I N D E X
and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it' (Num. 13:30).  Caleb, who
said these words, tasted something of the strength that Paul refers to here, and
knew of the need for the armour and the sword:
`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 Lord, and 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 uses the word which is here
translated `be strong' except Luke, who in Acts 9:22 uses it of Paul himself.
The exception 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
worth a moment's attention:
Endunamoo in the Epistles
Strong, not weak in faith -- O.T.
A
Rom. 4:19,20.
Strong in the Lord -- War.
B
a
Eph. 6:10.
Strong in Christ -- Endurance.
b
Phil. 4:13.
After
Christ Jesus -- Ministry.
C
1 Tim. 1:12.
Acts
2 Tim. 2:1. Strong in grace -- War.
B
a
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b  2 Tim. 4:17.  Strong in the Lord -- Endurance.
Strong in faith, out of weakness -- O.T.
A
Heb. 11:34.
The first example, that of Abraham, is a strong witness for `the power of
His resurrection', for it is said that `he believed God Who quickeneth the
dead'.  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
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).
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