The Berean Manifesto

EP27 Ephesians 6:11 Part Three

This is our third week in Ephesians 6:11. We've covered put on and whole armor and now we get to talk about the wiles of the devil. The word wiles there is the Greek word:

G3180 μεθοδεία methodeia meth-od-i'-ah From a compound of G3326 and G3593 [compare “method”]; traveling over, that is, travesty, (trickery): - wile, lie in wait.

In English it's the word method. It also means travesty, trickery, or to lie in wait. In Latin its modus operandi, or on CSI they say, "What's the perps MO."

So let's talk about what the MO of the devil. 1 Peter 5:8 says, "Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour." The roaring lion is the one that is the largest most impressive specimen that stands on one side of a clearing and roars. The prey that he's looking to devour sees that massive creature and hears that awesomely terrifying roar, turns in the opposite direction and runs away. Gives up all sense of sensibility and ends up running right into the arms of the younger, stronger, more fierce lions waiting on the other side of the clearing. They quickly finish off the prey and the roaring lion just meanders over and takes his fill.

The thing you have to realize about the roaring lion is this is the old lion. He's lived a long life, he doesn't have as much energy as he used to, some of his teeth have fallen out and in order to actually finish off the prey would be quite the struggle for this lion. He could still do it, he could still finish off the prey, but it would be a lot of work for him. The devil works like this, he roars and sits back to watch the misdirection as his prey runs right into the arms of failure. 

We can see this MO at work in Genesis 3. "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, has God said, "Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” This is where Eve tells the serpent that they can't eat the fruit or even touch it or they will die. Where do you think she got that information from? Go back and look, when God gave that command she hadn't been created yet. Only Adam had. 

As a kid I remember hearing this story and I used to think, "Where's Adam? If Adam had only been there when this interaction happened that would be different!”  I would imagine Adam grabbing the serpent by the neck choking it, a huge wrestling match between the first man and this huge serpent.  Eventually Adam would get the upper hand, he and his wife would have enjoyed smoked serpent for dinner, and they would have serpent jerky from the leftovers for the next few months.

If you're looking up the scriptures I mention as we go along, which you should be because that's our MO here on the Berean Manifesto. Then look down at 3:6 near the end of the scripture.  “...she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

The “with” in the phrase “husband with her” doesn't mean in the general sense.  As in he was with her in the garden, but in reality he was on the other side of the garden oblivious to this interaction and she had to carry the fruit to him.  No, this is the word:

H5973 עִם ‛im eem From H6004; adverb or preposition, with (that is, in conjunction with), in varied applications; specifically equally with; often with prepositional prefix (and then usually unrepresented in English): - accompanying, against, and, as (X long as), before, beside, by (reason of), for all, from (among, between), in, like, more than, of, (un-) to, with (-al).

It means with, but it means it in the specific sense like the word beside.  Adam was right there beside her, this was his chance to speak up and set the record straight, but he didn't.  Adam just stood there watching the interaction, watching as things, very quickly, went south.

When the roaring lion roars, everyone has to deal with that threat in their own mind, in their own life, on their own terms. My wife and I can see the same threat coming, but we're both going to react to it in our own way. Here Eve doesn't actually know exactly what God said and Adam isn't going to fess up to his lie and course correct the situation.  Yes it's a lie. He may have thought he was doing Eve a favor by not telling her the whole truth by setting stricter standards than what God had said. But, it was a lie.

At this point all the devil has to do is salt the truth. He sees that they see him and that they are not going to confront him with the truth and so the serpent says, “Ye shall not surely die: For God knows that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, you will be as gods, knowing good and evil.”  Because the enemies victim doesn't know the truth the enemy didn't have to directly lie, it could simply mislead concerning the truth.

That's part of the MO of the devil, partial truth. He was a liar from the very beginning. The devil knows very well how to salt the truth. Eve believes if she touches the fruit she will die. She believes a lie because she was lied to. All the devil has to do is say, “You will not surely die.”  He only has to tell the truth, or at least enough of the truth to be attractive.

