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'And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as He said, these forty
and five years ... as yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day
that Moses sent me ... for war ...' (Josh. 14:10,11).
Before the armour, however, comes the strength, for without the
necessary strength, armour would be but a death trap: 'Be strong in the power
of His might' (Eph. 6:10). Philosophers have said to men 'Be strong'.
Psychologists tell us to say to ourselves 'Be strong', but the only strength
that will avail us in this conflict is the strength that is ours in the Lord.
The Power of His Resurrection
No other writer in the New Testament but Paul uses the word which is
here translated 'be strong' except Luke, who in Acts 9:22 uses it of Paul
himself. The exception but proves the rule. The word is peculiar to the
teaching of Paul and his own experience of the risen Lord. The eight
occurrences of the word endunamoo speak of resurrection, and the seven
occurrences in the epistles are worthy of attention.
Endunamoo in Paul's epistles
A
Rom. 4:19,20.
Strong not weak in faith -- O.T.
B
a
Eph. 6:10.
Strong in the Lord -- War.
b
Phil. 4:13. Strong in Christ -- Endurance.
After
C
1 Tim. 1:12.
Christ Jesus -- Ministry.
Acts
B
a
2 Tim. 2:1. Strong in grace -- War.
28
b
2 Tim. 4:17. Strong in the Lord -- Endurance.
A
Heb. 11:34.
Strong in faith, out of weakness -- O.T.
The first example, that of Abraham, is a fine witness for 'the power of
His resurrection', for it is said that he believed God 'Who quickeneth the
dead' (Rom. 4:17). The words of Ephesians 6:10 look back to Ephesians 1:19.
In 6:10 we have endunamoo, 'be strong'; kratos, 'power'; ischus 'might'. In
1:19 we have dunamis, 'power'; ischus, 'mighty'; kratos, 'power'.
The believer is turned back to the risen and ascended Christ as the
source of the power whereby he may stand the shock of battle. There is no
other power at present either available or sufficient. All believers,
whether conscious of it as an experimental fact or not, 'have the sentence of
death in themselves that they should not trust in themselves, but in God
which raiseth the dead' (2 Cor. 1:9).
The Essential Basis of Ephesians 6:10
Before principalities and powers come into view as opponents in
Ephesians 6, a necessary fact is presupposed, and that is the teaching of
Romans 5 to 8. This basic portion of Scripture is devoted to the exposition
of two laws, viz:
(1)
The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
(2)
The law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).
It is not for us to deal with Romans in this study; we simply trace the
stream of this law of the spirit of life until it reaches the glorious climax
of Romans 8:37 -39: