Below are the quotes that were used in the video.
Paul gives timeless advice on how God can protect you today. 'Putting on the whole armor of God' protects us against the 'fiery darts of the wicked' and from the temptations that seem to us in our day. In this video, we will focus on how to put on the Lord's armor to receive His protection against evil.
“Paul was an aged man. (Philem. 1:9.) Nearly thirty years of unwearying labor for Christ had taken its toll. Now Paul was in Rome under house arrest, awaiting the outcome of his "appeal unto Caesar." (Acts 25:11.) Nero was that Caesar; he had ruled since A.D. 54 and would commit suicide in 68, about six years hence. Paul would precede him in a martyr's death by a year or two (66-67).”
“In the meantime there was still much to do: the Gentile branches scattered throughout Greece and Asia Minor continued to require the apostle's steadying hand. Persecution, heresy, apostasy, and apathy were ongoing realities; instruction and admonition had to be relentless. Such was the background of the so called ‘letters of imprisonment’ written by Paul from Rome between the years 61 and 62.” (Rodney Turner, Studies in Scripture, Vol. 6: Acts to Revelation, edited by Robert L. Millet, 107.)
Ephesians: Written from prison in Rome in 61-62 A.D. and deals with:
President Henry B. Eyring: “I spoke in an ancient theater in Ephesus. Bright sunlight flooded the ground where the Apostle Paul had stood to preach. My topic was Paul, the Apostle called of God.
The audience was hundreds of Latter-day Saints. They were arranged on the rows of stone benches the Ephesians sat upon more than a millennium before. Among them were two living Apostles, Elder Mark E. Petersen and Elder James E. Faust.
“... After the talk, a number of people said kind things. Both of the living Apostles were generous in their comments. But later, Elder Faust took me aside and, with a smile and with softness in his voice, said, “That was a good talk. But you left out the most important thing you could have said.”
“I asked him what that was. Weeks later he consented to tell me. His answer has been teaching me ever since.
“He said that I could have told the people that if the Saints who heard Paul had possessed a testimony of the value and the power of the keys he held, perhaps the Apostles would not have had to be taken from the earth.” (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2004/10/faith-and-keys?lang=eng)
President Henry B. Eyring: “Paul testified to the Ephesians that Christ was at the head of His Church. And he taught that the Savior built His Church on a foundation of apostles and prophets who hold all the keys of the priesthood.
“Despite the clarity and the power of his teaching and his example, Paul knew that an apostasy would come. He knew that apostles and prophets would be taken from the earth. And he knew that they would, in some great, future day, be restored. He wrote of that time to the Ephesians, speaking of what the Lord would do: “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.” (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2004/10/faith-and-keys?lang=eng)
“[Ephesians] contains some of Paul’s best writing, and is a document that deals with fundamentals, with the gospel of God in all its saving glory” (Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1965–73], 2:489).
President Russell M. Nelson: “My dear extraordinary youth, you were sent to earth at this precise time, the most crucial time in the history of the world, to help gather Israel. There is nothing happening on this earth right now that is more important than that. There is nothing of greater consequence. Absolutely nothing …
“My beloved younger brothers and sisters, you are among the best the Lord has ever sent to this world. You have the capacity to be smarter and wiser and have more impact on the world than any previous generation! … You are the hope of Israel, ‘children of the promised day’!” (“Hope of Israel,” June 2018, Worldwide Devotional for youth)
Elder B. H. Roberts: “This is the dispensation of the fullness of times, and we see running into it, as mighty streams rush into the ocean, all the former dispensations, putting us in touch with them, putting them in touch with us; and we see that God has had but one great purpose in view from the beginning, and that has been the salvation of His children. And now has come the final day, the final dispensation, when truth and light and righteousness must flood the earth” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1904, 73).
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf: “A powerful expression of that love is what the scriptures often call the grace of God--the divine assistance and endowment of strength by which we grow from the flawed and limited beings we are now into exalted beings of “truth and light, until [we are] glorified in truth and [know] all things.”
“It is a most wondrous thing, this grace of God. Yet it is often misunderstood. Even so, we should know about God’s grace if we intend to inherit what has been prepared for us in His eternal kingdom.
“To that end I would like to speak of grace. In particular, first, how grace unlocks the gates of heaven and, second, how it opens the windows of heaven.
“If grace is a gift of God, why then is obedience to God’s commandments so important? Why bother with God’s commandments—or repentance, for that matter? Why not just admit we’re sinful and let God save us?
“Or, to put the question in Paul’s words, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” Paul’s answer is simple and clear: “God forbid.”
“Brothers and sisters, we obey the commandments of God—out of love for Him!
