Fellow-Redeemed in Christ,
Last week I saw a picture on FB of a young Army Lieutenant dressed in full battle garb. She is quite petite and I was amazed that she could stand up under all the equipment. I am glad she had it on there in Afghanistan.
Sam was wearing all that equipment to go out against the enemy. God will keep her safe according to his will, of course, but the helmet, vest, boots and weapons are the means God uses to do that.
God provides the dress and weapons we need as Christian warriors to fight our spiritual enemies. Likely while chained to a Roman soldier, the apostle Paul describes The Fully Equipped Christian Warrior. The armor of God is necessary because of the enemy. The armor of God is strong and powerful.
Armor of God is the armor God provides. What we put on against our spiritual enemies does not come from inside. Everything we have to take our stand against and remain standing comes from outside of us. It is a gift of God’s grace. Before looking at the individual pieces of our armor, we want to know our enemy.
Our enemies are not flesh and blood. They are not of this world. They are evil spirits who dwell in the spiritual realm. They are deceitful, and cunning. They are subordinate to Satan in a well-organized kingdom. We are no match for them on our own.
The evil spirits have one goal, to turn us away from God. They want us through doubt, or fear, or rationalization of our sins to follow the path of rebellion against the Lord our God. Human argument will not defeat them. Our own cleverness is trying to deal with them means certain defeat. No, with a healthy respect and recognition of our spiritual enemies, we will not try to fight them with our own reason and strength. Instead, we will “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.”
We will take up the equipment God offers us, and put it on. The young soldier I mentioned earlier is in supply. When other soldiers need a piece of armor, or a weapon, they come to her. Our gracious God has all the equipment we need as Christian warriors. We will be fully equipped when we have all he provides for our spiritual warfare. Therefore, we go to him.
As the Spirit inspired Paul to write this letter to the Ephesians, his eyes likely turned to the Roman soldier next to him. This sight moved his writing about the panoply of God in which we are able to stand “against the devil’s schemes.”
Unlike our weakness and lack of power against the evil spirits, the armor of God is strong and powerful. Paul lists the pieces of Roman armor and weapons as metaphor for our spiritual armor and weapons. He mentions them in the order the warrior puts them on for battle.
There will be daily battles we must fight. Paul calls them “the day of evil.” Job had his struggle when God took everything from him. Joseph had his when Potiphar’s wife tempted him to commit adultery, as did David when he saw Bathsheba. Peter had his day of evil in the high priest’s courtyard. You know what your day of evil is, how Satan attacks you at your weakest point. As do I.
“Stand now,” against those attacks fully equipped. First, we put on the belt, or girdle of truth. The only thing that exposes the devil’s lies is the truth that is God’s Word. Satan lies so we will relax doctrine and moral standards. The truth of God’s Word counters those lies as it did from Jesus’ mouth when he overcame Satan’s lies in the desert.
Then comes the breastplate of righteousness. We call this a bulletproof vest. This is not my own righteousness in works for that leads only to despair. It is the righteousness of Christ under the law and offered on the cross that forgives sins. Christ’s righteousness protects us when our consciences or Satan bring charges against us and insinuates we will be damned. Christ’s righteousness protects our hearts.
After that, we put on our feet the preparedness of the gospel of peace. We have firm footing to stand up against the evil spirits. As good shoes enable us to stand for long hours at work, so the gospel of our peace with God through Christ enables us to stand firm against temptation.
We pick up the long shield of faith that covers the entire body. Faith is the sum of all we believe. It is the doctrine of Scripture. Whenever Satan fires a flaming arrow of lies or deceit to wound our saving faith, we hold up the truths we believe, preach, and teach to extinguish them.
We put on the helmet of our salvation, and take into our hands the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. My salvation protects me as the helmet protects the warrior. The Word of God is a specific word used in a specific circumstance not the Word of God in general. We can attack a specific lie, temptation, or sin with a specific Word.
To be safe and strong we must be people fully equipped as Christian warriors; people of the Word of God. You and I need to live daily in the Word. Bethlehem congregation needs to be rooted in the Word. Our church body needs to be grounded in the Word.
That God has given us all this armor and all these weapons is another evidence of his amazing grace. Amen. <SDG>