The Armor of God – Part II
EPHESIANS 6:10-18
LAST WEEK, AS WE BEGAN OUR STUDY OF “THE ARMOR OF GOD,” I wrote to you on vv. 10-14. We can think of last week’s message as an introduction to the actual armor itself. In this week’s blog, “The Armor of God – Part II,” we will focus on the various pieces of the armor themselves.
AS I SAID TO YOU LAST WEEK, ONE OF THE GREAT AND MOST FAMILIAR passages in Ephesians – and I could say the entire N.T. – is Ephesians 6:10-18 in its description of exhortation to put on the whole “Armor of God.” Before we read this great passage I would just like to state for the record a few admissions or circumstantial statements. For one, I easily could have written a blog for each piece of the armor. I did not because, as I related to you previously, I think after 50-odd weeks in Ephesians, it is time to move on. I also want to say that I believe it is more accurate to view the armor as a single piece of protection rather than understanding the armor as being made of individual pieces. And, I would like to say also at the start here that this passage is picturesque and figurative, making it difficult to interpret with great certainty. I believe the study I have for you this week is extremely factual and reliable, but this does not change the fact that there is much debate among scholars – not in general but in specifics. Overall, all scholars are in agreement about Paul’s primary intent and the importance of his words. Finally, I want to acknowledge that even having written 9 pages on this message, and 6 pages last week I still had to leave things out. As I’m sure you know, God’s Word is very deep. The excessive length of this blog is testimony to that fact. I hope you stay with me. Ephesians 6:10-18 is a truly great and fascinating passage…
NAS Ephesians 6:10-18 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,
“PAUL’S CONCLUDING APPEAL IS TO STAND FIRM IN THE BATTLE against spiritual powers.” – Lincoln
“NO NEW TESTAMENT BOOK SO FULLY DELINEATES THE RESOURCES AND blessings of the believer as does the book of Ephesians.” – MacArthur
I ALSO SAID TO YOU LAST WEEK THAT “IN THIS ENTIRE SECTION PAUL IS painting a metaphor for his readers based on the attire of a Roman soldier prepared for battle and its similarity to the Christian prepared to do battle against spiritually evil forces.” – NET Notes
WE ALSO NOTED THAT MOST PROBABLY THE IMAGERY IS NOT THAT OF A warrior being enabled to charge and conquer cosmic powers hostile to God. More likely the picture Paul is painting is that of a soldier strengthened in the Lord to stand defensively against the onslaughts of the evil one (rewritten from Hoehner).
“THIS IS HIGHLY FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, a series of symbols suggesting a deep and tangible spiritual reality. The various pieces of armor Paul details for us here are the specific ways we carry out his call to be strong in the Lord. The armor is nothing more than a symbolic description of various facets of the Lord Himself.” – Steadman
“THE ARMOR OF GOD” MAY BE SAID TO BE NOTHING LESS THAN THE LIFE OF Christ lived out in our lives. In this sense “The Armor of God” is very similar to the Fruit of the Spirit…
NAS Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
PUTTING ON THE FULL ARMOR OF GOD IS REALLY THE SAME THING AS exhibiting the Fruit of the Spirit, which is essentially the same as being filled by the Spirit, which is basically the same thing as walking by the Spirit.
I BELIEVE OUR PASSAGE MAY BE DIVIDED EVENLY INTO TWO parts. “There are two general classifications of the Christian’s armor, indicated by the tenses of the verbs used. The first division may be seen in vv. 14-15, and covers the first three pieces of armor: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and the ‘shoes,’ we might say, of the gospel of the preparation of the gospel of peace. These three pieces of armor refer to something that has already been done if we are Christians. All these pieces of armor refer to Christians. I think it is obvious that the armor of God has not relevance to unbelievers.” – Steadman/TAR
“THESE FIRST THREE PIECES OF THE ARMOR ARE PIECES THAT WE ONLY have to put on once and for all. We need never put them on again – but we must be aware of them and continually remind ourselves of what they mean in our lives.” – Steadman
“THE SECOND DIVISION, VERSES 16 AND 17, INCLUDES those things that are to be put on or taken up at the present moment: ‘taking up the shield of faith’ (v. 16); ‘the helmet of salvation’ (v. 17); and ‘the sword of the Spirit’ (v. 17). These three pieces of armor are aspects of Christ that we must deliberately take up again and again whenever we are under attack.” – Steadman
HOW EXACTLY DO WE PUT ON THE ARMOR? A quick, comprehensive answer is obedience. When we are obedient we are covered with “The Armor of God.” When we are surrendered to the Holy Spirit, submissive to His control over our lives; when we are walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh; when we are walking worthy; when we are doing these things in obedience we can be sure we are standing firm and being protected by “The Armor of God.”
