“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” Ephesians 6:11 ESV
I must confess that my wardrobe choices have drastically changed since I began working from home every day because of the pandemic. I usually wear suits and ties to work, particularly when I’m attending meetings or presentations. But now my attire is of two basic categories – daytime pajamas and nighttime pajamas. Even when I have an online meeting for which I must have my camera on, I will wear a dressy shirt up top, but still have on sweats or basketball shorts on the bottom. Adjusting to the new dress code has certainly been a silver lining in this whole ordeal.
However, one attire decision that has not changed is putting on my armor everyday. When writing to the Ephesians, Paul reminded the believers that they (and we) do not ultimately war against men. Our true adversaries are principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness (Eph. 6:12). We are constantly in spiritual battle. Because of this, we cannot expect to fight effectively with man-made weapons or attire. Everyday we should get dressed for spiritual battle by putting on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the boots of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. Only then can we stand against the regular, daily, seemingly nonstop attacks of the enemy. Only then can we persevere and overcome. So while I may be dressing a lot more casually for work these days, I’m always “dressed to the nines” in my spiritual threads.