Home -- English -- Ephesians -- 046 (What does the whole armor of God look like?)
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Part 3 - An Introduction into the ethics of the apostle (Ephesians 4:1 – 6:20)
What does the whole armor of God look like? (Ephesians 6:14-18)
Ephesians 6:14-18
6:14 “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (Eph. 6:14-18).
During his long imprisonment, Paul was guarded by soldiers, whose duty it was to control the entering and leaving guests, as well as to give attention to the words they exchanged with the prisoner. In this manner the apostle gained insight regarding the typical armament of his guards. This observation ultimately enticed him to give a new meaning to the names of their weapons, inserting them into his gospel, without those keeping watch over him having to fear that he was planning a rebellion. In so doing Paul came up with seven spiritual weapons, which he then described as the whole armor of a servant of Christ. Four or five of these weapons served the defence and protection of the spiritual warrior and his colleagues, while the other two or three served the attack and spread of the kingdom of God.
It is interesting that the “waist girded with truth” is mentioned first, since the girdle was fastened to the hips, to hold the uniform of the soldier and his weapons together. A lie was the original sin of Satan. It is one of his most refined and clever weapons. Turned around, however, real truth is represented as the comprehensive power of God. In the truth there is no deceit, no cunning and no distortion to be found. Everything is clear, straight and reliable. This truth not only appears audible or visible, but also comes from within, from the heart of the one giving witness. Those proclaiming the truth are not governed by lies or tricks, and in their eyes there is no glimmer of uncertainty. These witnesses are trustworthy.
Moreover, the word “truth” in Semitic language is also “reality”. That could mean that a witness for Christ can also look through the reality of the world and mankind. If he speaks of the sinfulness of mankind, then this is true. When he speaks about the resurrection and ascension of Christ, he speaks of events that are real, and if he dares to define God, then the One who is thrice holy is a trinity, something which needs little discussion! A servant of Christ has the correct prospect and a trustworthy description of reality.
If the word “truth” is understood as “fundamentally right”, that would mean that the holy love of God is the foundational right of existence. Everything that does not fit into this holy love of God is not right, but wrong, sinful and guilty. The teaching of justification by faith is the basis of God´s plan of salvation. The fulfilment of the law of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit has priority, as Paul wrote: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2).
When the truth is described as an attribute of God, so is Christ the truth in person (John 14:6), His Spirit a “Spirit of truth” (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13), and God the Father the original source of truth (John 17:17, 19). Whoever is of the truth hears His voice (John 18:37) and becomes truthful.
The second spiritual weapon Paul mentions is the “breastplate of righteousness”, or the protective breastplate that protect the internal organs of a fighter. This armament also witnesses that the holy God is also just when He justifies corrupt sinners through the vicarious death of His beloved Son (Rom. 1:17; 3:23-24; 5:1; 2 Cor. 5:21). He remains righteous when He hardens the chosen, but disobedient, Israel, in order to save men, women and children from the unclean nations, who let themselves be saved via His grace-righteousness. Whoever seeks refuge in this incontestable righteousness of God recognizes it as a righteousness of faith, and one that sanctifies those who put their trust in it. All attacks and weapons of this primeval enemy are futile, dull and of no use when directed against this free righteousness of God.
The third spiritual weapon the long-imprisoned apostle to the nations mentioned is called “feet shod and quickly prepared to spread the gospel of peace”. This pragmatic formulation means world-missions, making known the salvation that Christ completed on the cross. It signifies an overcoming of all other religions and world views. This formulation also comprises an alert preparedness for attack, a mind that is willing and prepared to venture an advance, unwilling to tolerate any fear in the face of opposing forces. The soldier guarding the apostle, upon hearing such words might well have sensed a preparatory call to revolt. Therefore, Paul craftily added the words: “with the preparation of the gospel of peace!” At the time of Paul, the word “gospel” signified a positive, special announcement from the governing seat of Caesar. The “good news of peace” represented a balsam-like word for every soldier, who, after this catchword, would no longer have to reckon with long marches in all kinds of weather, with no hand-to-hand fighting, and, above all, with no possibility of death. Through the “word of peace”, the preparedness to attack had been defused.