That's how the devil works, he plays on partial truth, he plays on fear, he plays on your inability to fess up. How do we prepare ourselves to stand up against those wiles? We put on the whole armor of God. We choose what camp, what type of soil we want to be in and we put on the armor so we can stand up against the method of the devil. The Modus Operandi of the devil.

In the coming weeks, we're going to look more into the pieces of the armor, what they are and dig into those. You go ahead and read down into those.

Until next time...

EP26 Ephesians 6:11 Part Two

We are still looking at Ephesians 6:11. Last week we drilled down into the words "put on." We talked about it meaning that you're investing with clothing, you're dressing up to send a message. We talked about the four different reasons that you dress up that ties into the parable that Jesus taught about the different types of soil. This week we're going to focus on the words "whole armor."

This phrase whole armor used in Ephesians 6:11 is the Greek word:

G3833 πανοπλία panoplia pan-op-lee'-ah From a compound of G3956 and G3696; full armor (“panoply”): - all (whole) armour.

It literally means full armor. In English the word is Panopoly. In modern terms the word is used to describe an impressive and complete collection of pretty much anything.

If you were a car collector for instance, if you had one of every model of Ford vehicle ever made that would be impressive, but until you had one of every year of every model ever released by Ford then you wouldn't have a Panopoly.

If you were a coin collector, if you had one of every coin; the penny, nickel, dime, quarter, fifty cent piece, and dollar coin from each year since the founding of the United States (I know some of those coins weren't produced in some of those years) that would be impressive, but until your collection included not only those coins but a copy of each coin minted from each mint in the United States, you wouldn't have a Panopoly.

When you're playing the game Monopoly, which takes forever; I love it, but it's a long game. Owning all the properties on the last stretch of the board where Board Walk and Park Place are is impressive, but until you own all the properties on every side of the board you don't have a Panopoly. 

By choosing the word Panopoly or Panoplia the author is seemingly trying to communicate to us that picking and choosing which pieces of the armor of God that you're going to put on isn't enough. That you need to put them all on to be effective against our enemy, the devil.

In any of those examples I gave would achieving a Panopoly be something easy, or something that can be done in a short amount of time? Collecting cars, collecting coins, Monopoly; not a one. Not one of those examples can be short or easy. A Panopoly is not easy, it's an in depth process that is going to take a good amount of time to fully achieve. With the cars, that could take a lifetime. With the coins, also, could take several years. Monopoly, gosh you're talking about a lifetime. Seriously, to own all the properties on the board at the same time while other people are playing. Sure if you're playing Monopoly by yourself you could get a Panopoly. But, when you're playing with other people there's all kinds of wheelin' and dealin' that's got to go on. And, then eventually your family doesn't want to play Monopoly with you anymore because they know that you like to do wheelin' and dealin'... Sorry I stopped talking about the scripture and started talking about myself... I digress, lets get back on topic...

In order to fully achieve a Panopoly it's going to take a lot of work and a lot of time. All that to say that if reading forward in Ephesians 6, which you probably should have done last week since we've been talking about the armor of God and I still haven't brought up what makes up the armor. If reading ahead you realize tomorrow that you haven't achieved living up to putting on the full armor of God or if your still trying to understand how to apply each piece to your life, don't get discouraged. A Panopoly is a difficult thing that will take a long time to achieve. You need to relax, have patience, and give it time and let the Holy Spirit teach you what you need to know about those pieces of armor and how to achieve putting them on and applying them to your lives. Eventually you will get there, it may take a day or a lifetime. The point is to be ever growing and ever striving to the point where you can achieve that Panopoly in the armor of God where you can stand up against the wiles of the devil.

Next week we'll be talking about the wiles of the devil and what that phrase means. For now I'd like you to go back and read through Ephesians 6. Read what all the armor is, think about what I said last week. Think about the fact that the author here chose the word panoplia. He could have chosen a word that meant some, but no. He chose a word that means a complete and impressive collection as the word for this scripture. He chose full armor, not partial armor.

