Facing Prometheus | Week 31 (The Mysterion) | “Prepared for Perseverance” | Pastor Jason Parrish
About the series: We’re currently in Facing Prometheus: A Letter to the Ephesians and the Future Church Dilemma, a 48-week look at how Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus can transform our lives. For more on what the series is about, watch the prequel message here.
Verse 11 told us to put on the armor. Verse 12 told us why. Verse 13 answers the question the first two leave open: when, and for how long.
Week 31 lands on the subject most of us would rather skip. Not the drama of spiritual warfare, but the duration of it. Paul is writing about perseverance, and the argument reframes it entirely. Perseverance is not the thing you bring to the fight. It is the fight.
The Text
“For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.”
— Ephesians 6:13 (CSB)
The Noonday Demon
Fifteen hundred years ago, a monastic theologian and monk named John Cassian went into the Egyptian desert to escape the trappings of his modern world and pray. While he was there, something hit him that he was not prepared for and believed the desert would preclude. It was not a temptation and it was not a crisis. It was, as he described it, a heaviness that came at noon.
In the monastic tradition and among the desert fathers, this reality was called the noonday demon. In the middle of good weather, with nothing objectively wrong taking place, this heaviness would make a man unable to stand in the very room he was meant to be praying in. Its ordinary symptom was the feeling that the place you were in was not fruitful.
Tradition holds that the monks found it in Psalm 91:6:
Psalm 91:6 (CSB) — the pestilence that ravages at noon.
Your Bible says pestilence, or destruction, which is the Hebrew. But the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the one the early church actually used, renders that word as the noonday demon. Jerome carried it into Latin, and that is the Bible every monk in the West prayed from for a thousand years. Same verse. Different translation.
The story goes on. Cassian, thinking he had escaped it in the way most of us would choose, got up and went to see a friend. He felt better. Later he went to his mentor, an old man named Abbot Moses, to report that he had beaten the noonday demon. Moses told him:
★★ “You have not freed yourself from it, but rather have given yourself up to it as its slave and subject. For the enemy will henceforth attack you more strongly as a deserter and runaway, since it has seen that you fled at once when overcome in the conflict.”
— John Cassian, The Institutes, trans. Edgar C. S. Gibson, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 11 (Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1894), Book 10
Moses went on to tell Cassian that this noonday demon, which came to be known as acedia, is overcome through ★★ “endurance and conflict.” It is not escaped by running from it. It is overcome by standing there and resisting it.
That is Paul’s point in verse 13. Perseverance is an incredibly important issue in the life of faith, especially when it comes to spiritual warfare.
Two Things to Understand First
- Verse 13 is not a repeat verse.
It would be easy to read past verse 13, thinking it restates verse 11. ★★ Paul is not repeating himself. He is adding something to the overall conversation that he did not state in verses 11 and 12.
This is Paul looking at perseverance from a different angle, and from the perspective of time. Robert Bratcher and Eugene A. Nida comment:
“The verb translated put on is not the same as the one used in verse 11; here it is a Greek verb meaning ‘take up’ (also in verse 16), that is, to get the weapons and put them on for combat; so (TEV, NAB, NIV) have ‘put on’ others have ‘take’ or ‘take up’ ‘wear.’ Put on God’s armor now may be rendered as ‘now you should put on the protection which God has provided you’ or ‘… put on what God has provided you to protect yourself.’”
— Robert G. Bratcher and Eugene A. Nida, A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, UBS Handbook Series (United Bible Societies, 1993), 160
Verse 11 tells us to put on the armor. Verse 12 explains why. Verse 13 tells us when to put it on and for how long. ★★ This is where Paul picks up the issue of perseverance at an even deeper level. Verse 13 is about duration. It is the only verse in the passage that uses the word “day,” which designates time and is an important marker in this conversation.
- Verse 13 has three general readings across various scholars and theologians.
- Eschatological tribulation
- Present age reality
- Seasons of concentrated assault
Each of these should inform a believer’s understanding of spiritual warfare, and all three are designations of time. Some now, some not yet. Lynn Cohick comments:
“Paul explains that with this armor, believers can withstand the onslaught in ‘the day of evil’ (6:13). Paul might be referring to the present time, which he earlier described with the phrase ‘the days are evil’ (5:16). If so, then believers must imagine themselves in a constant struggle with spiritual forces against which their only hope is standing firm in the Lord’s strength and armor. Alternatively, it might refer to specific times in a believer’s life that involve deep struggles with the deception of demonic forces. A ready example is Jesus’s temptations. Finally, it is possible that Paul has in mind the end of this age, when Christ judges the world and the devil’s schemes are forever destroyed.”
— Lynn H. Cohick, The Letter to the Ephesians, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Eerdmans, 2020), 413
Grant Osborne adds clarification:
“The ‘day of evil’ has been variously understood as a general reference to the difficulties we experience in the present age (the ‘evil days’ of 5:16), specific periods of serious persecution and trials, or the troubles of the last days centering on the ‘man of lawlessness’ or the antichrist of (2 Thessalonians 2:3–12) and (1 John 2:18).”
— Grant R. Osborne, Ephesians: Verse by Verse (Lexham Press, 2017), 228
“Likely Paul has in mind all of these and is referring to the spiritual battles of the present age that will culminate at the end of the age. As (Hebrews 12:11) reminds us, all of these difficulties are painful and discouraging, but God clothes us with his armor and makes certain it will ultimately produce ‘the peaceful fruit of righteousness.’”
— Grant R. Osborne, Ephesians: Verse by Verse (Lexham Press, 2017), 228
You may be in battle, but you have peace in Christ.