We need to allow ourselves to hear a special word from the imprisoned apostle, and that is, a robust Christian life is always connected with our remaining alert, so that we are ever prepared to take the gospel of peace to unknowing non-believers. Our own salvation is a merciful gift of God, yet one that should “put legs on us”, so that we might give those lost and without hope the courage to seek eternal life. Salvation in Jesus Christ has been prepared for everyone. Jesus does not need to die again for the Turks, guest-workers and foreign students in our nation. His death also justified them, yet they either know not their luck or strictly reject the atoning death of Jesus Christ. Most of them would answer, however: “Nobody ever spoke to me about Christ here in Europe!” Do we still want this word of disgrace to rest upon us?
In the description of the armor of God, Paul went further and spoke fourthly of the great “shield of faith”, one that is able to catch and extinguish every fiery arrow of the enemy. Whoever serves Jesus as a witness, deacon or singer of hymns, must reckon with the fact that he will be confronted with evil-suspicion and slander, while being attacked with distortions and lies. In the process friendly co-workers are transformed into distrustful sceptics. In addition to such personal animosities, there are also objective attacks upon Jesus, upon our faith and upon our church or Bible study group. We do not always have a logical or satisfactory answer prepared in advance. In faith and with lightning quick prayers, however, we can always pass the problem onto our risen Savior. We will see that He often inspires even simple people with Spirit-led, appropriate answers. Faith in Christ, the Lamb of God, not only extinguishes all the deceitful animosities against us, but also all the antichristian attacks of Satan against the truth of the gospel. “And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith” (1 John 5:4). The believer in Christ, the Son of God, experiences the Holy Spirit as eternal life (John 3:15-16). A German verse of hymn declares:
If one can do no more than believe, Then he can do all things, All the forces of earth are to him, As would they be a trifling thing!
We must not only have faith for us and for our own salvation in Christ, but we can also have faith with and for other brothers and sisters. The proclamation of the three articles of faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and their explanation in the church catechism are so massive and compact that they can, like a shield, catch and extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one. We need to continually repeat these texts by memory, so that they can remain operative in our sub-conscious and penetrate the stoic inspiration of the computer. Whoever looks for further explanations of the believers´s protective shield of faith will come across the promise of God to Abraham: “I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Gen. 15:1). The one understanding, believing and appropriating this promise will become peaceful and calm, even amidst the fiercest battle.
Paul continued on in describing the armor of male and female servants of God, speaking fifthly of the “helmet of salvation”. Today even a bicycle rider needs to put on a protective helmet, so that he will not injure his head in a fall. Those working at construction sites wear a helmet to protect against falling construction debris. A sun helmet in the tropics protects against ultraviolet solar radiation, and in wartime the steel helmet has saved many a soldier his life. In testing for enemy fire, he may have lifted his helmet up on a stick, only to find it, shortly thereafter, riddled with bullet holes from wild shots of the enemy.
Some helmets are specially formed for parades, so that their shine can radiate in a march before presidential tribunes. Our helmet of salvation praises the free salvation of the sinner before God´s judgment. It confesses the change taken place in a lost life through the glorious grace of its Redeemer. The salvation of Jesus Christ always has two sides: first there comes the merciful and complete salvation from sin, Satan, death and the wrath of God. Then there comes justification by faith, peace with God, the second-birth with the fruits of the Holy Spirit and the certain hope of eternal life. Our spiritual existence in Christ and our calling as children of our Father in heaven are wonderful splendours, arising from the recognition that salvation is of faith. Are you visibly wearing the helmet of salvation and have you allowed its miniature reflection to truly shine in glory? Or are you wearing your splendid helmet as if it were covered and veiled with a cloth – so that no one can see what God has done in you?
