Stand your ground laws have been in the news recently because they give legal protection for defense against violence, which can be very controversial. One man’s defense is another man’s offense. Aggression versus aggression. Violence against violence. Christians have had stand your ground instructions for thousands of years. They give real protection for defense against satanic wickedness. God’s protection versus overwhelming evil. God’s peace against spiritual wickedness. So you can stand to withstand.
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6:10-13 WEB)
The devil is real. He inhibits God’s people (1 Thessalonians 2:18; Revelation 2:10) and he “prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Christians are told to resist the devil (Ephesians 4:27; James 4:7). We have the power because Jesus Christ defeated the devil at the cross (Rom 8:38-39; 1 Cor 15:24; Col 1:13; 2:10, 15; 1 Pet 3:22; Rev 12:7-9). Therefore, the devil is no match for a Christian who is obeying God’s stand your ground commandment.
- Stand to withstand
- The repetition in Eph 6:11, 14, shows that standing, that is, maintaining our ground, not yielding or fleeing, is the grand aim of the Christian soldier. (JFB) Ephesians 6:14 –Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary
- The key-word of the passage. The present picture is not of a march, or of an assault, but of the holding of the fortress of the soul and of the Church for the heavenly King. Bunyan’s “Mr Standfast” is a portrait that may illustrate this page.—So again below, Ephesians 6:13-14. –Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist
Since Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), it cannot be overemphasized how much he hates lies, deceit, dishonesty, and hypocrisy. He desires truth in the inward parts (Psalm 5:9; Psalm 51:6). If we don’t start our stand in honesty and truth, and do everything with honesty and truth, we won’t be able to withstand to the finish.
- Belt of Truth
- “Having girt about your loins with truth,” that is, with truthfulness, sincerity, a good conscience (2Co 1:12; 1Ti 1:5, 18; 3:9). Truth is the band that girds up and keeps together the flowing robes, so as that the Christian soldier may be unencumbered for action. So the Passover was eaten with the loins girt, and the shoes on the feet (Ex 12:11; compare Isa 5:27; Lu 12:35). Faithfulness (Septuagint, “truth”) is the girdle of Messiah (Isa 11:5): so truth of His followers. –JFB
- not “the truth”; a phrase which would decisively mean “the true message of the Gospel.” The absence of the article leaves us free to explain the word of the sincerity, reality, and simplicity of the regenerate man. For this use of the word in St Paul see e.g. 1 Corinthians 5:8; 2 Corinthians 7:14; 2 Corinthians 11:10; above, ch. Ephesians 5:9; Php 1:18. The grasp on revealed Truth is indeed all-important, but it must be made “in truth,” in personal sincerity, if it is to avail in the spiritual struggle. And this meaning of the word well corresponds to the imagery. Unreality, whether in trust or self-surrender, is fatal to the coherence of the Christian life. Meanwhile it must be remembered that the “panoply” is “of God,” and that “truth” is here, accordingly, a supernatural grace, that simplicity of attitude and action towards God, His word and His will, which is a gift of regeneration alone.—In Isaiah 11:5 “righteousness” and “faithfulness” are Messiah’s girdle. –CBSC
Having put on the breastplate of righteousness
- Breastplate of righteousness
- Cp. Isaiah 59:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:8. And see note above on Ephesians 6:11 for the apocryphal parallel.—The breastplate covers the heart. Here the heart in its figurative and spiritual sense (see on Ephesians 1:18, Ephesians 3:17) is in question; how to protect it and its action, in the great conflict. –CBSC
- There is here an obvious reference to two passages of Isaiah (Isaiah 11:5; Isaiah 59:17), “Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,” “He put on righteousness as a breastplate.” Truth and righteousness are virtually identical, or, at least, inseparable. Hence they are compared to the strong belt, and the breastplate continuous with it, forming together the armour of the body. Perhaps “truth” is taken as the belt because it is the one bond both of society and of individual character. But it is in the two together that men stand “armed strong in honesty.” In 1 Thessalonians 5:8, the metaphor is different and perhaps less exact. There the breastplate is the “breastplate of faith and love”—that which here is the shield. –Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
Having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace
Contrary to the stand your ground laws, the Christian is not prepared to render violence. The Christian’s message is always the good news of peace. No matter the circumstances. God’s got this. Remember, even the archangel Michael didn’t fight the devil, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” (Jude 1:9)
- Preparation of peace