“Trying to understand God’s gift of grace with all our heart and mind gives us all the more reasons to love and obey our Heavenly Father with meekness and gratitude. As we walk the path of discipleship, it refines us, it improves us, it helps us to become more like Him, and it leads us back to His presence.” (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2015/04/the-gift-of-grace)
The “wall of partition” separated the more sacred parts of the temple from the outer court. Gentiles and unclean Jews were not to enter inside of this wall.
“The temple in Jerusalem contained several courts or areas, and only certain types of people could enter each court. Gentiles were permitted to ascend the temple mount and enter the outer court, called the Court of the Gentiles. The inner courts of the temple, however, were shielded from Gentile access by a special partition or wall that stood about one meter high. If a Gentile passed beyond this wall, he could be put to death. Archaeologists have discovered two of the marble blocks that made up this barrier, and they contain inscriptions in Greek and Latin that read: “No foreigner is to pass beyond the barriers surrounding the sanctuary. Whoever is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his death which will follow” (Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Eric D. Huntsman, Thomas A. Wayment, Jesus Christ and the World of the New Testament [2006], 160).
“During the time of Paul the Apostle, non-Jewish converts to Christianity (or those who formerly were Gentiles) may have felt like they did not fit in with the rest of the Church and may have felt more like “strangers and foreigners” ( Ephesians 2:19). For example, at the temple in Jerusalem, they would not have been allowed past the “wall of partition” ( Ephesians 2:14) to the more sacred areas of the temple where only Jews, including Jewish Christians, would have been able to go. In addition, Gentiles had previously not been offered the blessings of the gospel until Heavenly Father’s revelation to Peter (see Acts 10). (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/new-testament-seminary-teacher-manual-2023/ephesians-2)
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “In New Testament times, in Book of Mormon times, and in modern times these officers form the foundation stones of the true Church, positioned around and gaining their strength from the chief cornerstone, “the rock of our Redeemer, who is [Jesus] Christ, the Son of God” [Helaman 5:12]. … Such a foundation in Christ was and is always to be a protection in days “when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you.”(“Prophets, Seers, and Revelators,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2004, 7)
President Gordon B. Hinckley: “We preserve the symbolism of the cornerstone in remembrance of the Son of God, upon whose life and mission this Church is established. He, and He alone, is the Chief Cornerstone. There is built upon Him a strong foundation of apostles and prophets and, above this, “all the building fitly framed together” to constitute The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Ephesians 2:21; see also verse 20). (Conference Report, Oct. 2000, 86; or Ensign, Nov. 2000, 67)
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, "An Evangelist is a Patriarch, even the oldest man of the blood of Joseph or of the seed of Abraham. Wherever the Church of Christ is established in the earth, there should be a Patriarch for the benefit of the posterity of the Saints, as it was with Jacob in giving his patriarchal blessing unto his sons.” (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Joseph Fielding Smith, comp. (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1976), 151.)
For Latter-day Saints, the terms evangelist and patriarch are synonymous. The Greek word translated evangelist (in Acts 21:8; 2 Timothy 4:5) means literally "a bringer of good tidings" or "a proclaimer of good news."" The verb of this same Greek root is typically translated (in the New Testament) "bring"—as in to "bring glad tidings" (Romans 10:15). For this reason, many Christian churches use the term evangelist to refer to someone who is a missionary—a pro-claimer of the good news of the gospel.' However, a stake patriarch is certainly "a bringer of good tidings" or "a proclaimer of good news."
President Dallin H. Oaks: “The Apostle Paul taught that the Lord’s teachings and teachers were given that we may all attain “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). This process requires far more than acquiring knowledge. It is not even enough for us to be convinced of the gospel; we must act and think so that we are converted by it. In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something. (Conference Report, Oct. 2000, 40; or Ensign, Nov. 2000, 32)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “If we speak the truth in love, as urged in Ephesians, then we have a better chance of being heard. Sometimes we are so nice to each other we are cruel.” ("Old Testament Symposium" Relevancy Within Antiquity, 16 August 1979)
“You and I can sense when people speak to us in love. I never have any question, for instance, about my wife, Colleen, when she gives me suggestions even when I do not regard them as convenient. Yet I never have to stop and question her motives or decode the communication. I know she loves me, and I let what she is telling me, however inconvenient it may be, come inside. So it is when we do as Paul says and speak the truth in love.” (Jesus, the Perfect Mentor, CES Fireside for Young Adults, 6 February 2000)
President Dallin H. Oaks:
"One Lord" means whom we worship.
"One faith" means the doctrine we espouse.
