{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4359","native_reference":{"book_number":560,"chapter_from":6,"chapter_to":6,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":13,"verse_to":13},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrosiaster</b>: We are waging war against the fiercest of enemies. He is skilled in every deceit. We must therefore keep on the lookout, with all circumspection and care, that wherever they test our resistance they will find us protected and ready.… Against earthly foes the body must be strengthened with food and the mind aroused by drink to become bold enough to fight back. So against the spiritual weapons of iniquity we must fight spiritually. But our weapons must be sobriety and abstinence, that, having been imbued with the Holy Spirit, we may vanquish the unclean, warring spirits.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Ephesians 6.17.1-2</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: The \"evil day\" may arguably signify the present time.… But the better interpretation is that \"to stand in the evil day\" is a reference to the final consummation and judgment. Then the devil, our enemy and our adversary, will struggle to keep us in his clutches. Who will be freed from him? One who understands what is said of the poor and needy: \"the Lord will deliver him in the evil day.\" … Still another interpretation, however, expounds this more simply: The Ephesians are now being encouraged to prepare for future temptations and persecutions. Paul the apostle in his prophetic spirit saw them as coming at a later time. They are being counseled to do anything they can that might enable them to stand in the faith of the gospel and not to lapse under persecution.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ephesians 6:13</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: He discourses much concerning standing, saying also elsewhere, \"Watch ye, stand fast.\" And again, \"So stand fast in the Lord.\" And again, \"Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.\" And again, \"That ye may be able, having done all, to stand.\" Doubtless then he does not mean merely any way of standing, but a correct way, and as many as have had experience in wars know how great a point it is to know how to stand. For if in the case of boxers and wrestlers, the trainer recommends this before anything else, namely, to stand firm, much more will it be the first thing in warfare, and military matters.</p><p>The man who, in a true sense, stands, is upright; he stands not in a lazy attitude, not leaning upon anything. Exact uprightness discovers itself by the way of standing, so that they who are perfectly upright, they stand. But they who do not stand, cannot be upright, but are unstrung and disjointed. The luxurious man does not stand upright, but is bent; so is the lewd man, and the lover of money. He who knows how to stand will from his very standing, as from a sort of foundation, find every part of the conflict easy to him.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 23</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Wherefore,\" saith he, \"take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.\"</p><p>By \"evil day\" he means the present life, and calls it too \"this present evil world\", from the evils which are done in it. It is as much as to say, Always be armed. And again, \"having done all,\" saith he; that is, both passions, and vile lusts, and all things else that trouble us. He speaks not merely of doing the deed, but of completing it, so as not only to slay, but to stand also after we have slain. For many who have gained this victory, have fallen again. \"Having done,\" saith he, \"all\"; not having done one, but not the other. For even after the victory, we must stand. An enemy may be struck, but things that are struck revive again if we do not stand. But if after having fallen they rise up again, so long as we stand, they are fallen. So long as we waver not, the adversary rises not again.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 22</i></p><p><b>Methodius of Olympus</b>: Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God\"<br/><i>— Methodius From the Discourse on the Resurrection</i></p><p><b>Tatian the Assyrian</b>: But now this they can by no means effect, for they have not the power; but they make war by means of the lower matter against the matter that is like themselves. Should any one wish to conquer them, let him repudiate matter. Being armed with the breastplate of the celestial Spirit, he will be able to preserve all that is encompassed by it.<br/><i>— Address of Tatian to the Greeks, Chapter XVI</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"1e83b95b9d2bf2185066457b2c892f10783c7b9a036646360839badd276d5ec9","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4359,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"9ee5b4e8133395266e90217c245acb0d3a74021f7c818b667d06d33f9da471cd","translator":null,"work":null}