I. Note the prohibition involved in the precept. It forbids (1) indolent or even weary sleep; (2) cowardly or even politic flight; (3) a treacherous or even a desponding surrender; (4) the declaration of a truce or even an application for it; (5) the giving up of a militant position until the war is fairly over.
II. What do these words demand? (1) They require a distinct and solemn recognition of the fact that the time of our life on earth is a time of war, "an evil day." (2) They require us to be always possessed by the conviction that we are personally called to this good fight. (3) They demand the honest and manly facing of our foes. (4) They require that, having taken the field, we keep it.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Sermons,3rd series, p. 249.
Reference: Ephesians 6:13-18. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. vii., p. 215.