Needed exhortation!

For 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. Terrible and mighty forces of evil are arrayed against the church, as the nations with malignant intentions came against Israel of old. Cruel foes surround the church, as the nations allied against Israel to blot out her memory from the earth. So also do the devils and the evil spirits, as murderers and depraved enemies of God and the church, to the utmost of their power watch daily to destroy the church and every member of her. And with these enemies and hostile forces are their allies of sin and the ungodly world and the apostate church world. They never cease to assault us.

Be strong! Urgent exhortation!

And we are so weak in ourselves that we cannot stand a moment. Our very flesh is an ally with the hostile forces arrayed against and surrounding the church of Christ in the world. And we are but flesh and blood! And in the contest between flesh and blood and principalities and powers, the end must be the overthrow of flesh and blood.

Be strong! A hopeless exhortation? How can we possibly stand in this warfare?

In the Lord!

Those who are exhorted are those who are in the Lord. Called of God, they are called into communion with Jesus Christ. And in him they are armed with an invincible power whereby without any doubt they stand in the evil day. They stand, and standing they overcome by constant and strenuous resistance their evil foes.

In the Lord they cannot be overcome because the Lord with whom they have communion is the Lord who has already overcome their foes. He entered into the house of the strongman and spoiled all his goods. The Lord spoiled principalities and powers; he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them.

By the cross!

Principalities and powers had a legal right to hold sway over all men, for all men came under their power by the just judgment of God. And Christ by his cross overcame them by making satisfaction to the justice of God. And God raised Christ from the dead, and he sits now Lord of all—also Lord of all the principalities and powers that vainly oppose him and his church. In him neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, nor all the ineffectual opposition of hell shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. He has come unto us in his Spirit; and by the power of his Spirit, we stand and cannot be overcome. Yes, clothe yourselves in his invincible armor that you have in him: the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. Clothed with his armor, we cannot possibly be overcome of our foes, but we overcome them till at last we have the final victory.