“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:11).
Paul now uses an image which would have been readily visible to his first century readers and that is the armor worn by a soldier. It is likely that Paul spent his last days chained to a Roman soldier. As he contemplated the armor worn by his captors, he thought about the armor necessary for Christian victory. The word armor (panoplia) is modified by the word “full” to indicate that the believer must avail himself/herself to the sum total of the armor.
Paul’s thought likely moved from the image of the Roman soldier to that of the heavenly Warrior described in Isaiah 59:17. His linking to this heavenly soldier may not have been with visible chains, but those invisible chains which bound Paul to Christ which were stronger than any earthly chain.
Paul will describe the armor and the weapons in greater detail in the remainder of the passage, but we should notice first that the keyword of the passage is “stand” (also 6:13 and 14). The image is not of a march or conquest but one of holding the fortress of the soul and of the Church for the heavenly King who has already won the victory.
The word used here for “schemes of the devil” has already been used in 4:14. The idea is one of deceit and cunning devices. We often forget that our adversary is the father of liars and he is the arch enemy of every believer. We need the full armor of God because our battle is not against the stratagems of man but the wiles of a spiritual foe.
Prayer: Father, teach me never to stand without Your full armor. Amen.