AS I SAID, I BELIEVE IT MAY BE SHOWN FROM SCRIPTURE THAT putting on the armor is essentially the same thing as being filled by the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) Both involve being submissive to the control of the indwelling Spirit of God and obediently doing what He commands.
NAS Ephesians 6:14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
IN V. 11 “STAND” WAS PART OF A PURPOSE CLAUSE, BUT HERE IT IS A DIRECT COMMAND. Standing is the main thrust of this passage, more even than the traditional title of “The Armor of God.” This imperative to stand governs all the other directions of “girding,” “putting on,” and “shodding”…
AGAIN NOTE THE USE OF THE WORD “STAND” IN V. 14. You will remember that we said last week that “stand” in this context means to stand against, stand in resistance to something, in this case, the attacks of Satan. The translation “stand firm” accurately reflects this resistant interpretation. Standing firm is standing in resistance to satanic attack.
HERE WE HAVE THE FIRST OF THE SIX PIECES OF ARMOR. There are actually seven pieces of armor, but we will not be looking at the seventh piece of armor, that of prayer, until the first piece that we will look at is what we might call “the belt of truth.” “Having girded your loins with truth.”
WHEN YOU ARE UNDER SATANIC ATTACK, TRUTH IS A GOOD PLACE TO START. Remember what we said last week about Satan being a deceiver who twists and compromises the truth.
“IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THE ORDER IN WHICH THESE PIECES ARE GIVEN to us. You cannot reverse them or mix them up. The reason many Christians fail to properly exercise the sword of the Spirit, for example, is that that have never buckled the belt of truth around their waist. You cannot do it in reverse order. Scripture is very precise in this.” – Steadman
“GIRDED” MEANS FASTENING. There are four participles used in vv. 14-16: girding or fastening, putting on, fitting, and taking up. These indicate the means by which believers can take their stand against the devil and his schemes. The imperative take in v. 17 communicates another means by which to accomplish the standing, i.e., by the word of God.” – NET Notes
AS MENTIONED LAST WEEK, “IT IS QUITE POSSIBLE THAT PAUL’S VIVID description of the armor may stem from the fact that, while writing this letter, he was in prison being guarded by Roman soldiers.” – Hoehner… I think this is almost surely the case. You will remember Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians while in prison, probably in Rome.
THE IDEA OF A “BELT OF TRUTH” IS REFLECTED IN A FEW OF OUR ENGLISH translations. For example, the ESV reads…
ESV Ephesians 6:14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
SINCE THE “LOINS” IS A PLACE WHERE A BELT WOULD BE FASTENED, this translation is certainly understandable. This analogy would surely have been completely understandable to Paul’s first-century readers.
“TRUTH IS REALITY; WHAT IS TRUE IS WHAT IS REAL. Truth explains all things. You know you have found the truth when you find something wide enough and deep enough and high enough to encompass all things. The truth of Christ does exactly that. Because truth is reality, truth never changes. It does not need to be updated, revised, or modernized. If something was true ten thousand years ago, it is true today, and it will be true tomorrow.” – Steadman/TAR
MOST PROBABLY PAUL IS NOT SPEAKING OF TRUTH HERE IN THE SENSE OF the Word of God. I say that because the Word of God is clearly the focus in v. 17. As we will see, the “sword of the Spirit” is the Word of God. “Rather, the truth in v. 14 here represents the attitude of truthfulness, the honest and sincere handling of our God-given weapons, which must characterize the effective soldier. One cannot hope to grow spiritually and thwart the evil one’s attacks if he is not willing to live with absolute truthfulness and integrity. This key attitude of the believer is a vivid demonstration of his or her union with the Lord Jesus Christ who Himself is the truth.” – Kent/TAR…
NAS John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.
“GIRD” IS THE GREEK WORD (περιζώννυμι [pe-rid-zone-nu-mi]): 1. to put a belt or sash around, gird about [BDAG]. “Such girding is an indication that one is prepared for some activity.” – NET Notes
“THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS” IS THE SECOND PIECE OF ARMOR Paul mentions. “Breastplate” is the Greek word θώραξ (tho-rax): 1. protective covering for the chest in combat, breastplate [BDAG]. As you can surely surmise, this Greek word gives us our English word “thorax.” The thorax is the chest.
