#DailyDevotion Human Beings Aren’t Your Enemy. Who Is?

Eph. 6:10-17 ¹⁰Finally, let the Lord and His mighty power make you strong. ¹¹Put on God’s whole armor, and you will be able to stand against the devil’s tricky ways. ¹²You’re not fighting against flesh and blood but against the rulers, authorities, and lords of this dark world, against the evil spirits that are above. ¹³This is why you should take God’s whole armor; then you can resist when things are at their worst and having done everything, you can hold your ground.

When dealing with life, we need the LORD and his mighty power to make us strong. He tells us in the Old Testament if we trust him, he will fight our battles for us. But you might note, when he tells the Israelites that, they still go into the battle fray. Even though he fights for you and gives you his power to make you strong, you are still going to have to go into the fray. But he is there fighting for you.



So Paul tells us to put on God’s whole armor. Note, it is not your armor. What is your armor? Your thoughts, your plans, your ways, your power power and strength, your intelligence, well it is anything that has to do with you. Whatever is of you, it cannot handle the devil’s tricky ways. You will lose against him by yourself and your resources. We pretty much gave him that power in the Garden when we listened to him the first time. The LORD our God is our better resource today. We had him in the Garden but the devil convinced us to put our weapons down and fight like men. Well that didn’t work out too well, did it?

Paul reminds us we are not fighting against flesh and blood. Humans are not your enemy. While they might not always seem like they are on your side, in a sense they are. The devil is their enemy too, though they often don’t realize it. He wants their destruction. He wants them to suffer with him and his minions in the Lake of Fire for all eternity. He hates them as much as he hates you. Our fellow man, no matter how wicked is not our enemy. God made them and redeemed them by the blood of Jesus Christ, just as much as we made and redeemed you. He even gave us Paul, who was Saul, as an apostle, though he once hated the Church, imprisoned, mistreated, put in chains and killed our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is not without cause he tells us our enemies are not flesh and blood.

Well, who are our enemies? Paul tells us, “rulers, authorities, and lords of this dark world, against the evil spirits that are above.” Just as there are ranks of good angels, there are ranks of evil angels as well. They have rebelled against God and hate everything that is of God. You being made in the image and likeness of God they hate the most and want the worst for you. So what can you use to defeat them? The whole armor of God which he gives you. In general we can say that is three things, his word, his promises and his sacraments. The word gives us the knowledge of God’s will for us and his attitude toward us. His promises tell us what he has done for us to save us and deliver us from sin, death and the devil through the works, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. His sacraments seal us in this salvation until Christ is revealed on the Last Day. If we make use of these things in our daily life, daily, regularly, then when the dark forces move their powers against us, we, as Paul promises here, will be able to resist them and at the worst to stand, on the Rock, immovable. For the LORD himself will be fighting for us in the fray.

Heavenly Father, grant us the faith to pick up your armor daily so we may not fall for the devil’s tricks and we may withstand all the attacks of evil against us, trusting it is you who is fighting for us in the evil day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.