These verses constitute a most striking and remarkable statement. I wonder whether anyone is surprised that we propose to consider it, and is tempted to say, "Well, in the midst of life in the world as it is today, with conditions and situations as they are, are we really going to spend our time looking at and considering what the Bible has to say about the devil and these principalities and powers?" If you have such a feeling, all I can say is that, far from being a realist, as you probably imagine yourself to be, you are of all people the one who is not really facing the world situation as it is at this moment. There is nothing more realistic at this hour than what we are going to consider. There is nothing in the whole world that is so urgently needed at this moment as an understanding of the very thing the Apostle tells us here.

I shall not mention the name of any statesman, or of any political party, of any country or any political or social organization — and yet I venture to assert that what we are about to consider is more relevant to the condition of the world than all the talk about politics and international relationships and everything in which statesmen and their followers indulge. That is a strong and bold statement, as I am well aware; but if you believe the Bible at all, it must inevitably be true. We are dealing, remember, with the ultimate cause of the world situation, and for this reason I can say that this is more urgently relevant than anything else.

Let me use a comparison which I have often employed. It seems to me that what modern thinkers so constantly fail to do is to differentiate between a disease itself and the possible symptoms of a disease. A disease may give rise to many symptoms. Take any example at random. With influenza present you may get pneumonia. The primary disease is, in a sense, in your lungs. Let that do for the moment as a rough definition of pneumonia. But you will find that you have many other symptoms. You will have a headache, you will feel flushed, you may have odd aches and pains all over your body, and there may be sweating and so on. There are very many symptoms of the disease, and the danger is that we should spend our time in medicating the symptoms. You can take various things to relieve your headache, such as aspirin, and your head will feel better for awhile. But it will not make any difference to the pneumonia. And so you can go on dealing with one symptom after another. You will find that you are kept very busy, and that you will have to go on dealing with fresh symptoms constantly. But the disease itself, not the symptoms, is the thing that really matters.

What is the chief trouble with the world at this moment? Here are all the statesmen and others meeting busily in conference, quarreling, breaking up, and the meeting again. What is the matter? The trouble is that they do not realize the nature of the disease, they have never understood the cause. And the greatest tragedy of all is that the Christian Church which alone has the message that can expose the cause and recommend the only remedy that can cure — I say that the Christian Church herself, instead of teaching the remedy, is half her time, and more, only saying things which the statesmen and the politicians can say. She does so, of course, because she wants to give the impression that the Christian message is "relevant". People think that a message is relevant only if one is talking in worldly and temporal terms. If you talk about these statesmen by name, and take up particular manifestations of the problem, such as bombs and so on, you are being tremendously relevant! How pathetic it is! How tragic! Medicating the symptoms and not recognizing the disease!

The business of the Christian Church is to get down to the root cause of the trouble. It alone can do so. And it is because what we are looking at here [in Ephesians 6] gives the only true understanding of the world situation, and what can be done about it, that I am claiming for it that is is the most urgently relevant message in this troubled world of ours today.

. . .

So we are fundamentally face to face with this question: Do we believe in the Bible as our only revelation of truth, and our only authority, or are we trusting in ourselves and our own understanding? Miserable worms that we are, and making such a chaos of our world, with our great minds and understanding, who are we to enter into the spiritual realm and to say what is true and what is false? How ridiculous it all is!

But still further! A belief in the devil and his powers is an absolute essential to a belief in the biblical teaching concerning sin and evil. You cannot really believe in the biblical teaching concerning sin unless you believe in the devil and in the principalities and powers associated with him.

Further, a belief in the devil and his forces is absolutely essential to a true understanding of the biblical doctrine of salvation. "Ah, but," you say, "that cannot be. Surely all this is necessary is that I believe Christ died for my sins upon the Cross." So far you are right, but why did He have to come? What was He really doing on the Cross? According to the Apostle Paul, He was there "spoiling [totally disarming] principalities and powers, making a show of them openly [making of them a public disgrace], and triumphing over them in it [the Cross]" (Colossians 2:15).¹

Christians, are we busy medicating the symptoms of this world's problems and crises, or are we boldly proclaiming the only cure for its fatal disease? May the Lord keep us focused on His purpose for His true Church — and may we strip away and discard as rubbish everything that distracts and diverts us from that great task.

References:

1. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Warfare: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10-13 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1976), pages 38-40, 50.