The Thesis
★★★ Perseverance is not a virtue you need for the battle. Perseverance is the battle.
Three truths from Ephesians 6:13.
1. Perseverance Flows from Supply, Not from Stamina
“For this reason take up the full armor of God…”
Too many people live and practice faith from a place of stamina rather than from a seated position with Christ. Notice that Paul does not say to build your own armor. The armor belongs to someone, and that someone is Jesus. It is not armor you earn or armor you are clever enough to assemble from your own discipline and ingenuity. It is Christ that you put on.
★★ You persevere FROM a position, not FOR a position.
Ephesians 1:20–23 (CSB) — He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens—far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
Ephesians 2:4–9 (CSB) — But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.
★★★ Where you are SEATED is what gives you your ability to STAND.
Perseverance is a union issue. It flows from someone, God, and not from you. That is the fallacy too many Christians fall prey to, that perseverance is a natural stamina supplied by self rather than a gift of grace found within a life-giving relationship and reliance upon Christ.
★★ Perseverance is not grit; it is grace.
John Wesley, the pastor and theologian whose tradition would birth Methodism, saw perseverance not as a heroic interior act of the will but as located in communion with Christ, with other believers, and in sanctified habits.
2. Perseverance Faces a Day and a Lifetime
“…so that you may be able to resist in the evil day…”
★★★ You won’t always face this, but you will always face things.
Jesus does not take the bad days away. He stands with you in them. This one truth will help you navigate spiritual warfare and persevere more than anything else, because most people give up out of discouragement more than anything else. We say things like “it will always be this way” and “I will always deal with this.” You won’t always deal with the same things, but you will deal with things.
Paul knew this personally:
2 Corinthians 12:6–10 (CSB) — For if I want to boast, I wouldn’t be a fool, because I would be telling the truth. But I will spare you, so that no one can credit me with something beyond what he sees in me or hears from me, especially because of the extraordinary revelations. Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul faced daily issues and issues he would carry through a lifetime. Perseverance is about having a proper theological view of suffering.
Modern Christians, especially Pentecostals, are strong on events and weak on duration when it comes to warfare theology. This is why so many do not live a life of perseverance. Duration-oriented warfare is harder to actualize and requires a deeper reservoir of faith than momentary, event-based warfare.
“Wherefore take up the entire armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day. Some have tried to affix a specific time to the ‘evil day’ of the apostle, as if it were one or other of the days specified in the Apocalypse; but more probably it is a general phrase, like ‘the day of adversity,’ or ‘the day of battle,’ indicating a day that comes often. In fact, any day when the evil one comes upon us in force is the evil day, and our ignorance of the time when such assault may be made is what makes it so necessary for us to be watchful.”
— H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., Ephesians, The Pulpit Commentary (Funk & Wagnalls, 1909), 259
A word of caution before moving on. Not everything hard is a demon. Grief is grief. Depression is real, and exhaustion is your body telling you the truth about its limits. If you are tired, the answer may be sleep. If you are depressed, the answer may be a doctor, and taking that step is an act of perseverance. Refusing to spiritualize something treatable is an act of obedience, not weak faith. The other side of this is that the enemy will use anything hard to tempt you to give up. Cassian himself was careful to separate acedia from ordinary bodily weariness, and so should we.
3. Perseverance’s Goal Is Standing, Not Winning
“…and having prepared everything, to take your stand.”
The text does not say having prepared everything, you win. It does not say you advance. It says to take your stand.
This is the simplest truth in the passage. The battle has already been won, so stop trying to win something that has already been defeated. Just stand. You are trying too hard because you are trying to win something you can’t win on your own and that has already been won.
Colossians 2:9–15 (CSB) — For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.
Standing is not the consolation prize. It is the objective. Winning causes you to strive. Standing causes you to rest in what has already been accomplished in Christ through the cross.
★★ There are some things that God delivers you from, and then there are some things that God gives you the strength to stand against.
When you try to win, you’re not sinning. You’re just exhausting yourself over ground Jesus already took. He’s not asking you to fight harder. He’s asking you to hold the line he already drew. This is grace, and it is the grace God told Paul was sufficient.
Closing
Here is the problem underneath a lot of this. You are trying to win, and you are trying to do it perfectly. You want the win to look good. You want it to be Instagram worthy.
Watch what happens at the end of Acts 27. Paul is a prisoner on a ship. The storm has run for two weeks. This is one of the last scenes Luke gives us.
Acts 27:39–44 (CSB) — When daylight came, they did not recognize the land but sighted a bay with a beach. They planned to run the ship ashore if they could. After cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and headed for the beach. But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow jammed fast and remained immovable, while the stern began to break up by the pounding of the waves. The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners so that no one could swim away and escape. But the centurion kept them from carrying out their plan because he wanted to save Paul, and so he ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. The rest were to follow, some on planks and some on debris from the ship. In this way, everyone safely reached the shore.
They were headed for the beach and they hit something they were not expecting. That is usually the moment we want to give up, because it stops looking the way we thought it was going to look.
★★★ Perseverance sometimes looks like crossing the finish line on broken pieces.
It is not going to look perfect. It is not necessarily going to be a ship intact. You may come in dragging some things behind you, with a limp you picked up along the way, dirt on your face, mud that got slung at you, some cuts and bruises and broken limbs. But when Jesus is the focus and Jesus is the center, you will be able to persevere. You may just get there on broken pieces.
Paul knew what it meant to arrive on broken pieces. Everyone reached the shore.
