Ephesians 6:
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
That is not the end of the chapter but it is the end of the armor analogy that I wanted to talk about in this blog post. For weeks, my pastor has been reminding us that we, as Christians, are fighting a spiritual battle against "the wiles of the devil." We need to make sure that we are keeping our (spiritual) armor on tightly and securely so we do not fall when the enemy (the devil) attacks.
The armor that the apostle Paul was describing in his letter to the church at Ephesus, was that of the Roman soldier.
The belt kept other pieces of armor, like the sword, in their place and protected some of the most susceptible places on the Roman soldier from attack.
The breastplate protected their chests and many vital organs, such as the heart, from swords, spears, and arrows.
Their footwear needed to be strong, functional, and enable them to stand firm and keep their footing when in battle.
The shield has the obvious purpose of protecting the soldier from harm from blows by the enemy. However, they could also use it as a weapon as well as for defensive purposes. The soldiers would douse their shields in water to prevent the enemy's arrows (that had been set on fire for maximum damage) from harming them.
The helmet protected their head, neck, and face from harm.
The sword also was used offensively and defensively. It could either deflect the enemy's sword or be used to wound or kill them.
I found the spiritual applications of these pieces of armor to be really fascinating. Just as the armor is important to the Roman soldier in battle, they are important to Christian's in battle. We are not fighting flesh and blood (physical soldiers in a physical battle), but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness. The principles we can take from this passage are:
Protect yourself with the truth - the Bible or just simply being truthful.
Protect your heart with righteousness - keep your heart pure.
Protect your stand with preparation - have a strong foundation in your beliefs, be ready to take God's Word (the gospel of peace) to others.
Protect your faith - believing God's Word and not doubting your belief in Him.
Protect your mind - preserving your hope in Jesus Christ and not falling into discouragement
Protect yourself from Satan's attacks with the sword, which, as the verse 17 says, is the Word of God- the Bible. Reading, memorizing, and meditating on the Scriptures are all ways to "wield the sword" God has given us.
Those that do not believe God's Word or that God exists probably won't find this as interesting as I do, but I felt compelled and inspired to share these musings and encouragements from the heart of my pastor.
If you're interested in listening to the messages, there is a link to our church website below. Just go to the live-streaming section and you can watch/listen to them there. They are the "Sunday Morning Worship" sermons.
http://hbclogansport.com/Live-Streaming.htm
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ReplyDeleteI like how you make the connection between the armor of God in this passage with the characteristics of Roman armor. The Roman historian Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus talked about the parts of the Roman armor in his famous military manual "De Re Militari". Although he lived nearly 400 years after the events of the New Testament, his account still holds some insight as to how heavy the Roman armor was, as is the Christian life in general.
ReplyDelete"The infantry (armatura) was heavy, because they had helmets (cassis), coats of mail (catafracta), greaves (ocrea), shields (scutum), larger swords (gladius maior), which they call broadswords (spatha), and some smaller, which they name half-broadswords (semispathium), five weighted darts (plumbata) placed in the shields, which they hurl at the beginning of the assault, then double throwables, a larger one with an iron point of nine ounces and a stock of five and one-half feet, which was called a pilum, but now is called a spiculum, in the use of which the soldiers were especially practised, and with skill and courage could penetrate the shields of the infantry and the mail of the cavalry."