Ephesians 6:13 Why take to you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 1. Amongst these you will doubtless recognize times of spiritual despondency. All believers are subject to more or less of fluctuation in their religious experience. Constitutional differences give tone to religious character. 2. A time of spiritual declension and worldliness in the Church may also be regarded as an "evil day." The spirit of piety in the Church is always far below the proper standard, but there are times when it sinks even much lower than the ordinary level. How often did the God of Israel chide and chasten His ancient people for their rebellion, disobedience, idolatry, and ingratitude; and the Church now, unhappily, too much resembles that of the former and the darker dispensation. There is a winter season in Zion as well as in the natural world, and these winters are sometimes long and dreary. Few flowers and fruits are seen, few days of sunshine; a universal torpor prevails, and under the chilling blasts even the soldiers of the Cross are found sleeping at their posts; the army of salvation seems almost frozen in its onward march. 3. More evil still than this, however, is the day when the believer actually backslides, and falls into open sin, 4. A time of absence from your home, or of changing your place of abode, may also prove an "evil day." We are much more the creatures of circumstances, even in our religion, than most of us are wont to believe. 5. Turn next to the survey of the "evil day" when false doctrine prevails. 6. We must not omit to turn our attention also to the evil day of rebuke and persecution. 7. Last of all, may we not regard the day of death as in some aspects an evil day? (J. Leyburn, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. |
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