Until next time...

EP25 Ephesians 6:11

This is part one of a three part series, we will be in Ephesians 6:11 this week, next week, and the week after.

The term here, "Put on" is the word:

G1746 ἐνδύω enduō en-doo'-o From G1722 and G1416 (in the senese of sinking into a garment); to invest with clothing (literally or figuratively): - array, clothe (with), endue, have (put) on.

It's dressing up to send a message.

There are four reasons to dress up, right?

Number 1 is to lie;

     You're eating Ramen for every meal, living in a tiny apartment or home, meanwhile you're leasing a Bentley and have a couple of two thousand dollar outfits that you use to make it look like your wealthy and have it all together, but you don't. You're lying.

Number 2 is by requirement.

     Some authority is requiring you to dress up. It's very similar to number one, but instead of you lying, its that your authority wants to send a message to the world around you and your being forced to dress up.

Number 3 is to feel good.

     You have low self esteem or you're stepping into an event that you're nervous or un-confident about and you're dressing up to boost your moral, to feel good.

Number 4 is to bring honor.

     You respect the work you're doing, or you respect the people your going to be seeing or serving; the people your're going to be around.

In Matthew thirteen, Jesus talks about something similar in the parable of the sowing of the seed, "3 He told them many things in [a]parables, saying, “Listen carefully: a sower went out to sow [seed in his field]; 4 and as he sowed, some seed fell beside the road [between the fields], and the birds came and ate it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil; and at once they sprang up because they had no depth of soil.6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and thorns came up and choked them out. 8 Other seed fell on good soil and yielded grain, some a hundred times as much [as was sown], some sixty [times as much], and some thirty." That's one translation of what Jesus said, another translation says, "a hundred fold," "sixty fold," "thirty fold." The word fold fits the original language in my opinion better, but that's not the focus of our message this week.

Were going to talk more about the armor of God over the coming weeks, but it's important for you to understand this foundational idea. What is your motivation behind your "investment of clothing?" Why are you doing it? Why are you putting on the armor of God?

-Are you in that dangerous place where your like the ground on the side of the road and you're putting on the armor as a lie to hide who you really are? In this position you're isolating yourself from the very people who could help you get out of the funk that you are in. The very people who could help you turn around the things that you think you need to be lying about. It's a really bad place to be in. Are you there, are you in that position?

-Are you like the rocky ground and your only putting on the armor because you are being required by some authority to do so? Have you found yourself working for some ministry or volunteering at your church or somewhere else and your pretending to be putting on the armor of God as a requirement to be working where your working. And, you're afraid that if they see the real you, if they see that you're only putting that on for their sakes that it's all going to come crashing down? Do you have that sense that you go to work, or you go to serve and you've got on this armor while you're doing that and then the moment you leave their presence depression kicks in. You feel lonely, alone, lost. Are you in that place? Are you in that rocky ground?

-Are you like the ground riddled with thorns and your hoping the armor will boost your self-esteem? Are you listening to teachings by renowned spiritual teachers and going to church; doing all the things that you think you're supposed to be doing, but really deep down inside you're full of depression and hating yourself. You're putting on the armor because you are hoping that these things you're doing are going to turn things around?

-Or are you like the good soil and your motivations behind putting on the armor of God are to bring honor to God. Are you doing it to bring honor to those around you, and to bring honor to the calling that God has put on your life?

Only you can decide what camp you fall into, and only you can decide today to be that good soil, to put on the armor of God in honor. Consider this, what kind of ground are you? What camp do you fall into?

If you need prayer in this area please email prayer@ekklesianhouse.com

Until next time...

EP24 Hebrews 10:38

I struggled with what translation to use on this scripture and somehow the King James just seemed... I don't know... It hit me in this nostalgic place where I really wanted to use it. It really truck a chord in me,

"Now the Just shall live by Faith."

It sounds so regal and appropriate, respectful. I don't know...

