Young Bible Scholars

Read Ephesians 6:10-20

Put on the Armor of God!

In the previous book of Ephesians Paul describes the contrast between children of the light and people of darkness and encourages the believers in Ephesus to be children of light through life in the Spirit.

In this chapter Paul gives a more practical application of how to live out our lives as children of the light. He calls us to put on the full Armor of God. What does this armor look like?

• Belt of truth
• Body armor of righteousness
• Shoes of the gospel of peace
• Shield of faith
• Helmet of salvation
• Sword of the Spirit

Let’s dive into these elements...

Belt of Truth
A belt is meant to hold things up so they don’t fall off. We are to be truthful in all we say and do. Without truth our whole testimony falls apart. So many times I’ve seen prominent believers who’s witness has been ruined because they tried to cover up some sin they were doing with blankets of lies. Let’s not live this way, but always be willing to live in the light of truth so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ won’t be tarnished by our lies.

Body Armor of Righteousness
Body armor is meant to cover your whole body. Jesus was the only person who ever lived a perfectly righteous live (that is without sinning once). When he sacrificed himself on the cross, he took on all the sins of the world, and the blood he shed on the cross can protect us from the wrath of God who cannot abide sin. Because of Jesus’ actions we can be made right with God. All we need to do is accept our own shortcomings and ask Jesus to give us His righteousness. Having done this we receive this body armor that makes us right with God and gives us direct access to him forever.

Shoes of the Gospel of Peace
Shoes are meant to be worn so we can more easily go places. As believers in Jesus and children of light we are called to go and make disciples of all nations by spreading the good news of the Gospel of Peace. Peace between God and mankind which can be attained through Jesus Christ.

Shield of Faith
A shield is meant as a means to protect against incoming attacks. Satan, the enemy of the children of light doesn’t want any of us to be effective in life. He will constantly bombard us with lies about ourselves, and about God in order to beat us down and prevent us from spreading the light of Jesus to others. Faith is, “the reality of what we hope for; the evidence of things we cannot see.” - (Hebrews 11:1). We must hold onto God and His promises and to the hope of the future in Heaven with Him. Even though we may not see those things with our own eyes, they are real and holding onto those things will help us ward off the lies Satan throws at us every day.

Helmet of Salvation
The helmet protects your head. Our heads hold the center of command for our entire body, that is our brain. Without a proper functioning head, our whole body will be dysfunctional. Why then salvation? Salvation is the act of repentance and acceptance that we can’t reach God on our own and we need Jesus’s help to be made right with God. It is that special moment when we align our mind with our hearts and surrender everything to God. Yet Paul also says we are to, “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” - Philippians 2:2 While we are made right with God once and for all, we still live on this cursed earth with sinful bodies that are prone to be very dysfunctional. We need, in our mind, to repent and ask God for help every day, in order for him to slowly transform us from sinful beings into the children of light he means us to be.

Sword of the Spirit
A sword is a weapon. Of all the equipment described in this chapter this is the only piece that is meant for offense. The sword of the spirit is the Word of God, the Bible. Satan is always working to build strongholds to hold people prisoners and away from God. He does it with his greatest weapons, lies and deceit. The people of darkness are held in bo***ge by Satans lies and it is our job to assault those strongholds and tear down these lies with the truth of the Word of God, so more people of darkness will be rescues from bo***ge and be turned into children of light.

We are at war! Our enemy isn’t people, but Satan who spreads lies and deceits. As children of light, we need to put on the full armor of God in order to effectively fight the ongoing battle for the souls of humanity. So suit up and go forth children of light, and remember that we are on the winning side of this battle.

Read Ephesians 5

In the Star Wars movie series the Jedi are held in opposition to the Sith. Jedi are these guardians of light who fight for peace and justice in the galaxy. They are taught to rid themselves of all emotions and focus on peace and harmony with the force. In contrast the Sith are a sect of mystical warriors who vie for power and domination. They are taught to give into their passion and harness fear, anger, love, hatred and use those emotions to give themselves the power they need to succeed in their plans.

