Ephesians 6:16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
In Ephesians 6:10-20, the Apostle Paul tells us that there is a war against God's people. If we expect to be victorious in this war, we must use the armor provided to us by God. The armor of God is no ordinary armor because of the nature of our enemy. Our fight is against the rulers, authorities, and powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. We are fighting against an entire army of demonic forces under the control of Satan, the "evil one" himself. Consequently, the armor must be suitable for fighting against evil spiritual forces. Moreover, we must prepare ourselves to utilize the entire armor of God.
There is the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the helmet of salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. According to our verse for today, the most important piece of armor is the shield of faith. "In addition to all of this," Paul writes that we should hold up the "shield of faith." Faith is the only part of the armor in Paul's list that he identifies as being brandished against specific weapons of the enemy. The weapons in question are " the flaming arrows."
What are "the flaming arrows of the wicked one? Since faith is needed to battle them, they must be anything used against us in an attempt to harmfully distress our faith. The possibilities are endless. For example, it could be Satan tempting us to move away from our faith, trials that test our faith, persecutions that attempt to destroy our faith or ideas and arguments that attempt to undermine our faith.
Paul writes that what we have to do to defend against the flaming arrows is take up the shield of faith. We must assertively defend ourselves with faith, not just passively endure the volleys of the enemy, Satan. While faith is a God-given gift (Ephesians 2:8), it is also something to which we must surrender ourselves. If we want to defeat the enemy's weapons, then we must employ the faith God has bestowed upon us.
We should never forget that we are to take hold of faith. Employing faith is a vital aspect of a Christian’s life. It is how we depend on God rather than ourselves. It is the process by which we can defend ourselves against Satan. We cannot fight Satan with our strength.
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