THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD
Ephesians 6:10-20
The Whole Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power; 11 put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, 12 for our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on the evil day and, having prevailed against everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand, therefore, and belt your waist with truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness 15 and lace up your sandals in preparation for the gospel of peace. 16 With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, so that when I speak a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.
This is a familiar text – where Paul tells us to put on the whole armor of God. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time thinking of myself as a soldier for Christ. So, I must admit that I just wanted to skip over this whole section - except that it is the lectionary reading for today AND I am doing a series on Ephesians so I guess I will have to tackle it. It just seems like this one text is not meant for me – I just don’t know if I am going to learn anything from this! Let someone else do the fighting – that’s just not my style. Talk to me about love and light and you’ve got my full attention, but armor and powers of darkness – it’s just too much negativity!
It’s really hard to pay attention when Paul starts talking about the spiritual forces of evil and principalities. I have already confessed I am a person who is drawn to the Light and so the powers of darkness are somewhere behind me. That means I hardly ever turn around to consider them and that also means I am in danger of denying their existence. It is one of my spiritual blind spots. When we hear Paul say that our battle is “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness” it’s really easy to hear that we are to stand against those in power.
As Children of the Light, it’s hard for us to consider the nature of evil, but in reality, it’s not going to go away just because we ignore it. I don’t know much about these “cosmic powers” that Paul is talking about here, but I do know that there are bad things that happen in this world that I don’t like. I know that people suffer from all manner of things, like disease, drug addiction, depression or other mental illness, birth defects, chronic pain, house fires, car accidents, unemployment, poverty, violent crime, domestic abuse, hopelessness and despair to name a few. What is the cause of this? Why do these things happen? Is there a cosmic force of darkness at work in the world? Or is it just the fallen nature of human beings to harm one another? I honestly don’t have the answers to these questions, but I know one thing – that if there is an ever-present evil force then it has already been defeated by Christ and God’s almighty power will ultimately prevail. That’s what we are all waiting for, right? – for God to transform us and make this world into a delightful paradise.
In the meantime, we may need to know how to live in this dark and broken world – and not just survive but to live the abundant life that Jesus promised (John 10:10). So, maybe we should take a look at what Paul has to say about this armor of God after all.
At the beginning, he tells us that we should put on the WHOLE armor of God, not just one or two pieces. This is important – for this armor to be effective, we need ALL the pieces. There are six pieces: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes for the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God.
The second thing to notice is that the reason we are to do this is so that we can STAND firm against evil (vs. 13). Oh…so this a DEFENSIVE measure. That makes sense, the purpose of armor is to protect a warrior’s body in battle; so, this armor of God is designed to protect the believer out in the world. If you notice, the only offensive weapon on the list is the sword – which is the Word of God. Maybe we will learn something useful today after all! As they say, the best offense is a good defense.
The first piece of armor is the belt of truth (vs. 14). In the 21st century we are not so familiar with armor, but in the first century when Paul was writing, the Romans ruled the world – so this metaphorical armor of God is based on the very real armor that Roman soldiers wore. His readers would have seen this armor on soldiers walking around their hometown. The Romans wore a belt as a place to hang their sword, like some would wear a tool belt to keep their hammer at the ready. So, the belt of truth is there to keep the sword of the Spirit close at hand. We can see that there is a relationship between the Truth and the Word of God. The Word of God hangs on the Truth, or the Word of God is supported by the Truth – either way these two concepts are closely linked.
A belt is something that goes around you. So, when we put this belt on metaphorically it means we should surround ourselves with Truth. What does it mean for us in our daily lives? I think about it like a filter. We have been given the truth – Jesus (John 14:6) – and we can filter all information we consume through this Truth. When you read or hear something you should be comparing it to what we know about Jesus. Sometimes this is really easy, like if people suggest you ought to hate someone or a certain group of some ones you can remember that Jesus told us to love our neighbor, he went around with all sorts of people and he taught them and healed them. Does it seem like the Truth of Jesus resonates with hate? No. But sometimes the Truth might be more difficult to discern, and this is why it is important to get to know Jesus – so that you can distinguish the Truth from the lies. This is how you put on the belt of Truth – read the Bible everyday and surround yourself with Truth found there.
The second piece of our armor is the breastplate of righteousness (vs. 14). This part of the standard Roman armor is called the lorica segmentata and unlike medieval armor it was not all of one piece but made in four separate pieces that contained curved strips of metal linked together (as you can see in the picture on the front of the bulletin). One section went over the left side of your torso and one covered your right side; the other two sections went over your right and left shoulders. It is interesting to note that the Roman soldier could not put this part on himself – he needed assistance from another soldier – each piece put on and tied in place by a friend. It is the same for our breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness is not something we can put on ourselves. We have been given righteousness through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have no righteousness of our own – whatever good there is in us is from God our creator and when we were baptized, we were covered with the righteousness of Christ. (Galatians 3:27)
Another thing to note is that the breastplate is the part of the armor that protects your heart and other vital organs – you could say that it protects the core of your being. What this means for us, is that when we are firm in our righteousness, when we are clothed in Christ, wearing the breastplate of his righteousness, it will protect us from despair by affirming our worth. When we truly believe that Christ came in perfection, that as God he walked among us, and that as we abide in Christ, we are one with him, then we will be confident and know that we are being transformed by his presence day by day until that day when our true self will finally be revealed. This surety comes only from knowing Christ within and praying every day to strengthen your bond with the presence of God in your heart.
The third piece Paul tells us about is footwear (vs. 15). The Roman soldier would have marched many miles and he would have worn sandals made of leather to protect his feet from the road. We all wear shoes, so we know all about how they protect your feet. Even though the NRSV translates verse 15: “As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace,” there’s not actually a Greek word in that verse that means “proclaim.” So, a better translation is the NIV: “and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” This reading accurately conveys the meaning that the gospel is our source of peace.
