Now listen to what Paul writes.
Verse 10, "Finally, be strong in the Lord
and the strength of His might.
Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand
against the schemes of the devil,
for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against rulers, against authorities,
against the cosmic powers over this present darkness,
against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.
And having done all to stand firm, stand therefore
having fastened on the belt of truth
and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and as shoes for your feet, having put on
the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith
with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts
of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God,
praying at all times in the spirit
with all prayer and supplication.
To that end, keep alert with all perseverance,
making supplication for all the saints."
And I'll stop there.
Now, I think there are many people
who read through Ephesians
that begins with laying this awesome doctrine of the gospel
in the first couple chapters,
and then gets very specific
in applying that gospel to everyday realities.
And then you come to chapter 6
and there's a lot of people that think
that in chapter 6, Paul is completely changing the subject.
He's no longer talking about family.
He's no longer talking about parenting.
He's no longer talking about marriage.
He's no longer talking about communication.
He's no longer talking about the church.
He's talking about this weird domain
that you have to be concerned about
called spiritual warfare.
Well, that's not what he's doing.
What he's actually doing
is summarizing everything that's happened so far.
He's saying, "You know what I've said about family, marriage?
That's spiritual war.
You know what I've said about parenting?
That's spiritual war.
You know what I've said about the church?
That's spiritual war.
You know what I've said about communication?
That's spiritual war.
Get aware, in those mundane places that we've talked about,
you don't actually war against flesh and blood
but against principalities and powers.
There's a war being fought on the turf of your heart.
It's fought for control of your soul.
Be ready.
When your boss has brought you into his office
and he's announced to you that in three weeks
you will no longer have a job
and you drive home in the car
and you wonder why God would let such a thing happen to you,
you are in the midst of full blown spiritual warfare.
When you've had a conversation with a man or a woman
that you've lived with for many years
and it's gotten heated and ugly,
you're in the middle of full blown spiritual war.
When you've just walked away from the doctor
and he said, "There's something
that we picked up on that scan and it concerns us."
You're in the middle
of a full blown spiritual war.
You see, it lives where we live every day.
Life is war.