"One baptism" means the ordinances we practice. (Foundation Principles and Ordinances Regional Representative Seminar Friday, March 30, 1990)
President Gordon B. Hinckley: “Happiness in marriage is not so much a matter of romance as it is an anxious concern for the comfort and well-being of one’s companion. Any man who will make his wife’s comfort his first concern will stay in love with her throughout their lives and through the eternity yet to come. (Anchorage, Alaska, regional conference, June 18, 1995) (“Speaking Today: Excerpts from Recent Addresses of President Gordon B. Hinckley,” Ensign, Apr. 1996, 72)
Elder L. Whitney Clayton: “I have observed that in the happiest marriages both the husband and wife consider their relationship to be a pearl beyond price, a treasure of infinite worth. They both leave their fathers and mothers and set out together to build a marriage that will prosper for eternity. They understand that they walk a divinely ordained path. They know that no other relationship of any kind can bring as much joy, generate as much good, or produce as much personal refinement. Watch and learn: the best marriage partners regard their marriages as priceless.” ( “Marriage: Watch and Learn,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2013, 83)
Elder Robert D. Hales: “Your fathers and grandfathers never faced the temptations that you face on a regular basis. You are living in the last days. If your father wanted to get in trouble, he had to go searching for it. Not anymore! Today temptation finds you! Please remember that! Satan desires to have you, and “sin lieth at the door” [ Moses 5:23 ]. How will you resist his aggressive tactics?” (Robert D. Hales, “Stand Strong in Holy Places,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2013, 48–49)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “The putting off of the natural man makes possible the putting on of the whole armor of God, which would not fully fit before! (see Ephesians 6:11, 13)." (Neal A. Maxwell, “Plow in Hope,” Ensign, May 2001, 60)
President M. Russell Ballard: “I like to think of this spiritual armor not as a solid piece of metal molded to fit the body but more like chain mail. Chain mail consists of dozens of tiny pieces of steel fastened together to allow the user greater flexibility without losing protection. I say that because it has been my experience that there is not one great and grand thing we can do to arm ourselves spiritually. True spiritual power lies in numerous smaller acts woven together in a fabric of spiritual fortification that protects and shields from all evil.” (“Be Strong in the Lord,” Ensign, July 2004, 8)
Teaching Thoughts:
“Paul was an aged man. (Philem. 1:9.) Nearly thirty years of unwearying labor for Christ had taken its toll. Now Paul was in Rome under house arrest, awaiting the outcome of his "appeal unto Caesar." (Acts 25:11.) Nero was that Caesar; he had ruled since A.D. 54 and would commit suicide in 68, about six years hence. Paul would precede him in a martyr's death by a year or two (66-67).”
“In the meantime there was still much to do: the Gentile branches scattered throughout Greece and Asia Minor continued to require the apostle's steadying hand. Persecution, heresy, apostasy, and apathy were ongoing realities; instruction and admonition had to be relentless. Such was the background of the so called ‘letters of imprisonment’ written by Paul from Rome between the years 61 and 62.” (Rodney Turner, Studies in Scripture, Vol. 6: Acts to Revelation, edited by Robert L. Millet, 107.)
Ephesians: Written from prison in Rome in 61-62 A.D. and deals with:
- Foreordination
- Dispensations
- Holy Spirit of Promise
- Prophets and Apostles
- Unified Church
- Church offices, callings
- Importance of Family
President Henry B. Eyring: “I spoke in an ancient theater in Ephesus. Bright sunlight flooded the ground where the Apostle Paul had stood to preach. My topic was Paul, the Apostle called of God.
The audience was hundreds of Latter-day Saints. They were arranged on the rows of stone benches the Ephesians sat upon more than a millennium before. Among them were two living Apostles, Elder Mark E. Petersen and Elder James E. Faust.
“... After the talk, a number of people said kind things. Both of the living Apostles were generous in their comments. But later, Elder Faust took me aside and, with a smile and with softness in his voice, said, “That was a good talk. But you left out the most important thing you could have said.”
“I asked him what that was. Weeks later he consented to tell me. His answer has been teaching me ever since.
“He said that I could have told the people that if the Saints who heard Paul had possessed a testimony of the value and the power of the keys he held, perhaps the Apostles would not have had to be taken from the earth.” (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2004/10/faith-and-keys?lang=eng)
President Henry B. Eyring: “Paul testified to the Ephesians that Christ was at the head of His Church. And he taught that the Savior built His Church on a foundation of apostles and prophets who hold all the keys of the priesthood.
