I get in a lot of trouble on the forums for speaking truth as I understand it from a deep study of scripture...I didn't want to cause the same trouble here if I wasn't answering the question you were asking.
Let's start with this...Where Christ is the source (God) of all these things it isn't just a matter of Christ...move on.
Let me explain by looking at the passage itself.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
First thing on the list is something we do...we "remain" in Him. My husband says all the time that all of us receive the HS upon salvation but not all of us are living in that Power. We have to give ourselves completely to God and Love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength...could go into more but trying to keep it manageable.
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
Now this one I truly love for two reasons, first because it involves standing firm against all the schemes of Satan which are meant to draw us into death through lies and deceptions and second because right now I am studying the schemes of Satan and how we can protect ourselves against each one. We are told we do not have to be unaware of his schemes and yet most in the church have no clue what those schemes are or how to do battle against them.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
This is a whole sermon in itself...I know because my husband preached it..but look at this, we are in a battle not in a state of rest....IT's a battle for our soul and it is between God and Satan. We all too often forget that the battle we fight is spiritual which is important to the passage as we move through it...everything in context.
13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist,
Trying to make this as short as possible.. Stand firm is a command that is repeated many times in scripture we do so with the buckle of truth...Where it is true that Christ is truth it is also true that every word spoken by God is truth. In my schemes of Satan study I have already looked into how Satan wants to separate us from that truth. He does so in several ways but to make it as short as possible one way he does that is to separate us from the word of God. We combat that by 1. study of the word of God 2. memorizing the word of God and 3. by meditating on the word of God...of course this also means we need to obey that word but as I said I"m trying to give cliff note version here.
with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
Righteousness is interesting because it involves two things when we so often want to just see one. first, Christ's righteousness is applies to us...bravo..but the second is that we are responsible for living in the power of God to be without sin. That is the main purpose for the indwelling Holy Spirit. so this one is really two fold, 1. Christ's righteousness applied to us and 2. obedience through the indwelling power of the HS who equips us to live a sin free life. If we don't want to be free from sin we don't need the HS and since the HS is our guarantee of salvation it means that we have not been transformed into the new creation if our lives and desires are still lived out in sin.
15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
Again, two things going on here....first, we need to be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us. We can't do that without study, testimony, truth, etc. IOW"s we are back to both scripture and HS but we also add to that growing and maturing in Christ and in our ever loving Him with all that we are. It is to always be prepared...I did a study once about being prepared and here is the thing, God equips us for every "GOOD WORK" that He has ordained for us to do. We are to be ready and willing and even "anxious" to do the good works that God has created us for.
The second aspect is that of peace and since God is the God of peace it is only through our confession and repentance that we can have and know His peace. IOW's we need to be in a constant state of reconciliation with God in order to have our feet readied for what is to come.
16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith,
Faith is another very interesting aspect of our worship and service to the King. Faith (cliff note version) means trust. I cannot even begin to explain how important trust is to our walk with God. In fact, when I studied "not testing/tempting God" I found that one way man has tempted God is with lack of faith/trust. So what we are really seeing here is that we need to set aside all of the worldly things that occupy our thoughts and time and focus instead of God and resting in His promises. No need to demand or "claim" them, they are promises and if we have the the belt of truth already then we simply trust that God has said it and therefore it is done. This goes against so much of the churches present understanding and our fleshly predispositions. We are wired to be concerned about where to find food, how to pay the bills, etc. but we are suppose to just trust God with these things because this is where the rest comes from, it's from allowing Him to carry our burdens and we simply fight the good fight set before us.
with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Flaming arrows...Satan is the accuser of the Brethren...as the accuser he will attack us with all kinds of lies and accusations that stir doubts and fears. It is when we put off these doubts and fears and put on the full armor of God complete with trust, study, mediating, memorizing, righteousness, good works, etc. that we will be able to with stand the attacks that are designed to pull us under.
17 Take the helmet of salvation
Of course none of this is possible without belief unto salvation which is a belief of the heart and not of the mind. IOWs we decide to believe and trust and live in the truth of Christ through personal relationship and constant yielding through humility and yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit within.
and the sword of the Spirit,which is the word of God.
Which brings us back to scripture and the importance of every word of God that is given for our instruction, correction, teaching, encouragement, etc. I love in this one the temptations of Christ. The first huge thing in the temptations of Christ is that God led Jesus to the wilderness to be tempted. God often takes us places we don't want to go but He is faithful and in that we need to trust. Next huge thing, Christ used scripture but not just scripture, scripture rightly understood and used because if you notice, Satan also used scripture to try to tempt Christ to sin.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Prayer is a place of fellowship with God in fact, we are told we are the temple of God and that the temple is a place of Prayer. So we need to make sure we understand that prayer isn't a monologue of things we want but rather it is a conversation with the Living God in which we yield to His will. It is a place of open, brutal honesty that begins with humility. It is a place where we need to reside so that we do NOT sin (see Peter's betrayal) and it is a place of unity the likes of which we have a hard time grasping.
How is that for cliff note version?