Let's break this down. Let's start with that word, "just"? The word in the Greek there is:

G1342 δίκαιος dikaios dik'-ah-yos From G1349; equitable (in character or act); by implication innocent, holy (absolutely or relatively): - just, meet, right (-eous).

There's that word coming up again, we talked about the word, "righteous" in episodes 5 and 12. We talked about the need for righteousness in our lives. We talked about the need to be righteous and what the ramifications of that are. If you haven't listened to 5 and 12 you can go back and looks those up. At the time of writing this they are still available on iTunes, SoundCloud, and the RSS feed. Also, the blog posts for those are soon in coming. Now here we find an extension of those studies that says that the just, or righteous should live by faith.

Faith in and of itself has been a touchy topic in the modern church to the point where some have avoided or even rejected talking about it all together, rejected it, all together. So in true Berean fashion let's talk about what faith is.

Hebrews 11:1 says, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." I've actually had a conversation with someone once where this gentlemen told me with people that believe in faith and with the faith movement is our belief that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. I brought up that he had just quoted Hebrews 11:1 to me and he was quite upset by that revelation that the thing that he had against the faith movement was a scripture in the bible. But, I digress, lets move on. Last week we talked about hope and in this verse we're given this connection between the two. But what exactly is that connection? What does it mean that faith is the substance of things hoped for? The word for substance there is the word:

G5287 ὑπόστασις hupostasis hoop-os'-tas-is From a compound of G5259 and G2476; a setting under (support), that is, (figuratively) concretely essence, or abstractly assurance (objectively or subjectively): - confidence, confident, person, substance.

In English we would equate this to a foundation, like the foundation of a building. We talked about The Empire State Building and how they had to dig down to make the foundation and it had to be rooted and grounded. Faith is the foundation for hope. And the specific word in this verse, (Last week I gave you that PDF with the 17 different words that are translated in the bible for hope. Click here to get it if you haven't.) here that was translated as hoped for is:

G1679 ἐλπίζω elpizō el-pid'-zo From G1680; to expect or confide: - (have, thing) hope (-d) (for), trust.

So Faith is the supporting foundation for things that you expect. Without faith you cannot trust. You cannot move on those things that you expect.

The second half there is that faith is the evidence of things not seen. Let's take a moment and look at what the word for faith is in this verse. It's the word:

G4102 πίστις pistis pis'-tis From G3982; persuasion, that is, credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly constancy in such profession; by extension the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself: - assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity. 

My favorite translation for the word pistis is that word fidelity. It's being faithful, it's knowing the truth and sticking to it regardless of the evidence.

With the analogy from last week of the train tracks, and hope being when the lights blink and the arms lower you stop. Faith is pulling up to a train track that wasn't there a month ago, you've never seen a train pull down this track before, you don't know if they've even opened this track yet. But, those lights start to blink and those arms come down and you still stop. You have faith that a train can be on those tracks and you move on hope, you move on experience, and stop.

You see faith and hope are inseparable. Faith is useless without hope, it goes nowhere. Because just to believe something without action takes you nowhere. Hope can't be moved upon without faith. I can sit in a chair and my experience tells me that the chair will hold me, but it takes faith for me to believe it's going to hold me this time. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. Why is that? Well it's because without faith there is no hope and without hope you can no longer follow and keep Gods commandments. Jesus said in John 14 that if we love Him that we will keep his commandments. So without faith you can't hope (You can't move on expectation or experience), and without hope, you can't love God. Because to love God is to keep his commandments, and you can't keep his commandments without hope and you can't have hope without faith.

You have to believe the promises of God without question, that's faith. You don't question the promises of God. You can go back and look in Hebrews 11 at a whole list of people that believed the promises of God without question. Then, because you believe, you can act on faith, which is having hope, and in that way you are able to keep His commandments which is loving God. Faith leads to hope, leads to love. Those three remain, and the greatest of them is love.

Go back and look up the scriptures, get yourself a concordance or an e-sword program.

Until next time...