Introduction: So far, Paul has integrated together several foundational facts about the gospel: the fact that the Lord has restored to unity Jews and Gentiles, husbands and wives, children and parents, slaves and masters; the fact that our lives have been transformed, that we are resurrected, ascended, and exalted with Christ; the fact God gave us blessings and gifts; and the fact that we have been constituted into the church of God, united in the Lord. Do all these facts mean that the history of salvation is over and that there is nothing else for us to do? By no means.
In the last chapter of his letter, Paul reminds the Ephesians, and all of us, that Christians are not simply saved people who are amassed in the fold of Jesus. On the contrary, Paul insists that once Christians join the kingdom of the Lord, they take part in its defense and promotion. They are soldiers of the kingdom of God. But they are not soldiers in the sense that soldiers of the Roman Empire are. Nor are they militarized rebel militias. Their enemy is spiritual, and so are their armor and weapons. It is a cosmic battle, started in the “heavenly places” by “the devil” and other “world forces of this darkness . . . the spiritual forces of wickedness” (Eph. 6:11, 12, NASB) against the throne of God.
The source of the power and strength of Christians does not reside in their own muscles, armor, weapons, battle skills, and strategies. Rather, their only source of power is, as always, in the Lord. They fight as their Lord fought, by crushing evil and worldly powers with the power of love and justice that comes from the cross. But the cross is not theirs; it is the Lord’s. It was the Lord who obtained the victory over the powers of evil at the cross; it was the Lord who resurrected and ascended to the heavenly places. It is by virtue of this victory that the Lord Jesus gives His church His resurrection, His life and blessings (Ephesians 1), His gifts (Ephesians 4), and now His armor (Ephesians 6). The Christians fight, clad in Christ’s armor, for a battle that He already has won.
Lesson Themes: This week’s study focuses on two major themes:
By joining the church, the Christian automatically engages in a spiritual battle of cosmic proportions.
But the Christian does not need to worry, for his or her strength and armor come from the Lord. All a Christian must do is to stand his or her ground in the Lord.
Part II: Commentary
Taking the Victorious Side
When Paul says “finally” (Eph. 6:10), he does not mean that he is lowering the intensity, and the elevated description, of his vision for Christian life. Rather, he is ending his epistle with a call to fight. Yes, Paul’s gospel is a message of peace, but it is a message of peace precisely because of an ongoing war, involving the entire universe, from God on the throne in the heavenly places to the last person in the world. Paul’s gospel is a message of peace because God has obtained the victory in this war.
However, the war continues for each one of us as we take a side. True Christians are those who take their side with God. This alliance will bring the battle to their doorstep. But Christians do not need to be afraid. On the contrary, knowing that they have taken the right, and the winning, side of the war, they need to understand that they are not left alone and that they have been empowered and supplied with all the war equipment they need to be victorious. The only thing needed is for them to take a stand. So important is this stand that, in Ephesians 6, the apostle repeats three times his call for the Christians to stand for God (Eph. 6:11, 13, 14).
Here I Stand
By 1521, Martin Luther (1483–1546) had become the leading voice of the Reformation. Studying the Scriptures in their original languages, the Augustinian monk, who became a professor of biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg, arrived at two major conclusions, both enforced by Paul’s theology. First, that the justification of the sinner is based on God’s grace and accepted by the sinner by faith; this idea translated into the Protestant Reformation principles of sola gratia and sola fide. Second, that the Scriptures constitute the self-sufficient revelation of God and that the Bible, not the church council or pope, is the only, and final, rule of faith and authority in the church. This idea was encapsulated into the sola scriptura principle of the Reformation.
While these ideas were increasingly shaping up in Luther’s mind, Johann Tetzel’s sale of indulgences near Wittenberg inspired Luther to rise against flagrant corruption in the church by publishing his famous Ninety-Five Theses on October 31, 1517. However, instead of witnessing a wave of deep reformation in the church, Luther was confronted with a tsunami of attacks aimed at breaking and silencing him. By the time of the 1518 Diet of Augsburg, Luther already regarded Scripture as the sole basis for faith, morality, and theology. However, caught between his growing popularity in Germany and high pressure from the Papacy, Luther agreed in 1519 not to publish his views if his opponents would refrain from attacking him.
But when, in 1520, he came under repeated attack, Luther decided to let his calls for a profound reformation of the church go fully public. Luther published a series of pamphlets as a result. In these pamphlets, the Reformer used the Scriptures to debunk (1) the papal claim to absolute authority over the church and world through its hierarchy and (2) the church’s claim to control God’s grace through its sacraments and priesthood. Instead, Luther proposed that the church needed to return to the principle of the priesthood of all believers, who have direct access to God and His grace through their faith.