Today’s reading reminded me very much of the light and dark found in Star Wars, although with significant differences.

Paul in his letter to the Ephesians describes believers as children of light who should live a certain way as a response to the great love they have experienced in Jesus Christ. We are to live in contrast to the people who still live in darkness in accordance to their flesh. As I read the chapter I started to make a mental list of each side. Here is what I came up with.

Children of Light
• Filled with Love
• Thankfulness to God
• Pleasing to God
• Exposing evil
• Filled with the Holy Spirit
• Worshiping God (with songs and hymns)
• Submitting to one another
• Love and Respect in marriage
• Living sacrificially for one another

People of Darkness
• Sexually immoral
• Greedy
• Worshiping things of this world
• Obscene stories
• Coarse Jokes
• Drunkenness
• Acting thoughtlessly
• Hiding/Covering sin up

Just like the Jedi are in clear opposition to the Sith, the children of light stand in clear opposition to people of darkness. The main difference between the two is children of light should live in accordance and be led by the Spirit of God, while people of darkness live in accordance to their own fleshly desires.

If God gave his one and only son for our sake so we would be restored to a right standing with God, our response as children of light should be to live holy and righteous lives led by His Spirit. We do this not in order to earn His approval and ticket to heaven. We do this because despite our sinful nature he provided for a path to Him at great cost to himself.

A devotional for you...

Read Ephesians 4

Ephesians 4 starts with “Therefore” this clearly means that we can’t read Ephesians 4 without reading Ephesians 3 which gives us the background to the “therefore”.

Ephesians 3 speaks about the depth of the love of Jesus Christ and how when we experience His love completely we will be made complete in Him.

So Ephesians 4 says that as a response to being full of the love of Christ we are to pursue certain things. Those things are,

• Unity of the church regardless of our background (verses 1-6)
• Making use of our spiritual gift which God bestowed upon us (verses 7-16)
• Living a righteous life by abandoning the old self and living in accordance to the Spirit (verse 17-32)

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:16‬ ‭says,
“He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”

In a physical body it is important to work all parts of your body. For example you can’t grow strong biceps without also growing your triceps. They are interdependent. In the same way if you don’t have a strong core, you will struggle building a strong upper body.

It’s the same thing in God’s church. God has given each of us special gift to use to build up the whole church. If we don’t use those gifts then other folks in the church won’t be able to use their gifts properly. For example: Let’s say God gifted me with the ability to make lots of money and I don’t give generously to others in the church then they might not be able to use their gift of caring for others.

I know personally that God has given me the ability to teach and as of late I haven’t really been using that gift. In not doing so I realize that I am blocking someone else from growing in their faith and learning to stand firm in the word of God when challenges come their way.

Father in heaven, forgive me for living a selfish life and not using my gift as I should in response to your great love. Help me to persevere in living in accordance to your Spirit so that I may do my part to contribute to the growth of your church.

Praying for all my fellow Belarusian friends. Asking God to give courage to my fellow Christ followers to shine the light of truth and love to the people around then in this time of crisis. Also praying for God’s protecting hand upon them.

Church on the road! https://cityviewbible.org/sundayonline/

Great Father’s Day gift. Our upstairs is turned into a Lord of The Rings room with maps, picture, and my Aragorn’s sword replica. Thank you to my beautiful wife for such a great surprise. @ Round Rock, Texas

Easter service at home. Singing “Great is thy Faithfulness”

Bacon and Swiss cheese pastries for Easter lunch. @ Estates at Settlers Park, Round Rock

First time making hamburger buns. It turned out pretty good! @ Estates at Settlers Park, Round Rock

Today at church I will teach our elementary kids about Immanuel, “God with us.” Spurgeon, one of my favorite pastors, taught about this on Christmas Eve in 1854. Here is a video link with an extract of his sermon on Immanuel.

https://youtu.be/Xc9Z43YPF-Q

This morning’s reading reminded me that God sees my hidden sins even when I don’t see them. It also reminded me to always beware of the words that come out of my mouth.