“Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Today brings the week of camp to an end. It has been a good week. There’s something about stripping away the pressures and distractions of the world we call “real,” combined with a context focused on worship that allows us to experience God in a special way. And God has indeed moved in the hearts and minds of many of these students. As things come to a conclusion today, let’s take a look at the whole passage we’ve sat with this whole week to see what other truths we can glean from it.

When you step back and look at the whole passage here, an idea begins to become clear that is harder to clarify when you are zoomed in and studying the individual pieces of armor by themselves. Look at where Paul begins this whole section. He says, “Finally…” In other words, he is preparing to give them some final instructions aimed at helping them put into practice everything else he has been telling them.

So then, what is the last thing? They are to be strengthened by God and His vast strength. That is, they can’t do any of what he has been telling them to do on their own. They need help for it. Specifically, they need God’s help. He is their strength. And it is in that context that Paul calls them to put on the armor of God. This armor is how we receive and engage with the strength God provides.

This takes us back to an idea we have explored a couple of times this week already. When it comes to the spiritual battle we are in, our abilities and effort are not the thing that will make a difference in the fight. The battle is the Lord’s. He is the one who will fight. Our goal is to be equipped to stand firm. And we have to be equipped indeed. Paul tells us twice to put on the full armor of God. The implication is that we aren’t enough for the fight on our own.

That’s a more important point here than we might imagine at first. Indeed, it is a point that we naturally resist. We want to be enough. We want there to be great spiritual battles from which we emerge victorious under our own power. That way we can show the world, ourselves, and even God how great we are. We can prove ourselves worthy of His love and attention. We can successfully earn His favor. Then we are on top. All our dreams and visions of being enough on our own can be realized. We don’t actually need God then. He’s a nice accessory, but not mandatory.

Do you see how easily we can drift down this path? Frighteningly so. Because it’s the path we want to walk. And yet it is not a path that will lead to life. It will lead to trouble and misery and, eventually, death. It will not lead to victory. The foes which inflamed our confidence by cowering will suddenly stop the act and take on their true and menacing forms. Our defeat will be swift and thorough. Nothing about the path following Christ is able to be successfully navigated on our own.

We need strength we don’t have. God’s strength. We need strength that comes from the armor He provides. This is because the foe we face is not of this world. If we use tactics and resources of this world, we will fail. We need those of another world, the spiritual world. And the best resources come from the King of every world, the one who made all we see and don’t by speaking it into existence.

So, let us put on the armor. All of it. We need truth and righteousness and salvation and faith and peace and Scripture and prayer. We need all of these all the time. And when we have them, we cannot but to succeed. We are using the power that is the strongest power there is—the power of God. And with His power, we can stand. So, let us stand.