Ephesians 6:13c – The Ground We Stand On

… you may be able to stand your ground,

Summary: In the old days, “standing your ground” meant just that. You would stand in a spot on the ground and defend it with your life. In the world of spiritual matters, we stand on a different kind of ground.

One of the many things I like about reading the Bible is finding everyday expressions still in use today. Two thousand years ago, people were saying, “stand your ground,” just like today. The difference is that two thousand years ago, “stand your ground” probably had a more literal application than it does now.

Imagine being Eleazar in the days of David in the Old Testament. When fighting the Philistines at Pas Dammim, “Eleazar stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword” (2 Samuel 23:10). Then there was Shammah, son of Agee the Hararite. He, too, stood his ground in the middle of a lentil field. Standing against one man is an achievement. Standing against dozens or hundreds is the stuff that legends are made of.

Like the men of old, we are in a war. The enemy is upon us. Instead of angry Philistines, his army is made up of a host of … what? What does the enemy have to come at us with? What are we supposed to stand our ground against?

The enemy comes at us in two ways. Neither one is a direct assault. Instead of standing in a field of lentils, knocking down every attacker with powerful strokes of our sword, we fight an enemy who sneaks up behind us in the dark of night.

Now, when I say “night,” I don’t mean the time of day after the sun goes down. I am talking about a spiritual darkness that is the absence of God’s light. We are most vulnerable when we are not keeping our eyes on God.

So what are the “two ways” the enemy attacks? We see both in Genesis 3:1-7.

In the Genesis account, the first attack comes when the serpent slithers up and whispers in Eve’s ear. Somehow, the devil has access to us from the spiritual realm. He whispers to us and suggests one thing or another. Whatever he says will be almost all lies, but his words will contain the smallest grain of truth. The truth is the sugarcoating that makes the lies so easy to swallow.

The second area of attack comes after Adam and Eve touch the forbidden tree and eat the fruit. Scripture says, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened …” (Genesis 3:7) When that happened, we became vulnerable to the passions of the flesh: “…sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” (Galatians 5:19-21)

The enemy isn’t “out there.” The enemy is within. We must discern the difference between the Spirit of God and the other spirits that pull us away from his will. That is the ground we stand on.

Application: Spend today keeping track of the devil’s attacks and where they come from. Write them down and look them over at the end of the day.

Food for Thought: What advice do you have for someone who wants to better see the difference between God’s will and the spiritual forces of evil?