The church of Rome responded via Pope Leo X’s 1520 bull, Exsurge Domine, in which the pope identified some 41 alleged theological errors in Luther’s writings. Luther was excommunicated in the same year, and his books were ordered to be burned. Luther responded in kind: when the papal bull reached his place in December of 1520, he burned it publicly. The tense situation turned into an open war. Charles V, the new emperor, attempted to bring order in his domain by summoning Luther to the Diet in the spring of 1521, in the Imperial Free City of Worms (close to the city of Frankfurt), where Luther would be required to answer for his views and his actions. The Reformer was to travel, and attend the Diet, under the protection of Frederick of Saxony, the founder of the University of Wittenberg and a defender of Luther. Luther was well motivated to fight for God, as illustrated in his exclamation before traveling to Worms: “I will enter Worms under the banner of Christ against the gates of hell.”—Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville, TN: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1950), p. 179.
Luther arrived in Worms on April 16, 1521, and was ordered to appear before the Diet at four o’clock in the afternoon of the following day. On April 17, Luther was brought before the Diet. The presider proceeded directly to questioning Luther as to whether the books arranged on a desk were his and whether he was ready to recant the views written in them. Realizing the cruciality of the moment and its impact on the future of the gospel, Luther hesitated and requested additional time for consideration. His request was granted, and he returned to the Diet on April 18, at six o’clock in the afternoon.
His appearance and voice differed from the day before: he was well composed, and his voice sounded strong, confident. After acknowledging that the books piled up before him were authored by him, the Reformer explained that he could not recant the ideas in those books because they were falling into three categories, each of which held truths that he could not recant: (1) proclaiming general Christian teachings, (2) denouncing the corruption of the Papacy that was oppressing the German nation, and (3) exposing the corruption of certain individuals. For this reason, Luther requested to be shown his errors by Scripture and not by ecclesiastical mandates.
The presider rebuked Luther for claiming Scripture as the final authority, pointing out that the church would be exposed to shame if it were found in error after so many centuries. For this reason, the presider then challenged Luther to give a direct answer to the question of whether he was renouncing his works and his teachings. Luther’s ringing voice proclaimed the famous answer: “Since then Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”—Bainton, Here I Stand, p. 185; italics added (see comment below).
Historians have noted that the words “Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise” are not present in the official written records of the Diet but are included in the earliest printed version of the speech (Bainton, p. 185). Ellen G. White describes Luther as having pronounced these words (see The Great Controversy, p. 160). Many historians believe Luther did say these words but posit that the clerk was so overwhelmed by the discourse that he missed recording these specific words. Regardless of how he worded his defense, the fact remains that Luther’s stand before the Diet of Worms was a courageous act: he stood up for truth, for the gospel, for God, and for the salvation of humanity.
When one sincere, Spirit-filled, devoted Christian stands up for Christ, the whole world changes. Also, Luther did not make his defense loudly or unnaturally. He took his stand in faith. He did not speak based on his own power or schemes; he went to Worms as one already condemned to death. But Luther spoke as Christ’s soldier, covered in the armor of God. The battle he went to fight was not his battle. It was God’s battle. All he needed to say was “Here I stand,” and God changed the course of the great controversy forever.
Part III: Life Application
Ask your students to ponder the following set of questions personally while you read them aloud in class: While Paul calls us to “stand” strong in the Lord, sometimes we stumble and fall. Remember how many times you have fallen on the spiritual battlefield. Though you may have fallen many times, compose a short list of the major falls. Analyze the reasons for those falls. What piece or pieces of your Christian armor did you not deploy or use correctly? Which piece or pieces of armor did you not use on time that might have contributed to those spiritual failures? What could you do to remedy the situation and stand up again—stand your spiritual ground—and push forward in the battle, alongside your family and alongside your brothers and sisters in your community of faith? Ask for a volunteer or two to share the answer to the last question with the class. Remember God’s encouragement for His soldiers: “The righteous falls seven times and rises again” (Prov. 24:16, ESV).
Paul urges the Ephesians to be strong “in the Lord” (Eph. 6:10). In fact, the apostle’s use of the expressions “in Him” or “in Christ” is so frequent that it is obvious that it is an integral part of the main theme of the epistle and the gospel (see, for instance, Eph. 1:1, 3, 4, 7, 9–11, 13, 20; Eph. 2:6–8, 13, 15, 21, 22; Eph. 3:6, 11, 21; Eph. 4:21, 32). In light of these verses, ask your class members to consider these questions: What, in their opinion, did Paul want most to communicate to his readers in his use of the expression “in Him”? Why does Paul insist on this expression? Direct your class to consider John 15:4–8 when devising their answer.