“Despite the clarity and the power of his teaching and his example, Paul knew that an apostasy would come. He knew that apostles and prophets would be taken from the earth. And he knew that they would, in some great, future day, be restored. He wrote of that time to the Ephesians, speaking of what the Lord would do: “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.” (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2004/10/faith-and-keys?lang=eng)
“[Ephesians] contains some of Paul’s best writing, and is a document that deals with fundamentals, with the gospel of God in all its saving glory” (Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1965–73], 2:489).
President Russell M. Nelson: “My dear extraordinary youth, you were sent to earth at this precise time, the most crucial time in the history of the world, to help gather Israel. There is nothing happening on this earth right now that is more important than that. There is nothing of greater consequence. Absolutely nothing …
“My beloved younger brothers and sisters, you are among the best the Lord has ever sent to this world. You have the capacity to be smarter and wiser and have more impact on the world than any previous generation! … You are the hope of Israel, ‘children of the promised day’!” (“Hope of Israel,” June 2018, Worldwide Devotional for youth)
Elder B. H. Roberts: “This is the dispensation of the fullness of times, and we see running into it, as mighty streams rush into the ocean, all the former dispensations, putting us in touch with them, putting them in touch with us; and we see that God has had but one great purpose in view from the beginning, and that has been the salvation of His children. And now has come the final day, the final dispensation, when truth and light and righteousness must flood the earth” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1904, 73).
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf: “A powerful expression of that love is what the scriptures often call the grace of God--the divine assistance and endowment of strength by which we grow from the flawed and limited beings we are now into exalted beings of “truth and light, until [we are] glorified in truth and [know] all things.”
“It is a most wondrous thing, this grace of God. Yet it is often misunderstood. Even so, we should know about God’s grace if we intend to inherit what has been prepared for us in His eternal kingdom.
“To that end I would like to speak of grace. In particular, first, how grace unlocks the gates of heaven and, second, how it opens the windows of heaven.
“If grace is a gift of God, why then is obedience to God’s commandments so important? Why bother with God’s commandments—or repentance, for that matter? Why not just admit we’re sinful and let God save us?
“Or, to put the question in Paul’s words, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” Paul’s answer is simple and clear: “God forbid.”
“Brothers and sisters, we obey the commandments of God—out of love for Him!
“Trying to understand God’s gift of grace with all our heart and mind gives us all the more reasons to love and obey our Heavenly Father with meekness and gratitude. As we walk the path of discipleship, it refines us, it improves us, it helps us to become more like Him, and it leads us back to His presence.” (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2015/04/the-gift-of-grace)
The “wall of partition” separated the more sacred parts of the temple from the outer court. Gentiles and unclean Jews were not to enter inside of this wall.
“The temple in Jerusalem contained several courts or areas, and only certain types of people could enter each court. Gentiles were permitted to ascend the temple mount and enter the outer court, called the Court of the Gentiles. The inner courts of the temple, however, were shielded from Gentile access by a special partition or wall that stood about one meter high. If a Gentile passed beyond this wall, he could be put to death. Archaeologists have discovered two of the marble blocks that made up this barrier, and they contain inscriptions in Greek and Latin that read: “No foreigner is to pass beyond the barriers surrounding the sanctuary. Whoever is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his death which will follow” (Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Eric D. Huntsman, Thomas A. Wayment, Jesus Christ and the World of the New Testament [2006], 160).
“During the time of Paul the Apostle, non-Jewish converts to Christianity (or those who formerly were Gentiles) may have felt like they did not fit in with the rest of the Church and may have felt more like “strangers and foreigners” ( Ephesians 2:19). For example, at the temple in Jerusalem, they would not have been allowed past the “wall of partition” ( Ephesians 2:14) to the more sacred areas of the temple where only Jews, including Jewish Christians, would have been able to go. In addition, Gentiles had previously not been offered the blessings of the gospel until Heavenly Father’s revelation to Peter (see Acts 10). (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/new-testament-seminary-teacher-manual-2023/ephesians-2)
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “In New Testament times, in Book of Mormon times, and in modern times these officers form the foundation stones of the true Church, positioned around and gaining their strength from the chief cornerstone, “the rock of our Redeemer, who is [Jesus] Christ, the Son of God” [Helaman 5:12]. … Such a foundation in Christ was and is always to be a protection in days “when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you.”(“Prophets, Seers, and Revelators,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2004, 7)
President Gordon B. Hinckley: “We preserve the symbolism of the cornerstone in remembrance of the Son of God, upon whose life and mission this Church is established. He, and He alone, is the Chief Cornerstone. There is built upon Him a strong foundation of apostles and prophets and, above this, “all the building fitly framed together” to constitute The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Ephesians 2:21; see also verse 20). (Conference Report, Oct. 2000, 86; or Ensign, Nov. 2000, 67)
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, "An Evangelist is a Patriarch, even the oldest man of the blood of Joseph or of the seed of Abraham. Wherever the Church of Christ is established in the earth, there should be a Patriarch for the benefit of the posterity of the Saints, as it was with Jacob in giving his patriarchal blessing unto his sons.” (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Joseph Fielding Smith, comp. (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1976), 151.)