Shoes are where your feet connect with the road, they form a barrier between you and your path. Or you could think of it as a buffer between you and your circumstances. The sole of a good shoe is like a cushion making any ground comfortably traversable. The Romans would sometimes pound nails into the soles of their sandals to gain traction on the road, our modern shoes have deep treads that grip the ground and help us to make progress down the road in spite of adverse conditions.
The Gospel acts like a barrier between us and the world. It matters not what our circumstances, we are at peace because we have the Good News of Jesus. Jesus told us, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). Remember, we have been given the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7) and no one can take that away from us.
I actually listened to four different sermons on this section of Ephesians to get an idea of what others were talking about and one Lutheran pastor said he had investigated all the English translations and in his mind the New King James version (NKJV) contained the best translation of these verses because it reflected the correct tenses of the Greek verbs. It is very interesting to note that the first three pieces we have talked about are mentioned in the past tense in the original Greek. Verses 14 and 15 read in the NKJV: “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.”
What could this mean? The truth, righteousness and peace are not ours to take; they have been given to us by the grace of God. The truth of God, the righteousness of Christ and the peace of the Gospel are free gifts that come from knowing Jesus. Once we were baptized into the faith, we received these gifts and we only need to remember that we possess them to use them to their full potential. Remembering that you have the Truth as contained in God’s word to help you discern truth in the world, remembering that you are a beloved child of God, made righteous by Christ’s sacrifice and remembering that you need not worry because God is in control and you know how it ends – this is indeed powerful armor for our walk in this life.
The fourth piece of armor is the shield of faith (vs. 16). This is one piece we must take up and use every day. The Roman scutum was quite a large shield approximately 3 ½ feet long by 2 feet wide made of 3 sheets of laminated wood covered with canvas and leather. It usually weighed about 20 pounds and it was made to curve around the body. This was a sturdy shield that would protect the soldier from the arrows of the enemy, it was big enough for a grown man to hide behind.
Our faith can be used in this way as well – it can protect us from the arrows of life meant to do us harm. Those unexpected things that happen – when you lose your job or get diagnosed with a chronic illness, when everything seems to be going wrong – this can really feel like someone is trying to sabotage your life and a lot of times we wonder why God isn’t protecting us. We just need to remember all of these things we have been given to protect ourselves. I guess learning about this armor is proving useful after all!
The fifth piece of armor is the helmet of salvation (vs. 17). The metal helmet that Roman soldiers wore could be made of bronze or iron and usually featured quite large cheek pads that protected their face as well. Today we are familiar with the yellow hard hats that are used in construction zones by workers to protect that most valuable asset – your brain. Your brain is the seat of your thinking and I like to think of it as the throne of your ego. Whereas your heart is the seat of emotions and your feelings – the center of your body – the brain is the center of your mind and, for me anyway, it feels like that is where my identity resides.
Now sometimes we get a little carried away with our egos and sometimes we might think that we don’t need a helmet of salvation. After all, life on earth is pretty good, pretty easy to manage and we are doing just fine on our own thank you very much. But it is when we remember to put on that helmet of salvation – a gift from God by way of Christ – that we actually end up protecting that part of us that feels like the most essential. I think we are afraid to lose our identity in Christ, that is why we resist accepting the salvation that comes only from God and insist on managing our own lives, thinking that we can save ourselves. Ironically, it is by surrendering our will and accepting the headship of Christ that we become complete – and more fully ourselves in Christ than we are alone.
The final piece of our armor is the sword of the Spirit (vs. 17), which is the Word of God. Remember how I said the sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon. Well, you can use it defensively too. It is useful to protect yourself from corrupting influences or to poke holes in arguments or theories that aren’t biblical. As the writer of Hebrews tells us: “Indeed, the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (4:12). Wow! The Word is LIVING AND ACTIVE, a powerful weapon to possess as we face the darkness of this world.
Isaiah tells us that the Word will accomplish God’s plan in the world (vs. 55:11) – how is this possible? I don’t think we give the Word of God enough credit. We think it is just words on a page, over and done, written thousands of years ago. But these are HOLY words, even filtered through the minds and pens of human beings, translated, copied and edited – there is still enough power in the Word to accomplish God’s will. And you know it’s true because these words have affected you in profound ways – they have changed your life. How does this happen?
We could go on much longer and extol the virtues of the Word of God, but we will be here again next Sunday to once again learn lessons from these ancient texts and the Sunday after until the end of time as we know it, because there are life altering lessons contained within this book and we will never reach the end of it’s usefulness.
I think we have learned a lot today about this metaphorical armor that God has given us as believers in Christ and I admit that it does seem very useful. I am happy that I now know more about this. Paul tells us that we have been given this armor so that we can “stand firm” against the enemy (vs. 13). As we noted earlier, this armor is mainly defensive – it is meant to protect us from evil. Thank God that we have been given these wonderful pieces of armor and don’t forget to put them to on as you go out into the world so that you may have the full protection of the power of God.
Prayer
Almighty God, we thank you today for lending us your power. Your love is most evident in these gifts you have given us. We thank you for your care and protection. We thank you so much for your Word, living and active still today, bringing light and life to so many. May we find these words of Truth useful for detecting lies meant to mislead and manipulate. Help us to remember our righteousness, which is Christ, to protect us from despair. We are also grateful for the peace that pervades our lives as we live the Gospel and trust in you. Let us not forget to take up our shield of faith to stop the arrows that assault our lives daily. Show us also how accepting the leadership of Christ will be our salvation and lead to the full realization of our lives. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the whole armor of God, savior of the world. AMEN
thanks for the lesson its very helpful in understanding how we are to walk in our every day lives
Good breakdown. Armor means armor.