Ephesians: Be Strong in the Lord and Put on the Full Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10-11 - We must go through basic training in God’s precepts to be strong in His might, but keep in mind the war is raging RIGHT NOW.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”
Ephesians 6:10-11 NASB1995
The AI image to start this essential passage in Ephesians 6 had the following description from ChatGPT:
If I were designing a devotional image specifically for Ephesians 6:10-11, I’d probably make him:
A first-century Roman legionary
Standing firmly with a large rectangular shield planted on the ground
Facing the viewer
Bright midday lighting
No enemy visible
Strong, calm expression
Perhaps a subtle suggestion of dark storm clouds or shadows in the distance to symbolize “the devil’s schemes” without depicting demons
That keeps the focus on standing firm in God’s strength, which is really the central idea of verses 10–11 before Paul starts describing the individual pieces of armor in the following verses.
And I have to admit—the image does look pretty heroic. It has a “ready for battle, but not looking for a fight” quality that fits the passage surprisingly well.
Very interesting! I like the “ready for battle” look; he is prepared without being aggressive.
Being strong in the Lord means being in the strength of His might for the work at hand. Enduring Word has good commentary for this verse, including examples from Martyn Lloyd-Jones on how Christians can lose this strength:
b. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might: Literally, Paul wrote strengthen yourselves in the Lord. He probably took the idea from 1 Samuel 30:6, where it is said that David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.
i. The detailed teaching of spiritual warfare in this passage presents two essential components. First, you must be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Then, you must put on the whole armor of God. The two are essential, and much teaching on Christian combat neglects the first. If you take a weak man who can barely stand, and put the best armor on him he will still be an ineffective soldier. He will be easily beaten. So equipping for Christian combat must begin with the principle, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
ii. Before a soldier is given a gun or shown how to fire a missile, he goes through basic training. One great purpose for basic training is to build up the recruit’s physical strength. It is as if the army says, “Soldier, we are going to give you the best weapons and armor possible. But first we have to make sure that you are strong and that you can use what we give you.”
c. And in the power of His might: This shows how to get this strength. This does not happen just by saying the words. It is not an incantation or a spell. You can’t just walk around saying, “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” over and over and it will happen. Those kind of mental games can accomplish something, but it certainly wasn’t what Paul meant here.
i. Might is inherent power or force. A muscular man’s big muscles display his might, even if he doesn’t use them. It is the reserve of strength.
ii. Power is the exercise of might. When the muscular man uses his might to bend an iron bar, he uses his power. It means that the reserve of strength is actually in operation.
iii. God has vast reservoirs of might that can be realized as power in our Christian life. But His might does not work in me as I sit passively. His might works in me as I rely on it, and step out to do the work. I can rely on it and do no work. I can do work without relying on it. But both of these fall short. I must rely on His might and then do the work.
iv. It is not “I do everything and God does nothing.” It is not “I do nothing and God does everything.” It is not “I do all I can and God helps with what I can’t.” Each of those approaches falls short. The key is for me to by faith rely on His might – and rely on it more and more – and then do the work.
v. In his great series of sermons on this text, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones listed many ways in which he believes Christians wasted their strength. It was as if they had received some of the available might of God, but it simply leaked away like water in a bucket that is full of holes. These are some of the things Lloyd-Jones thought sapped the strength of the Christian:
· Committing to too many spiritual works or things.
· Too much conversation.
· Arguments, debates, wrangling.
· Laziness.
· Too much time in the wrong company.
· Too much foolish talk and joking.
· Love of money and career.
· A desire for respectability and image.
· An unequal yoking with an unbeliever.
· Ungodly entertainment.
· A wrong attitude toward or doubting the Word of God.
vi. “We have to walk on a knife-edge in these matters; you must not become extreme on one side or the other. But you have to be watchful. And, of course, you can always tell by examining yourself whether your strength is increasing or declining.” (Lloyd-Jones)
There’s a lot to unpack in this commentary. Here are a few key takeaways:
Equipping for Christian combat begins with principles. We must go through the basic training of understanding His precepts and being obedient. An example for me would be how long some of the infantry troops trained before the invasion of Normandy during World War II. The famous first group of “Band of Brothers” (101st Airborne, 506th Regiment, Easy Company) paratroopers started their training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia in July 1942, then continued at other camps and again during their deployment to Aldbourne, England in September, 1943. So it was almost two years before they were called to use their skills in actual combat.
God’s power does not work in me if I remain passive. By faith we rely on His might more and more to give us that strength; it’s not all ours or all His. His might comes first to drive our work.
This might of God leaks out of us when we engage with the world and waste our strength. The list above from Lloyd-Jones are the many ways this enervation of our spiritual strength can happen. I would add that this can also happen because we don’t engage in prayer, but spend too much time caring about what other people think of us and engage in useless conversations and debates.
I have to share some great commentary from Ray Stedman as quoted in Precept Austin:
God has issued to each of us a bugle call to intelligent combat. It is a call to us to be men and women of God, to fight the good fight, to stand fast in the faith, to be strong in the Lord in the midst of the battle, in the midst of this dark and evil world.