“THE ‘BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS’ SYMBOLIZES RIGHTEOUSNESS of life. We can say this with confidence because believers are instructed to put it on. As you know, all Christians already possess the imputed righteousness of Christ, which is given to us by God at the moment of our salvation.” – Kent/TAR
MANY SCHOLARS BELIEVE THAT PAUL TAKES SEVERAL OF HIS PICTURES of the armor from the O.T. book of Isaiah. Consider Isaiah 59:17…
NAS Isaiah 59:17 And He put on righteousness like a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.
“IN OUR IMMORAL WORLD TODAY AND IN THE SPIRITUAL BATTLES WE FACE, we must never descend to carnal methods and thereby lose that personal righteousness which provides an inner bulwark against spiritual collapse. Righteousness of life, made possible by the new life created in us by Christ Jesus, protects us from the spiritual defeats which would surely come from an accusing conscience and an impure life.” – Kent/TAR
THE PICTURE PAUL IS DRAWING WITH HIS WORDS HERE IS ONE OF A ‘SOLDIER in combat, standing firm, resisting, and ultimately prevailing against the enemy.” – Lincoln
THE ENEMY IS SATAN. The battle is spiritual, often worked out in the material, physical world. The battlefield is ultimately the mind.
NAS Ephesians 6:15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
“GIRDING,” “PUTTING ON,” AND “SHODDING”: three aorist participles modifying (describing) “stand.” PARTICIPLE – a word formed from a verb (e.g., going, gone, being, been ) and used as an adjective (e.g., working woman, burned toast ) or a noun (e.g., good breeding ). In English, participles are also used to make compound verb forms (e.g., is going, has been
THESE PARTICIPLES ARE THE MEANS by which believers can take their stand against the enemy of Satan. When the pieces of the armor are put on and the believer possesses the power of God, that person is standing.
ANOTHER WORD FOR “SHODDING” IS “FITTING.” Here is the NET Bible’s translation of v. 15…
NET Ephesians 6:15 by fitting your feet with the preparation that comes from the good news of peace,
VERSE 14 IS TRANSLATED VARIOUS WAYS. For another example, here’s the New Living Translation…
NLT Ephesians 6:15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.
“IN ADDITION TO BEING MADE TOUGH AND DURABLE TO PROTECT HIS FEET, the Roman soldier’s sandals, or boots, were usually impregnated with bits of metal or nails to give him greater traction as he climbed slippery slopes and greater stability as he fought.” – MacArthur
“A CHRISTIAN’S SPIRITUAL FOOTWEAR IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT in his warfare against the schemes of the devil. If he has carefully girded his loins with truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness, but does not properly shod his feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, he is destined to stumble, fall, and suffer many defeats.” – MacArthur…
“IN THIS PASSAGE THE ‘GOSPEL OF PEACE’ REFERS TO THE GOOD NEWS THAT believers are at peace with God. The unsaved person is helpless, ungodly, sinful, and an enemy of God. The ‘gospel of peace’ is the marvelous truth that in Christ we are now at peace with God and are one with Him. Therefore, when our feet are shod with the ‘preparation of peace, we stand in the confidence of God’s love for us, His union with us, and His commitment to fight for us.” – MacArthur…
NAS Ephesians 6:16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.
“IN ADDITION TO ALL…” The NKJ reads “above all”; the ESV reads “in all circumstances”; and one commentator (Scott), suggested the sense is “to cover all the rest.”
“IN ADDITION TO ALL, TAKE UP THE SHIELD OF FAITH…” “The Greek word translated shield (θυρεός [thu-re-os]) refers to the Roman soldier’s large rectangular wooden shield, called in Latin scutum It was about 4 ft (1.2 m) high, and covered with leather on the outside. Before a battle in which flaming arrows might be shot at them, the soldiers wet the leather covering with water to extinguish the arrows. The Roman legionaries could close ranks with these shields, the first row holding theirs edge to edge in front, and the rows behind holding the shields above their heads. In this formation they were practically invulnerable to arrows, rocks, and even spears.” – NET Notes
“BY TAKING UP THE SHIELD OF FAITH PAUL MEANS RELIANCE ON GOD.” – Foulkes… We might rightly think of the shield as representing our trust, our faith in Christ and His ability to protect and deliver us.