For Latter-day Saints, the terms evangelist and patriarch are synonymous. The Greek word translated evangelist (in Acts 21:8; 2 Timothy 4:5) means literally "a bringer of good tidings" or "a proclaimer of good news."" The verb of this same Greek root is typically translated (in the New Testament) "bring"—as in to "bring glad tidings" (Romans 10:15). For this reason, many Christian churches use the term evangelist to refer to someone who is a missionary—a pro-claimer of the good news of the gospel.' However, a stake patriarch is certainly "a bringer of good tidings" or "a proclaimer of good news."
President Dallin H. Oaks: “The Apostle Paul taught that the Lord’s teachings and teachers were given that we may all attain “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). This process requires far more than acquiring knowledge. It is not even enough for us to be convinced of the gospel; we must act and think so that we are converted by it. In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something. (Conference Report, Oct. 2000, 40; or Ensign, Nov. 2000, 32)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “If we speak the truth in love, as urged in Ephesians, then we have a better chance of being heard. Sometimes we are so nice to each other we are cruel.” ("Old Testament Symposium" Relevancy Within Antiquity, 16 August 1979)
“You and I can sense when people speak to us in love. I never have any question, for instance, about my wife, Colleen, when she gives me suggestions even when I do not regard them as convenient. Yet I never have to stop and question her motives or decode the communication. I know she loves me, and I let what she is telling me, however inconvenient it may be, come inside. So it is when we do as Paul says and speak the truth in love.” (Jesus, the Perfect Mentor, CES Fireside for Young Adults, 6 February 2000)
President Dallin H. Oaks:
"One Lord" means whom we worship.
"One faith" means the doctrine we espouse.
"One baptism" means the ordinances we practice. (Foundation Principles and Ordinances Regional Representative Seminar Friday, March 30, 1990)
President Gordon B. Hinckley: “Happiness in marriage is not so much a matter of romance as it is an anxious concern for the comfort and well-being of one’s companion. Any man who will make his wife’s comfort his first concern will stay in love with her throughout their lives and through the eternity yet to come. (Anchorage, Alaska, regional conference, June 18, 1995) (“Speaking Today: Excerpts from Recent Addresses of President Gordon B. Hinckley,” Ensign, Apr. 1996, 72)
Elder L. Whitney Clayton: “I have observed that in the happiest marriages both the husband and wife consider their relationship to be a pearl beyond price, a treasure of infinite worth. They both leave their fathers and mothers and set out together to build a marriage that will prosper for eternity. They understand that they walk a divinely ordained path. They know that no other relationship of any kind can bring as much joy, generate as much good, or produce as much personal refinement. Watch and learn: the best marriage partners regard their marriages as priceless.” ( “Marriage: Watch and Learn,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2013, 83)
Elder Robert D. Hales: “Your fathers and grandfathers never faced the temptations that you face on a regular basis. You are living in the last days. If your father wanted to get in trouble, he had to go searching for it. Not anymore! Today temptation finds you! Please remember that! Satan desires to have you, and “sin lieth at the door” [ Moses 5:23 ]. How will you resist his aggressive tactics?” (Robert D. Hales, “Stand Strong in Holy Places,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2013, 48–49)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “The putting off of the natural man makes possible the putting on of the whole armor of God, which would not fully fit before! (see Ephesians 6:11, 13)." (Neal A. Maxwell, “Plow in Hope,” Ensign, May 2001, 60)
President M. Russell Ballard: “I like to think of this spiritual armor not as a solid piece of metal molded to fit the body but more like chain mail. Chain mail consists of dozens of tiny pieces of steel fastened together to allow the user greater flexibility without losing protection. I say that because it has been my experience that there is not one great and grand thing we can do to arm ourselves spiritually. True spiritual power lies in numerous smaller acts woven together in a fabric of spiritual fortification that protects and shields from all evil.” (“Be Strong in the Lord,” Ensign, July 2004, 8)
Teaching Thoughts:
- Writing crystallizes thoughts.
- Use a handout to teach how to ‘put on the whole armor of God’ today.
- Emphasize how we put on the Lord’s armor to receive His protection against evil?
- Putting off the natural man.
- Small acts of spiritual fortification.