Paul has still more to offer the servant of God as way of armor! As the sixth weapon, he presses into your hand the “sword of the Spirit”. This is no long executioner´s sword, which would have no value in close combat, but a short sword, easy to handle in battle. Paul is not thinking of a religious war, such as was once perpetrated by the Crusaders, against the will of Christ. Rather, he speaks of a sword of the Spirit, the word of God that can penetrate the spirit of the dullest sinner. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews precisely described the working of this sword: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
However, before you decide to judge or revive another person with God´s word, you need first to stick this sword into your own soul, so that all arrogance or depression in you can be killed and all pride destroyed. In the end nothing can remain of you except the mercy of God. Once you have practiced this procedure on yourself, you will then, in love, be able to make your neighbours and friends aware of the penetrating power of the word of God. You will be able to personally testify what this word accomplished in you.
On an open, public parking lot in Switzerland, we once saw an elderly man, with shining face, pressing a tract into the hands of every new parker. He was a retired missionary, who had come back to his homeland and was, in the midst of falling snow, giving out the word of life. He didn´t notice that, amidst the ice and snow, his toes were frozen. He wanted to thrust the sword of the Spirit into the heart of every one who drove in and drove away.
The sword of the Spirit not only cleanses the conscience, but also constructs the “new man” in those justified through the blood of Christ. This instrument of the grace of God also watches over the healthy teaching of the gospel. It cuts away what has crept in according to human wisdom.
Thus Paul fought with the sword of the Spirit against every form of righteousness by the law, in which some people think they are upright enough to establish their own righteousness of “good-works”. The sword of salvation reveals, however, that only the blood of Christ, flowing from His vicarious death, is able to make us righteous before the holy God.
The sword of righteousness has also pierced through the deification of the highly-honoured Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. She was a normal person, born to an earthly father and an earthly mother, who went on to compose a wonderful hymn:
And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state Of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations Will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done Great things for me, And holy is His name” (Luke 1:46-49).
Even the Virgin Mary called the exalted Lord of the Old Covenant her Savior and Redeemer, who had chosen her to become the mother of Jesus Christ. Her Son was begotten in her through the Holy Spirit. He is “true God and true man”, who was born without sin and lived without sin, in whom the Holy Spirit had overcome every questionable inheritable trait of His forefathers. Jesus was the only person who was in a position to die, as a sinless substitute, in the place of all sinners. Mary is neither a co-redeemer nor the mother of God. She, too, on numerous occasions, had to suffer the sword of the Spirit piercing her heart:
“While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. Then one said to Him, `Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.` But He answered and said to the one who told Him, `Who is My mother and who are My brothers?` And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said. `Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother:”
His family probably wanted to hold back their Jesus from His ministry and save themselves and their relatives, since the High Jewish Council (Sanhedrin) in Jerusalem was intending to condemn and kill Him (Math. 12:14; John 5:16-18). However, Jesus followed on His way to the cross to the end. Later His mother was to stand under the cursed wood of the cross and accept the care and provision of John the disciple, which the crucified One had determined for her (John 19:26-27). For this reason some churches claim that Mary went with the Patriarch John to Ephesus and later died there. This, however, amounts to wild fancy, since the last Biblical information over Mary is contained in the Acts of the Apostles: “These (the disciples of Jesus) all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers” (Acts 1:14). Presumably Mary was present on the Day of Pentecost at the pouring out and reception of the Holy Spirit. However, Luke mentioned her name in his Scripture no longer, since she neither was nor is a mediator of salvation.
The sword of the Spirit has also proven itself in other spiritual battles. To that belongs the overcoming of the lies of Islam, maintaining that although God´s word had been verbally inspired in both the Old and New Covenants, in its present form it has become a falsification. Jesus ingeniously debunked this demonic accusation and testified:
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Math. 5:17-18). With this confession Jesus not only guaranteed the texts of the Torah, the Psalms and the Prophets, but also placed His Own words high above all human accusations: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Math. 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33). Furthermore, in His High Priestly Prayer for His disciples, Jesus asked His Father to: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17). By confessing that all the words of God are truth, Jesus wiped away all the empty talk about the Bible being falsified, or that other religions and world-views are also of divine inspiration. There is only one truth that was victoriously won by the sword of the Spirit, and that is the Bible, which became man in Jesus Christ: “And the Word became flesh and dwellt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” John 1:14).