Those who ignore this call and the battle that rages around them are doomed to be casualties. We cannot remain neutral. We must choose sides. [my emphasis added]. We must align ourselves with the forces of God, the forces of good. We must answer the bugle call, we must put on our armor and stand our ground or the battle will roll over us and in our defenseless, bewildered state, the forces of evil will trample us into the dust of the battlefield.
So we must learn to recognize how the dark systems of the devil work. But more than that, we must learn the processes of overcoming the systems of the devil not by flesh and blood, not by joining committees, not by political action, not by taking up clubs or assault weapons and attacking a human enemy. No, Paul says the weapons of our warfare are not flesh and blood weapons, not physical weapons, not political weapons. Rather, our weapons are mighty, through God, unto the pulling down of strongholds and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). That is the path to victory!
…
I once heard of a mental hospital that had devised an unusual test to determine when patients were ready to go back into the world. They brought candidates for release into a room where a tap was turned on, sending water pouring out over the floor. Next they handed the patient a mop and told him to mop up the water. If the patient had a firm enough grasp of reality to turn off the tap before mopping up the water, he was ready to go out into society. But if he started mopping up the water without turning off the tap, they knew that more treatment was needed.
While you and I would never miss such an obvious step as shutting off the tap before mopping the floor, the fact is that many Christians live their lives in a way that is from a spiritual point of view equally absurd. Each of us as Christians have been given the mop of God’s truth and we have been told to use it to help mop up the evil in the world around us. But we can only be useful in mopping up the evil around us if we first have enough sense to shut off the flow of evil that pours into our own hearts from the world rulers of this present darkness...
It is a battle in which we are all engaged every moment of our lives because “the world,” the outer arena of battle, is always around us while “the flesh,” the inner arena of battle, is always within us. We cannot escape “the world,” nor can we run away from “the flesh.” We must always begin our battle right at the point where we are. [My emphasis added].
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was a commissioned naval officer during World War II. In August 1943, the patrol torpedo boat he commanded, PT 109, was rammed and sunk by an enemy destroyer near the Japanese-held Solomon Islands. Kennedy and a fellow officer swam from one enemy-occupied island to the next until they found some friendly islanders who helped them get a message to U.S. forces. Years later, Kennedy was regarded as a war hero. His response: “It was involuntary. They sank my boat.”
So it is with us. We don’t have to volunteer to find ourselves in the middle of a war. It’s involuntary. The war has already come to us. It is raging all around us, through the channel of “the world.” And it is raging within us, through the channel of “the flesh.” [My emphasis added].
You might be thinking, “That doesn’t seem right at all! I thought that when you became a Christian, Jesus would set you free from the kingdom of Satan so that the devil could no longer touch you! I thought that conversion would take you out of the battle, not thrust you deeper into the conflict!” If that is your concept of the Christian life, you couldn’t be more wrong! When you become a Christian, that’s when the battle really begins! (Ray Stedman. Spiritual Warfare - Chapter 4 - The Tactics of Terror highly recommended!)
This is so good! I emphasized some key points in bold. Every day you look at our world right now and it seems like the forces of evil are taking over. We must not be silent and submissive to those who worship sin as they would eagerly drag us into darkness with their master, the devil.
Here’s one more from Precept Austin that I thought was another good example of the criticality of the armor of God:
How does the believer put on the full armor of God? One of the most important ways is to hide God’s Word in our heart (Ps 119:9-11) as if our very life depended upon it because our spiritual vitality does. Toward the close of World War II, Allied forces were mopping up against remaining Nazi resistance. One particular unit was assigned a crucial mission in Berlin. Each soldier had to memorize a map detailing all of Berlin’s important military sites -- and they had to do it in a single night! In just a few hours, each soldier in the unit had committed the map to memory. The mission was a success. Several years later, the Army conducted an experiment to see if that original feat could be duplicated. They offered a similar unit an extra week’s furlough--an attractive incentive--if they could carry out a comparable mission without a hitch. But the second unit could not match the success of the first. What made the difference? The lives of the men were not at stake. Surviving in battle was a greater motivation than a week’s vacation. Christians are engaged in spiritual warfare. Our road map, our plan of strategy against Satan’s military strongholds, is the Bible. The more we read it, the more of it we memorize, and the more thoroughly we know it, the more effective we will be for God. We must approach God’s Word as if our lives depended on it--because they do. That’s real motivation!
Thy Word is like an armory,
Where soldiers may repair,
And find, for life’s long battle-day,
All needful weapons there. --HodderIf your life depended on knowing the Bible, how long would you last?
Good question!
My next devotional examines Ephesians 6:12 - Our spiritual battle.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - Please help me to be fully prepared to draw on Your strength in this eternal battle of good and evil. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.
Precept Austin was accessed on 06/22/2026 to review commentary for Ephesians 6:10-11.
Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. Within the Enduring Word commentary:
Lloyd Jones, D. Martyn: The Christian Soldier (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1977)
Lloyd Jones, D. Martyn: The Christian Warfare (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1981)