EPHESIANS
CHAPTER 6
Children should honor their parents—Servants and masters judged by the same law—Saints should put on the whole armor of God.
1
aCHILDREN, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
5
Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh,with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
7 With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:
8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether
he be bond or free.
9 And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening:
knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.
[ Elder Spencer W. Kimball has shown that Paul’s advice still has application today, even though slavery has virtually been abolished. “Paul speaks of ‘unholy masters’ and surely has reference to those who would defraud servants or employees and would not properly compensate for labors done or goods furnished. He likely has in mind men who are unkind, demanding and inconsiderate of their subordinates. [See Ephesians 6:9.] “In short, the employer should treat his employees according to the golden rule, remembering that there is a Master in heaven who judges both employer and employee. Paul likewise enjoined a lofty standard upon employees: [See Ephesians 6:5, 6.] “We may take this to mean, on modern terms, that the servant and employee should consistently give honest service, full and complete, and do for his employer what he would want an employee to do for him if he himself were the employer. Any other course calls for repentance.” (Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 51.)]
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11
Put on the whole armour of God,
[ So this could be better translated as "Be [endowed] with the whole armour of God". The word endowed appears only once in the New Testament as the word endued in Luk 24:49. However, the greek word used is "endyō" which is translated as; put on, or had not on (18x), clothed with (2x), clothed in (2x), have on (2x), clothe with (1x), be endued (1x), arrayed in (1x), be clothed (1x), and is used with the nuance of 'being enveloped by' which is very much like "being encircled by" in the context of robes of righteousness. If you retranslate the word "endyo" to "endowed" gain some interesting perspectives as to how we might better understand our own temple experience where we put on, are clothed with, and endowed, or encircled by the robes of righteousness. What Does It Mean for a Latter-day Saint to Put On the Whole Armour of God? Now there we have the four parts of the body that the apostle Paul saw to be the most vulnerable to the powers of darkness. What are the 4 principal parts that we need to protect against? 1) The loins, Symbolic reprentation? typifying virtue, chastity. 2) The heart Symbolic reprentation? typifying our conduct, our desires, emotions, spiritual capacity - the place were real conversion takes place. 3) Our feet, Symbolic reprentation? our goals or objectives in life, 4) our head, Symbolic reprentation? our thoughts, the ruler of our body. “Now let's look at the kind of armor we need to guard against attack for each...the kind of armour that will protect us is even more interesting. . . . How could one relate putting on the armor of God with the robes of the priesthood? ] that ye may be
able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
[ listen to the remarks of Jeffrey R. Holland - We Are All Enlisted - Oct 2011 Priesthood session.
"We don’t talk about the adversary any
more than we have to, and I don’t like talking about him at all,
but the experience of young Joseph reminds us of what every man,
including every young man, in this audience needs to remember.
Number one, Satan, or Lucifer, or the father of lies—call him what you will—is real, the very personification of evil. His motives are in every case malicious, and he convulses at the appearance of redeeming light, at the very thought of truth. Number two, he is eternally opposed to the love of God, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the work of peace and salvation. He will fight against these whenever and wherever he can. He knows he will be defeated and cast out in the end, but he is determined to take down with him as many others as he possibly can."
so who or what exactly are we fighting ourselves against? In battle do we ever need to change our tactics based on the enemy? Does a football team change its defense based on the opponent? Why is it important to understand who the opponenet is in this case? If we don't understand the opponent then it is easier to be fooled as we are not sure who the enemy is.] against spiritual wickedness in high
places.
13 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.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, [ “Now notice the nature of the armour that [Paul] puts on the man whom he is now preparing to withstand the powers of darkness. He said, ‘Therefore stand, having your loins girt about with truth.’ Now the loins is that part of the body between the lower rib and the hip in which you will recognize are the vital organs which have to do with reproduction . . . he was saying that that part of the body was one of the most vulnerable. We should have our loins girt about with armour.