“WITH THIS SHIELD OF FAITH YOU WILL BE ABLE TO EXTINGUISH ALL the flaming missiles of the evil one”… The NKJ reads “fiery darts.” The NET Bible has “flaming arrows.”
WHAT EXACTLY ARE THESE FLAMING MISSILES?… Remember that Paul is talking about spiritual battles. Commentators take different slants on this. One writer (Foulkes) said that the darts are people’s tongues…
THIS PARTICULAR PIECE OF THE ARMOR HAS BEEN A PARTICULARLY fascinating subject for me for years, ever since I heard Charles Stanley preach on it. Charles Stanley agreed that the flaming missiles were people’s tongues. He said that for him in his ministry of preaching the Word of God, he especially felt the pain that people’s tongues can inflict upon a preacher. But he also recognized that the battle was spiritual and therefore saw the arrows as Satan’s destructive ability to bring disappointment, thoughts of impurity or inadequacy, doubt, and fear to the mind of the preacher. Sometimes these results came from the tongues of other people, sometimes not so much from what they said, but from what they did not say. His message greatly impacted me. For years as a pastor the words of this verse and Pastor Stanley’s sermon, every Sunday when I drove home after preaching my own sermon It has been my observation how after speaking publically a speaker can easily be beset with doubts, doubts that can be pointed like arrows and persistent like attacks from an aggressive enemy. My “darts” flew something like these: “How can you say you are a preacher when you didn’t even mention that point?” “You say you want to be loving to others yet you said what you said!” “You claim to have taught on this subject but the example you used pointed in the opposite direction.” “You went on too long.” “You didn’t smile enough.” “You don’t deserve to be a preacher of the Word of God.” Well, that last dart is certainly right.
AFTER STUDYING AND THINKING ABOUT THESE FIERY DARTS FOR YEARS, I believe that they may be seen generally as doubts; the flaming missiles are doubts we are in constant danger of having about ourselves, our relationship to God, and about God Himself…Charles Stanley’s anxieties, as well as the ones I have experienced, maybe classified as doubts. And certainly the flaming arrows are not aimed only at Pastors. All Christians experience doubts of some kind from time to time. One commentator said these doubts could well focus on God’s Word. He wrote…
“WHENEVER SPIRITUAL CONFLICT BRINGS DOUBTS REGARDING SCRIPTURE, the believer who knows the truth that is embodied in God’s Word and who places his faith firmly in it is fully protected from the darts of doubt.” – Kent…
THE MORE WE KNOW ABOUT THE BIBLE AND THE GOD OF THE BIBLE, the less we are likely to doubt…
PAUL IS SAYING THAT ONLY FAITH’S RELIANCE ON GOD CAN QUENCH and deflect such weapons when they are aimed at the believer. I am very thankful that I know that now, where I didn’t always know the thwn.
NAS Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
THE NEXT PIECE OF ARMOR PAUL MENTIONS IS “THE HELMET of salvation.” The Greek word for “helmet” (περικεφαλαία [pe-ri-kef-a-lai-a]) literally means around the head. This image of the armor is almost certainly taken from Isaiah 59:17, which we looked at earlier…
NAS Isaiah 59:17 And He put on righteousness like a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.
PAUL IS NOT SAYING “GET SAVED” IN THE SENSE OF BEING BORN AGAIN. His readers were already saved. The command and many others in the N.T. are easy to misunderstand, if we do not keep in mind that the Bible views salvation from three different but closely related perspectives. The three standpoints are past, present, and future. The N.T. writers, especially Paul I would say, commonly shift their focus from one dimension to the other often without making the changes clear. This can lead to confusion. I have often thought that this is the reason many people believe it is possible to lose one’s salvation.
“SALVATION IS PAST IN THE SENSE THAT BELIEVERS HAVE ALREADY BEEN saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8). It is future in the sense that its consummation will occur when Christ returns. This dimension is referred to in Scripture as the Christian’s blessed hope (Rom 13:11). It is also a present experience as God progressively sanctifies believers (Phil 2:12-13).” – Kent
WHEN PAUL SAYS TO TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION” HE IS NOT REFERRING TO the initial experience of becoming a Christian; he is referring to progressively sanctification, that is, the present-day experience of living the Christian life obediently. It may sound incongruous but it is a fact of Scripture and of our reality as Christians that although we have been saved, we must constantly be concerned with being saved daily as we grow in Christlikeness and are conformed into His image. Then, ultimately in the future, we will be saved completely in glory.
