Ephesians 6:11

Put on the whole armour of God,.... Not that which God himself is sometimes clothed with, and uses against his enemies; but what he has provided for his people, and furnishes them with; the

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The whole armour - "the armour of light" (Romans 13:12) on the right hand and left (2 Corinthians 6:7).

Put on the whole armour; get yourselves furnished with every grace, that none be wanting in you, no part naked and exposed to your enemies. Of God; i.e. not carnal, but spiritual, and given by God: see ,4 . That ye may be able to stand; either to fight, or rather to overcome. He that loses the victory is said to fall; he that gains it, to stand: see . Against the wiles of the devil: the devil useth arts and stratagems, as well as force and violence, and therefore, if any part of your spiritual armour be wanting, he will assault you where he finds you weakest.

11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ver. 11. Put on the whole armour] Or else never think to do the afore mentioned duties; we have a busy adversary to deal with. The Turks bear no weapons but in travel; then some of them seem like a walking armoury; so must a Christian be. Coriolanus had so used his weapons of a child-little, that they seemed as if they had been born with him, or grown into his hands. Seneca reports of Caesar that he quickly sheathed his sword, but never laid it off. No more must we. The wiles of the devil] Gr. The methods or way-layings of that old subtile serpent, who like Dan’ s adder in the path, biteth the heels of passengers, and thereby transfuseth his venom to the head and heart, Genesis 49:17. Julian by his craft drew more from the faith than all his persecuting predecessors could do by their cruelty. So doth Satan more harm in his sheepskin than by roaring like a lion. εγγενηκαιεμφυτα. Plutarch.

(11) Put on the whole armour.—The special emphasis in this verse is on “the whole armour,” or “panoply” (a word only used here and in Luke 11:22); not mainly on its strength or its brightness, as “armour of light” (comp. Romans 13:12), but on its completeness, providing against all “the wiles” and “all the fiery darts” of the Evil One, leaving no one point unguarded by a carelessness which may be fatal on all. In this it accords well with the general completeness and harmony of idea so characteristic of this Epistle. To put on the “armour of God”—given us, that is, by God—is declared (by comparison of Rom 13:12; Romans 13:14) to be to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Hence its completeness corresponds to the divine perfection of His true humanity. We are “to grow up unto Him in all things” (Ephesians 4:15), to put on His image in all the harmony of “truth” and “righteousness,” of “peace” and “faith,” to receive and use His “salvation” and wield the spiritual energy of His “Word.” The wiles of the devil.—The word “wiles” (used only here and in Ephesians 4:14) is an almost technical word for the stratagems of a skilful leader. It is notable that these “wiles” are ascribed to the devil, the “prince of the evil spirits” directing his hosts against the army of Christ; the actual “wrestling” of hand-to-hand struggle is with these evil spirits themselves. The word “wrestling” is, of course, not used technically, otherwise the counsel must have been (as in Hebrews 12:1) to divest oneself of all encumbrance. It is the personal grapple with the foe. Still it is possible that there may be some allusion to the “wrestling with the angel” of Genesis 32:24-29, though with a wholly diverse application.

Verse 11. Put on the whole armour of God] ΕνδυσασθετηνπανοπλιαντουΘεου. The apostle considers every Christian as having a warfare to maintain against numerous, powerful, and subtle foes; and that therefore they would need much strength, much courage, complete armour, and skill to use it. The panoply which is mentioned here refers to the armour of the heavy troops among the Greeks; those who were to sustain the rudest attacks, who were to sap the foundations of walls, storm cities, c. Their ordinary armour was the shield, the helmet, the sword, and the greaves or brazen boots. To all these the apostle refers below. See Clarke on Ephesians 6:13. The wiles of the devil.] Ταςμεθοδειαςτουδιαβολου· The methods of the devil the different means, plans, schemes, and machinations which he uses to deceive, entrap, enslave, and ruin the souls of men. A man's method of sinning is Satan's method of ruining his soul. See Clarke on Ephesians 4:14.

11. Put on] For the word, cp. Romans 13:12; Romans 13:14 (a close parallel); 1 Corinthians 15:53-54; 2 Corinthians 5:3; Galatians 3:27 (a parallel); above, Ephesians 4:24; below, 14; Colossians 3:10; Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:8 (a close parallel). In 1 Thess. and Rom. (just quoted) we have, so to speak, the germs of the developed imagery of this later-written passage. In them, as here, the believer, already (from another point of view, that of covenant and possession) clothed and armed with his Lord, is exhorted so to realize and to use what he has that it shall be like a new clothing and arming.the whole armour] One word in the Gr., panoplia. It occurs in N.T. elsewhere only Luke 11:22 and here Ephesians 6:13. In the Apocrypha it is not infrequent. Cp. esp. Wis 5:17 &c., a very close parallel here as regards the picture:—“He (the Lord) shall take His zeal as a panoply, and make the creature His weapon for the defeat of His enemies; He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and shall make true judgment His helmet; He shall take sanctity as His invincible shield, and shall whet severe wrath as His sword, &c.” These words may very possibly have been in the Apostle’s memory. But far more certainly he had present there Isaiah 59:16-17, itself the probable ground of the imagery in Wisdom.The word panoplia admits no doubt of a looser application in usage; it may mean armour, complete or not. But its strict meaning, “whole armour,” is precisely in point here, where the stress of thought is on the one secret of spiritual strength; the need of Divine safeguard, and nothing less, for the whole emergency.Cp. again 1 Thessalonians 5 and Romans 13 for parallels, or rather germs, of this passage. There, as here, the image of “putting on” is connected with that of “armour.” And in Rom. distinctly, and in 1 Thess. implicitly, the armour is seen to be reducible ultimately, as here, to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. St Jerome says here, “From what we read in the passage following, and from the things said in all the Scriptures concerning the Lord (our) Saviour, it most clearly results that by ‘all the arms of God’ … the Saviour is to be understood.”of God] Supplied by Him, having been wrought by Him. For such a conflict nothing less will do than what is wholly His in origin and gift.that ye may be able] It is implied that thus, while only thus, the militant Christian shall be able. No inadequacy in his equipment is to be feared.to stand] 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.wiles] Lit, “methods”; stratagems. The Gr. word occurs (in Scripture) only here and above, Ephesians 4:14 (where R.V. “wiles”).

Put on the whole armor of God - The whole description here is derived from the weapons of an ancient soldier. The various parts of those weapons - constituting the “whole panoply” - are specified in Ephesians 6:14-17.

11. Whole armour—Our word panoply is the same with the beautiful Greek word πανοπλια, the sum total of a soldier’s offensive and defensive equipment.