Weavers and Deceivers

“Put on the armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” Ephesians 6:11.

I have always loved the story of The Emperor's New Clothes. It is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent. When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, no one dares to say that he doesn't see any suit of clothes until a child cries out, ‘But he isn't wearing anything at all!’ How could this man of royal position be so duped into believing that his nakedness was covering up anything at all? He dressed himself in pride, believing his own press by the confirmation of the deceivers. Only a small child was uncorrupted by the culture’s lack of courage to call him out on his nudity.

We are also people of royal position in Christ and must be on guard for ‘weavers and deceivers’ who tell us what we want to hear. The enemy uses our society to fill our heads with lies and misappropriations. We fall for it because we have built self-made castles and become lazy in our spiritual growth. We strut around uncovered and vulnerable to the ultimate deceiver who convinces us we are entitled to stroll instead of serve...to walk without spiritual impact instead of running the race for the kingdom. ‘Our enemy celebrates lethargic Christian living. When we’re giving up on relationships, disregarding the purity of our reputations, yielding to our appetites without putting up much resistance, he can basically go unchecked...The call to victorious Christian living is a wake-up call out of laziness, urging you to rise up and take serious action. The strength you need for resisting and standing firm depends on it. Satan and the demons of darkness are hoping you’ll be disengaged and disinterested instead of alert, aware, and active...The armor must be put on now. Daily. Consistently. Faithfully. If we want to see our resolve strengthened and our stance made firm, we need to realize that spiritual warfare doesn’t take a day off’ The Armor of God, p. 26.

Our society is certainly not going to call us out on the truth of how we are living. The reality of our spiritual nakedness will be the small inner voice of the Holy Spirit who yells out, ‘Don’t kid yourself. You aren’t wearing anything at all!’ We must dress ourselves daily with the full wardrobe of God. Just as we wouldn’t leave home with our shoes or pants we cannot forget to put on certain pieces of the armor. When we are lazy we forgot to lace up the readiness our feet are supposed to have. When we give in to the same temptation we left our breastplate of righteousness at home. When we start believing society who contradicts God’s word we realize that we can’t remember where we placed our sword of the Spirit. Every piece of the armor is fully required to have the full protection of God over our lives and the lives of our family.

‘Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm...With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray...’ Ephesians 6:13-19.