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Key Text: Ephesians 6:10, 11
Study Focus: Eph. 6:10–20; Deut. 20:2; Rom. 13:11–14; 1 Thess. 5:6–8; 1 Cor. 15:23, 24.
Introduction: So far, Paul has integrated together several foundational facts about the gospel: the fact that the Lord has restored to unity Jews and Gentiles, husbands and wives, children and parents, slaves and masters; the fact that our lives have been transformed, that we are resurrected, ascended, and exalted with Christ; the fact God gave us blessings and gifts; and the fact that we have been constituted into the church of God, united in the Lord. Do all these facts mean that the history of salvation is over and that there is nothing else for us to do? By no means.
In the last chapter of his letter, Paul reminds the Ephesians, and all of us, that Christians are not simply saved people who are amassed in the fold of Jesus. On the contrary, Paul insists that once Christians join the kingdom of the Lord, they take part in its defense and promotion. They are soldiers of the kingdom of God. But they are not soldiers in the sense that soldiers of the Roman Empire are. Nor are they militarized rebel militias. Their enemy is spiritual, and so are their armor and weapons. It is a cosmic battle, started in the “heavenly places” by “the devil” and other “world forces of this darkness . . . the spiritual forces of wickedness” (Eph. 6:11, 12, NASB) against the throne of God.
The source of the power and strength of Christians does not reside in their own muscles, armor, weapons, battle skills, and strategies. Rather, their only source of power is, as always, in the Lord. They fight as their Lord fought, by crushing evil and worldly powers with the power of love and justice that comes from the cross. But the cross is not theirs; it is the Lord’s. It was the Lord who obtained the victory over the powers of evil at the cross; it was the Lord who resurrected and ascended to the heavenly places. It is by virtue of this victory that the Lord Jesus gives His church His resurrection, His life and blessings (Ephesians 1), His gifts (Ephesians 4), and now His armor (Ephesians 6). The Christians fight, clad in Christ’s armor, for a battle that He already has won.
Lesson Themes: This week’s study focuses on two major themes:
By joining the church, the Christian automatically engages in a spiritual battle of cosmic proportions.
But the Christian does not need to worry, for his or her strength and armor come from the Lord. All a Christian must do is to stand his or her ground in the Lord.
Part II: Commentary
Taking the Victorious Side
When Paul says “finally” (Eph. 6:10), he does not mean that he is lowering the intensity, and the elevated description, of his vision for Christian life. Rather, he is ending his epistle with a call to fight. Yes, Paul’s gospel is a message of peace, but it is a message of peace precisely because of an ongoing war, involving the entire universe, from God on the throne in the heavenly places to the last person in the world. Paul’s gospel is a message of peace because God has obtained the victory in this war.
However, the war continues for each one of us as we take a side. True Christians are those who take their side with God. This alliance will bring the battle to their doorstep. But Christians do not need to be afraid. On the contrary, knowing that they have taken the right, and the winning, side of the war, they need to understand that they are not left alone and that they have been empowered and supplied with all the war equipment they need to be victorious. The only thing needed is for them to take a stand. So important is this stand that, in Ephesians 6, the apostle repeats three times his call for the Christians to stand for God (Eph. 6:11, 13, 14).
Here I Stand
By 1521, Martin Luther (1483–1546) had become the leading voice of the Reformation. Studying the Scriptures in their original languages, the Augustinian monk, who became a professor of biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg, arrived at two major conclusions, both enforced by Paul’s theology. First, that the justification of the sinner is based on God’s grace and accepted by the sinner by faith; this idea translated into the Protestant Reformation principles of sola gratia and sola fide. Second, that the Scriptures constitute the self-sufficient revelation of God and that the Bible, not the church council or pope, is the only, and final, rule of faith and authority in the church. This idea was encapsulated into the sola scriptura principle of the Reformation.
While these ideas were increasingly shaping up in Luther’s mind, Johann Tetzel’s sale of indulgences near Wittenberg inspired Luther to rise against flagrant corruption in the church by publishing his famous Ninety-Five Theses on October 31, 1517. However, instead of witnessing a wave of deep reformation in the church, Luther was confronted with a tsunami of attacks aimed at breaking and silencing him. By the time of the 1518 Diet of Augsburg, Luther already regarded Scripture as the sole basis for faith, morality, and theology. However, caught between his growing popularity in Germany and high pressure from the Papacy, Luther agreed in 1519 not to publish his views if his opponents would refrain from attacking him.
But when, in 1520, he came under repeated attack, Luther decided to let his calls for a profound reformation of the church go fully public. Luther published a series of pamphlets as a result. In these pamphlets, the Reformer used the Scriptures to debunk (1) the papal claim to absolute authority over the church and world through its hierarchy and (2) the church’s claim to control God’s grace through its sacraments and priesthood. Instead, Luther proposed that the church needed to return to the principle of the priesthood of all believers, who have direct access to God and His grace through their faith.