We should have our loins girt about with truth. What is truth, how do we as latter day saints define truth? Truth, the Lord said, was knowledge of things as they are, things as they were and things as they are to come. . . . What is going to guide us along the path of proper morals or proper choices? It will be the knowledge of truth. There must be a standard by which we measure our conduct, else how shall we know which is right? And how shall we know which is wrong? . . . ‘Our loins shall be girt about with truth,’ the prophet said.] and having on [ So this could be better translated as "having been [endowed] with the breastplate of righteousness;". The word endowed appears only once in the New Testament as the word endued in Luk 24:49. However, the greek word used is "endyō" which is translated as; put on, or had not on (18x), clothed with (2x), clothed in (2x), have on (2x), clothe with (1x), be endued (1x), arrayed in (1x), be clothed (1x), and is used with the nuance of 'being enveloped by' which is very much like "being encircled by" in the context of robes of righteousness. If you retranslate the word "endyo" to "endowed" gain some interesting perspectives as to how we might better understand our own temple experience where we put on, are clothed with, and endowed, or encircled by the robes of righteousness. ] the breastplate of righteousness; [ And then the next we would have a breastplate over the heart. Now in the scriptures you will remember that the heart has always been used to typify our conduct. . . . And so we would have a breastplate over the heart.
“And the heart, what would we need to do to protect our heart? We shall have over our hearts a breastplate of righteousness. Well, having learned truth we have a measure by which we can judge between right and wrong and so our conduct will always be gauged by that thing which we know to be true. With this breastplate in place we will always choose to do that which is right. Our breastplate to cover our conduct shall be the breastplate of righteousness. ]
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; [ “And then he said we would have the feet shod with the kind of armour that would protect our feet, suggesting the feet as the objectives, the goals of life which we should have [guarded] by some kind of armour and protected from getting off on the wrong foot.
“With what shall we protect our feet, or by what shall we gauge our objectives or our goals in life? All through the scriptures there runs a phrase suggested by the kind of armour the Apostle Paul would put upon the feet. Listen to what he says: ‘Your feet should be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.’ (Ephesians 6:15.) Interesting? What is the preparation of the gospel of peace? The whole core and center of the gospel of peace was built around the person of Him who was cradled in the manger. . . . How fortunate are you if in your childhood in the home of your father and mother you were taught the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ, the son of the living God; the meaning of baptism and what you gain by the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Fortunate is the child who has been taught to pray and who has been given those steps to take on through life. Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace! . .]
16 Above all,
taking the shield of faith,
[ the shield of faith in what/who? Jesus Christ. “Well, now, the apostle Paul went one step further. He didn’t leave the man just with the armour on and expect him to cope against an army, seen or unseen. He had his armoured man holding in his hand a shield and in his other hand a sword, which were the weapons of those days. That shield was the shield of faith, and the sword was the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God. I can’t think of any more powerful weapons than faith and a knowledge of the scriptures in the which are contained the Word of God. One so armoured and one so prepared with those weapons is prepared to go out against the enemy [and] is more to be feared than the enemies of the light.” (Harold B. Lee, “Feet Shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace,” Speeches of the Year, 1954, pp. 2–4, 6–7.) ] wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the
helmet of salvation,
[ And finally we should have a helmet on our heads. “And then finally the helmet of salvation. Did you ever hear of that kind of helmet? The helmet of salvation. What is salvation? Salvation is to be saved. Saved from what? Saved from death and saved from sin. . . . “. . . When those two things are missing from this earth and when it has been sanctified and cleansed of its impurity, this shall be the place of salvation. On this earth will be the celestial kingdom, for there will be no more sin, no more death, no more crying, for all the former things are done away. By whom? By the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul said, in effect, ‘A helmet of salvation shall guide our thinking all through our days.’ . . . so how then or what do we do when we have put on the helmet of salvation? Our thoughts are turned to God,our blessings, that we can live with him...How does that guard against the evil one? Isaiah 59:17 says it this way "He put on...salvation as a helmet on his head"] and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;