Paul was pragmatic and knew the recipients of his letter. Therefore, he pressed the seventh spiritual weapon of divine armor into their hands, charging them to practice “supplication for all the saints” with all perseverance. With urgent words the apostle delineated this weapon of spiritual armament, for he knew that the untold number of problems in life can well hinder believers from a regular intercession. On the other hand, it was clear to him that intercession for all believers was urgent, since these people groups are the primary target of Satan.
Paul could therefore write that the church leaders should learn, with prayer and supplication practiced under the leading and power of the Holy Spirit, to be watchful and perseverant in praying for their church members. Whoever contemplates these five or more attributes of intercession will soon have an uncomfortable feeling in his heart. The reason is, we may well be active in intercession, yet not at all with the intensity that the apostle demands of us. Whoever has been part of an earthly war knows that no one involved in it comes to a state of tranquillity; rather, everyone is constantly and intensely thinking in the direction of the enemy, mindful and sensible, knowing he must be prepared for every possibility. We need to learn to pray as did the poet, Friedrich Oser, who wrote the following at the end of the first verse of his song “awake, awake, put on strength o arm of the Lord”:
“We are in battle day and night, O Lord, be mindful of us in mercy and remain at our side.”
Only when we truly understand that we, as the church of saved ones through Christ, constitute the primary vexation for Satan, will we finally grasp that we stand in the very middle of a battle field, and that we have no time and no right to merely think about our own prosperity. Intercession for the protection and sanctification of every member of the church, as well as for every mission work, is an urgent prayer duty for which the Holy Spirit wants to prepare us.
Moreover, in the course of this there are multiple weak points manifested in the lives of the saints, in which Satan loves to pour in gasoline, as if it would be a blazing flame: First there comes the pride, the ambition and the arrogance, pulsating in the blood of every person. Everyone thinks he or she is the central focus of existence and life. This age-old sickness must die in us as the sin of Satan. In its place the humility and meekness of Jesus desire to grow in us. This brings about a war of the spirits in our hearts, and because of that intercession for all those born-again becomes urgent. Every person must learn to become small, so that Jesus will be Lord in him and rule over all problems and questions.
The second sickness of even believing saints is their love of money. Jesus told His followers with all clarity: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Math, 6:24). But now the devil has whispered into the ear of all lovers of Jesus: You need to be insured against all possible damages, sicknesses and increasing age. Alongside this you can gladly have Jesus, and just so many are deceived, binding themselves to two powers, even though Jesus assured them: That doesn´t go! You can truly love only one lord, not two! Intercession for “all” the saints, the rich and the poor, should be what frees them up from their schizophrenia of believing they can love and serve both God and mammon. That means, spiritually understood, a life and death struggle!
The third temptation of all the saints is their own sex drive, which at the beginning was good and an honourable gift of the Creator to His creations. Yet since man wanted to be independent and tried to live without or against God and His word, even the realm of sexual endowment has fallen to the spirit of rebellion and egotism. Modern advertisement stokes and inflames this weakness in mankind, so that even children are taught they should practice and fulfil “more sex”. Many saints suffer, even when they are well, more from temptations and bondages than we realize. This again and again requires our intercession, especially for those beginning in the faith and for the youth. Our culture and education system corrupts them. Without the slightest inhibition we were asked in England, whether Goethe had fathered 103 or 104 illegitimate children! The love parades in our large cities, however, cause no population explosion, for not just a few participants have taken contraceptives beforehand. Whoever is responsible for a house-fellowship should be merciful and practice clear objectives in intercession. It was not in vain that Paul, with a five-fold intensity, summoned the believers in Christ to intercede for all the saints in and around Ephesus.
Prayer: Father in heaven, we thank You. You have, for the sake of the vicarious death of Your beloved Son, forgiven us all of our sins, deficiencies and guilt. We worship You, for You, through Him and the power of the Holy Spirit, have kept us, so that we, in this present spiritual warfare, can spiritually react, fight, believe and pray. We are nobodies, yet in the security of Jesus You have assured us of a dazzling future. Amen.
Questions:
- Which of the seven spiritual weapons do you need the most urgently?
- What is the mystery and the goal of the armor of God?