PAUL, AS THE WRITERS OF THE N.T. OFTEN DO, IS CENTERING ON the Christian’s present experience. Although we are saved and secure in Christ forever, daily we are to put on the full armor of God.
NEXT THERE IS “THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT.” “The Greek term translated sword (μάχαιρα [ma-chai-ra]) refers to the Roman gladius, a short sword about 2 ft (60 cm) long, used for close hand-to-hand combat. This is the only clearly offensive weapon in the list of armor mentioned by the author.” – NET Notes…
“THE O.T. OFTEN REFERS TO SPEECH AS A SWORD. For Example, the words of the wicked are said to wound as a sword.” – Foulkes…
NAS Psalm 57:4 My soul is among lions; I must lie among those who breathe forth fire, Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, And their tongue a sharp sword.
BUT ALSO GOD’S OWN WORD IS ALSO A SWORD…
NAS Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
THAT’S THE SAME GREEK WORD AS USED IN EPHESIANS 6:17…
NOW, IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT PAUL TELLS US EXACTLY WHAT the sord of the Spirit is…
NAS Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
IN GREEK THERE ARE TWO WORDS FOR THE WORD “WORD.” Both of the Greek words mean word, but there is an important distinction. One is λόγος (la-gahs). You’re probably familiar with this Greek word. Jesus is called the Word, the λόγος (la-gahs) of God. The Bible, the body of Scripture, is referred to as the Word, the λόγος (la-gahs) of God. The other Greek word for word, you’re probably not as familiar. It is the word ῥῆμα (hray-ma). This is the word Paul uses in Ephesians 6:17. The sword of the Spirit is not the λόγος (la-gahs) of God but ῥῆμα (hray-ma). This Greek word for word does not refer to either Jesus or the entire body of Scripture. It refers rather to a specific utterance, that is to say, a single verse or specific passage. Let me give you an example of this word…
PERHAPS THE BEST EXAMPLE OF THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT BEING the use of God’s specific Word is the use of God’s Word like a sword by the Lord Jesus Himself… Listen to this excerpt from Matthew’s account of the temptation of Jesus by Satan…
NAS Matthew 4:8-10 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Begone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.'”
WHEN JESUS WAS TEMPTED BY SATAN IN THE WILDERNESS HE DEFENDED Himself by wielding the short sword of the Spirit, the specific Word of God…
NAS Ephesians 6:18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,
EVEN THOUGH SOME VIEW PRAYER AS ANOTHER PIECE OF THE ARMOR, I believe it is more accurate to see prayer as a n added dimension that accompanies each previous piece. Grammatically, praying is a participle that modifies everything that went before it: standing is accompanied by praying; all the taking up and putting on is accompanied by prayer. “In effect the apostle would say to put on each piece with prayer.” – Foulkes
I’M GOING TO WRITE ABOUT PRAYER NEXT WEEK in our last message from Ephesians, “Paul’s Final Words.”
AFTER IMMERSING MYSELF IN THIS PASSAGE ALL WEEK I CAME TO SEE Paul’s purpose as being not so much to differentiate between the pieces of that armor, and not even so much to tell us we are in a spiritual battle, but rather to remind us of the amazing, supernatural resources we have in Christ. We are greatly blessed…
I’D LIKE TO CLOSE WITH THE WORDS OF THE OLD COMMENTATOR from centuries past, Matthew Henry: “Christians must see that they be stout-hearted. This is prescribed here: Be strong in the Lord, etc. Those who have so many battles to fight, and who, in their way to heaven, must dispute at every pass, with dint of sword, have need of a great deal of courage. Be strong therefore, strong for service, strong for suffering, strong for fighting. Let a soldier be ever so well armed without, if he have not within a good heart, his armour will stand him in little stead. Note, spiritual strength and courage are very necessary for our spiritual warfare. Be strong in the Lord, either in His cause and for His sake or rather in His strength. We have no sufficient strength of our own. Our natural courage is as perfect cowardice, and our natural strength as perfect weakness; but all our sufficiency is of God. In His strength we must go forth and go on. By the actings of faith, we must fetch in grace and help from heaven to enable us to do that which of ourselves we cannot do, in our Christian work and warfare. We should stir up ourselves to resist temptations in a reliance upon God’s all-sufficiency and the omnipotence of his might.”
BY THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT, CLOTHED IN THE FULL ARMOR OF GOD, my prayer is that we all be strong in the Lord!
– Professor Thomas A. Rohm