The church of Rome responded via Pope Leo X’s 1520 bull, Exsurge Domine, in which the pope identified some 41 alleged theological errors in Luther’s writings. Luther was excommunicated in the same year, and his books were ordered to be burned. Luther responded in kind: when the papal bull reached his place in December of 1520, he burned it publicly. The tense situation turned into an open war. Charles V, the new emperor, attempted to bring order in his domain by summoning Luther to the Diet in the spring of 1521, in the Imperial Free City of Worms (close to the city of Frankfurt), where Luther would be required to answer for his views and his actions. The Reformer was to travel, and attend the Diet, under the protection of Frederick of Saxony, the founder of the University of Wittenberg and a defender of Luther. Luther was well motivated to fight for God, as illustrated in his exclamation before traveling to Worms: “I will enter Worms under the banner of Christ against the gates of hell.”—Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville, TN: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1950), p. 179.
Luther arrived in Worms on April 16, 1521, and was ordered to appear before the Diet at four o’clock in the afternoon of the following day. On April 17, Luther was brought before the Diet. The presider proceeded directly to questioning Luther as to whether the books arranged on a desk were his and whether he was ready to recant the views written in them. Realizing the cruciality of the moment and its impact on the future of the gospel, Luther hesitated and requested additional time for consideration. His request was granted, and he returned to the Diet on April 18, at six o’clock in the afternoon.
His appearance and voice differed from the day before: he was well composed, and his voice sounded strong, confident. After acknowledging that the books piled up before him were authored by him, the Reformer explained that he could not recant the ideas in those books because they were falling into three categories, each of which held truths that he could not recant: (1) proclaiming general Christian teachings, (2) denouncing the corruption of the Papacy that was oppressing the German nation, and (3) exposing the corruption of certain individuals. For this reason, Luther requested to be shown his errors by Scripture and not by ecclesiastical mandates.
The presider rebuked Luther for claiming Scripture as the final authority, pointing out that the church would be exposed to shame if it were found in error after so many centuries. For this reason, the presider then challenged Luther to give a direct answer to the question of whether he was renouncing his works and his teachings. Luther’s ringing voice proclaimed the famous answer: “Since then Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”—Bainton, Here I Stand, p. 185; italics added (see comment below).
Historians have noted that the words “Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise” are not present in the official written records of the Diet but are included in the earliest printed version of the speech (Bainton, p. 185). Ellen G. White describes Luther as having pronounced these words (see The Great Controversy, p. 160). Many historians believe Luther did say these words but posit that the clerk was so overwhelmed by the discourse that he missed recording these specific words. Regardless of how he worded his defense, the fact remains that Luther’s stand before the Diet of Worms was a courageous act: he stood up for truth, for the gospel, for God, and for the salvation of humanity.
When one sincere, Spirit-filled, devoted Christian stands up for Christ, the whole world changes. Also, Luther did not make his defense loudly or unnaturally. He took his stand in faith. He did not speak based on his own power or schemes; he went to Worms as one already condemned to death. But Luther spoke as Christ’s soldier, covered in the armor of God. The battle he went to fight was not his battle. It was God’s battle. All he needed to say was “Here I stand,” and God changed the course of the great controversy forever.
Part III: Life Application
Ask your students to ponder the following set of questions personally while you read them aloud in class: While Paul calls us to “stand” strong in the Lord, sometimes we stumble and fall. Remember how many times you have fallen on the spiritual battlefield. Though you may have fallen many times, compose a short list of the major falls. Analyze the reasons for those falls. What piece or pieces of your Christian armor did you not deploy or use correctly? Which piece or pieces of armor did you not use on time that might have contributed to those spiritual failures? What could you do to remedy the situation and stand up again—stand your spiritual ground—and push forward in the battle, alongside your family and alongside your brothers and sisters in your community of faith? Ask for a volunteer or two to share the answer to the last question with the class. Remember God’s encouragement for His soldiers: “The righteous falls seven times and rises again” (Prov. 24:16, ESV).
Paul urges the Ephesians to be strong “in the Lord” (Eph. 6:10). In fact, the apostle’s use of the expressions “in Him” or “in Christ” is so frequent that it is obvious that it is an integral part of the main theme of the epistle and the gospel (see, for instance, Eph. 1:1, 3, 4, 7, 9–11, 13, 20; Eph. 2:6–8, 13, 15, 21, 22; Eph. 3:6, 11, 21; Eph. 4:21, 32). In light of these verses, ask your class members to consider these questions: What, in their opinion, did Paul want most to communicate to his readers in his use of the expression “in Him”? Why does Paul insist on this expression? Direct your class to consider John 15:4–8 when devising their answer.