looking at Ephesians 6:10-11, we find that the ‘how’ of this challenge is answered by the putting on of the armor. The ‘why’ is answered by the taking of our stance against our enemy. But how is it then that we move into a place of being strong in the Lord? To answer this we must define what ‘strong in the Lord’ really is.
The word for ‘strong’ in the text here is the Greek word ENDUNAMOO, which translates as being strong, endued with strength, or increasing in strength. It is composed of the words EN, meaning with or in, and DUNAMOO, from the root DUNAMIS, meaning might or power. And who are we to be strong in? We are to be strong in the Lord. The Greek word found here for ‘Lord’ is KURIOS, meaning the possessor and disposer of a thing, the person to whom things belong, or the one who has the power. In essence, we are to be strong and mighty in the One who already has all the power in His hands. It is because of His mighty power, His strength, His force, and His deeds of dominion, that we can only be made strong. As John 15:5 tells us, “…apart from Him we can do nothing.” Our personal might is honestly no match for the enemy. But mixed with the might of God, the enemy then stands no chance whatsoever.
Now we move to the next step of the armor itself. The scripture tells us to “put on the full armor of God” as it is in this clothing that we are able to stand against the enemy. The Greek word for ‘put on’ is the word ENDUO, which literally means to sink into a garment. The garment we are to be sinking into is the armor of God, or PANOPLIA in the Greek. This word is derived of two additional Greek words, that being PAS, meaning all, and HOPLON, meaning utensils, tools, or weapons. Only when clothed in the full tooling and weaponry of God Himself are we then able to stand against the enemy.
And this term ‘stand’ is the Greek word HISTEMI, meaning to be established, appointed, or firmly set. With a proper garment of weaponry we are then able to firmly set our feet on the Rock while we battle against the methods, METHODEIA, also meaning trickery, or traps along a journey, that the enemy, the devil, DIABOLOS, meaning accuser or slanderer, may put in our path. Let’s face it, without this armor, we are sitting ducks.
Our weapons and warfare, though, are of a special type. In II Corinthians 10:3-4, Paul tells us, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” Would you like an example of this? How about the way in which David defeated Goliath? In real life would you have walked out to the battlefield with only a slingshot, against a warrior whose trophy collection was probably bigger than your house? How is it that David won this battle? He won because he fought with God’s weapons and not the weapons of this world. Think about it, in I Samuel 17:38, Saul attempts to dress David in his own armor. Have you ever wondered why? There are two reasons. First, Saul was afraid to be shown up by a youth, so he dressed him in his royal armor so the men would think it is Saul finally standing up to Goliath. But secondly, Saul was under the assumption that the warrior had to wear carnal armor and fight with a carnal sword. But that is not how God works. Although David had a slingshot, it was with spiritual weaponry that David defeated Goliath. How so, you ask. Because Goliath spoke against God, blasphemed God, and came out from any chance of protection against God’s weapons.
God has given us the armor, yes, but He has also given us His power. Will we dress ourselves in His might? Will we allow our ability to be the ability of God through us? Remember, we can do nothing apart from God. So then, this challenge is for you just as it was for David, and for saints of old. We are to be strong and mighty in the One who already has all the power in His hands. We are to be strong in the Lord alone.