By St. Theophan the Recluse
The Apostle clothes Christians in the whole armor of God.
It is appropriate that this follows the previous lesson.
For, if someone, heeding the call of God, has taken on the
beginning of a new life through God’s grace,
providing for his own part all
diligence (II Pet. 1:5), then he must not
expect to rest on his laurels, but rather to struggle.
He was saved from the power of the
devil—the devil will chase after him and set snares
before him, to throw him off the path of good and drag him
back to his domain.
He has denied himself, denied
selfishness together with a whole horde of passions.
But
this sin living in us will not suddenly relinquish its
free and unrestricted existence as we live in
self-pleasure, and every minute it will attempt under
various pretexts to establish once more the same life
routine that so richly filled and fed it earlier. These
are three enemies, each with innumerable hordes; but the
commander-in-chief is the devil, whilst his closest
helpers are the demons. They run the show in a sinful
life—the opponents of a spiritual life. That is why
the Apostle arms the Christian against them as if there
were no other enemies at all. He says: We wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places
(Eph. 6:12). If they did not exist, perhaps battles would
not exist either. Likewise, as soon as they are repelled
and struck down, it takes nothing to repel and defeat the
others.
So each of you look to see where you need to
direct your arrows, or at least look to see from which
side you particularly need to defend yourself. Then,
defend yourself! The Apostle prescribed several weapons;
but all of them have power only through the Lord. That is
why experienced spiritual fighters have passed on to us
this instruction: “Strike the enemy with the name of
the Lord Jesus!”