- Let peace with God, and, consequent thereon, peace of conscience and tranquillity of mind, in all circumstances and situations, (for which ample provision is made in the gospel,) arm you with confidence and resolution to proceed forward in all the ways of duty, however rough and difficult, through which you are called to pass, and enable you to receive with resignation and patience all the dispensations of that wise and gracious Providence, which is always watching over you for good, and is engaged to support you under your trials, to sanctify them to you, and in due time to deliver you out of them. In this way, and in no other, will you be enabled to pass through all difficulties unhurt, surmount all oppositions which obstruct your progress, to endure to the end, and finish your course with joy. –Benson Commentary
Above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one
- Shield of faith
- The shield here is the large heavy shield covering the whole body, in which the “fiery darts”—that is, the arrows, with the points made red hot, or wrapped in with burning tow (comp. Psalm 7:14; Psalm 120:4)—may fix and burn themselves out without harm. St. Paul likens it to “faith.” This, however, is neither the “faith in which we stand” (2 Corinthians 1:24), nor the energetic faith of Hebrews 11. It is the faith of patience and endurance, the almost passive faith, trusting in God’s protection and submissive to His will, on which the darts of temptation, whether from fear, or from lust, or from doubt, fall harmless. The best commentary after all, on the words is found in Christian’s conflict with Apollyon in the Pilgrim’s Progress. –ECER
Take the helmet of salvation
- Helmet of salvation
- Take is a different Greek word from that in Eph 6:13, 16; translate, therefore, “receive,” “accept,” namely, the helmet offered by the Lord, namely, “salvation” appropriated, as 1Th 5:8, “Helmet, the hope of salvation”; not an uncertain hope, but one that brings with it no shame of disappointment (Ro 5:5). It is subjoined to the shield of faith, as being its inseparable accompaniment (compare Ro 5:1, 5). The head of the soldier was among the principal parts to be defended, as on it the deadliest strokes might fall, and it is the head that commands the whole body. The head is the seat of the mind, which, when it has laid hold of the sure Gospel “hope” of eternal life, will not receive false doctrine, or give way to Satan’s temptations to despair. God, by this hope, “lifts up the head” (Ps 3:3; Lu 21:28). –JFB
- That is, “of the hope of salvation;” for so it is expressed in the parallel place in 1 Thessalonians 5:8. The idea is, that a well-founded hope of salvation will preserve us in the day of spiritual conflict, and will guard us from the blows which an enemy would strike. The helmet defended the head, a vital part; and so the hope of salvation will defend the soul, and keep it from the blows of the enemy. A soldier would not fight well without a hope of victory. A Christian could not contend with his foes, without the hope of final salvation; but, sustained by this, what has he to dread? –Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God
- The sword
- The one offensive weapon in the picture. The fight is stationary and defensive, but it continually requires the thrust and cut of the defender. The assailant is himself to be assailed; the accusing tempter to be silenced. Cp. Hebrews 4:12 for the only other N.T. passage where the “sword” appears in spiritual imagery. There, as well as here, the “Word” is the sword-like thing. In the O.T., cp. Psalm 64:3; Isaiah 49:2.
- Of the Spirit
- The great Conveyer of the “word of God,” as the Inspirer of the Prophets, under both O.T. and N.T. (above Ephesians 3:5; Hebrews 3:7; Hebrews 9:8; Hebrews 10:15; 1 Peter 1:11; 2 Peter 1:21) Thus the sword is of His forging; and as He works in the believer as the Spirit of truth (John 14:17), and faith (2 Corinthians 4:13), He puts the sword into his grasp and enables him to use it. See next note. –CBSC
- The word of God
- In this we pass to the one offensive weapon of the Christian, “the sword of the Spirit”—i.e., given by the Holy Spirit—which, like the helmet, but unlike the rest of the defensive armour, does not become a part of himself, but is absolutely of God. The passage reminds us at once of Hebrews 4:12 : “The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” But there (as in 1Corinthians 14:26; 2Corinthians 2:17; Colossians 1:25; 2 Tim. 2:29) the original word is the larger and deeper word (Logos), signifying the truth of God in itself, and gradually leading up to the ultimate sense in which our Lord Himself is the “Word of God,” revealing the Godhead to man. Accordingly the work of the Word there, is that of the “engrafted Word,” “to divide asunder the soul and the spirit” within. Here, on the contrary, we have another expression (Rhema), signifying the Word as spoken; and St. Peter (in 1 Peter 1:25) defines it exactly: “The word of the Lord endureth for ever; and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” We cannot, of course, limit it to Holy Scripture, though we naturally remember that our Lord used the Scriptures as His only weapon in the Temptation. It is the gospel of Christ, however and wherever spoken, able to put to shame and to flight the powers of evil. –ECER