Today I want to talk about the armor of God in Ephesians 6.  Everything up to this point in Ephesians has been about unity and what that is, what that looks like and to some extent how do we do this, but beginning in the passage we are going to discuss today Paul gets down to the brass tax so to speak on how to administrate the unity of the body. Here is the passage:

Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. 12 For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. 13 This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. 14 Stand, therefore, with truth  like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, 15 and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. 16 In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word. 18 Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness  the mystery of the gospel. 20 For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough in Him to speak as I should.(HCSB)

We are to be empowered by the Lord and by His awesome power, the two words here for “vast strength” are two different words that could both be translated “power”.  Paul is trying to remind us of the power he described to us earlier in the letter when he referred to the resurrection power.  In fact, the two Greek words used here are the exact same words.  This is   power power, awesome power, resurrection power, from God Himself.  This is the only power in the universe that is capable of changing and transforming lives.  Only the resurrection power can resurrect in us what is dead in sin, yet created, created in His image, to be alive in Him. 

Not only does God equip us with His power for the task, but He also gives us the tools we need to wield that power.  To be sure this task will take the full armor of God, not just a part of it.  We are in a battle against the realm of darkness itself, not mere flesh and blood men and women, but the original liar himself and his demons.  They are crafty and we must be alert and on guard every moment so that in the end we will be left standing.

So, what is this armor?  Obviously, Paul is using the Roman armor as a template, but is that all?  If we look closely at this armor we will find its pieces referred to in the Old Testament as well.  Remember, this gospel is about the mystery that makes us one with God and each other.  The Old and New Testament are not two disconnected pieces, but two parts of a whole.  One will always refer and define the other.  The Old Testament, will define the New Testament for us and the New Testament explains much about the Old Testament that was hidden, yet right there.  God is the God and author of both.  Both of them together tell His story.  So let’s look at what the Old Testament has to say about this awesome armor. 

The first part of the armor is the belt of truth.  We see that the Messiah is clothed in the belt of righteousness in Isaiah 11 where He is judging for the poor and needy and slaying the wicked.  He will do that in righteousness, but notice the section before that when the Spirit rests on Him — the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, power, knowledge and the fear of the Lord — in fact the fear of the Lord would be His delight.  In following the Messiah we can only do what is right and properly discern when we are listen to the Spirit of the Lord and the fear of the Lord is our delight.  This belt holds the inner garments in place.  For us only the truth can hold our inner being in place.  He, the Messiah, is the truth.  As we follow Him and strive to live righteous lives He and His truth holds us in place to continue the fight.  We cannot fight the good fight in ignorance or falsehood.

Next, we put on the breastplate of righteousness.  You see after knowing and believing the truth and in the Truth we must put on the breastplate of righteousness to protect our hearts from deception that leads us in the paths of death, not life.  We are to strive in the fruit of the Spirit, part of which is self-control, to do the right that God calls us to do.  In addition, the Messiah not only wore a belt of righteousness that held His inner part in place (remember He is the truth – John 14:6).  He was always alert and clear minded, never distracted by His own thoughts or thoughts from the enemy.  Can you imagine your prayer life like this and how awesome that would be?

The Messiah also wore a breastplate of righteousness.  He covered His heart with doing what pleases God.  Never did He waver.  In Isaiah 59 15a-18a it says, “The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.  He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.  He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.  According to what they have done, so will he repay wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes.”(NIV)  In this passage we see that His own righteousness sustained Him and was His breastplate as He did  the work of salvation and He will be wearing that same breastplate when He repays wrath to His enemies. 

In Psalm 132:9 we read the statement about Israel, “May your priests be clothed in righteousness..”(NIV)  You see He is the High Priest with His breastplate in place, remember the High Priest of Israel wore a breastplate with all the jewels of the tribes of Israel on it, and we are called a royal priesthood in I Peter 2:9.  Our breastplate reflects His – our righteousness reflects His righteousness.  We will never win the battles in life without it.  We cannot do our own thing and expect Him to bless it.  We cannot follow the deceptions of our heart and expect to win the battle against the enemy, at that point we are following darkness and not the light and we will fall.

Thirdly, we put on the sandals of “readiness that comes from the gospel of peace”(NIV).  Remember the gospel of peace is the good news of oneness with God, the mystery.  We get to proclaim that to others, which is what Jesus called us to in the Great Commission.  We are to take His message to the ends of the earth.  In Isaiah 52:7(NIV) it says, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!””  That is the awesome blessing He allows us to be a part of and at the same time being a part of that is also a protection for us in the fight.  The more we proclaim it and live it the more we come to understand what He did for us and grow closer and closer to Him and farther and farther from the arrows of the enemy.

Then we see the shield of faith with which we can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the enemy that do come our way.  We must hold it up, hold it up high.  It does us no good by our side.  We can be holding the shield and still get hit if we keep it down.  We must use His strength, the strength that we spoke of earlier.  It is only with His strength that we can hold up the shield and keep it up. 

It reminds me of when Aaron and Hur held up Moses arms while Joshua and the Israelites were fighting the Amalekites.  As long as Moses’ arms were up the Israelites were winning and when they were down they were being defeated.  That is why Hur, from the tribe of Judah, and Aaron, the High Priest, held them up for him.  He did not have the strength on his own and neither do we. 

Yeshua, the lion of Judah and our High Priest, is the one who holds our arms up, He is our faith, our strength and our shield.  It is when we humble ourselves that in due time He lifts us up.  Let Him lift you up with His strength and power.  We cannot be defeated if we use His strength to hold up that shield of faith.  Hold it up, hold it up high.

After all of this is in place we can put on the helmet of salvation.  This helmet not only protects the head, but keeps the head attached to the body.  He is the head, we are the body.  Just as in our discussion of the Bridegroom and the Bride we must stay with Him and do what is best for Him and He does what is best for us.  As we have a helmet so does He.  Back to Isaiah 59 we not only see the Messiah in a breastplate of righteousness as He works salvation, but also the helmet of salvation itself.  He wants to stay connected to us and so we should want to stay connected to Him.  So make sure that helmet is on.  How can we fight the battle if we are cut off from the head.  Protect your connection to Him.  That is why the helmet and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, are spoken of together.

The word of God is one of the main things that protects that connection.  Just as the body receives its instructions from the head so the body of Christ receives our instructions from His word.  It is our offensive weapon as it was His when He met Satan in the wilderness.  We must take this weapon and defend what He has given us, what He has entrusted to us. 

The enemy wants to make us believe we are not secure, but if we know our weapon and we are attached to the head, if we hold up the shield of faith and wear the breastplate of righteousness, the sandals of readiness, and the belt of truth, then this lie cannot enter into our hearts and deceive us.  We are His and He is ours.  Just as the master promised the slave to never leave him or forsake him, to abandon him, to pay his own debt on his own, our Master has promised to never leave or forsake us either.

With all of this equipment on we are to pray in the Spirit on all occasions.  Remember the passage we mentioned in speaking about Yeshua wearing the belt of righteousness.  He had the Spirit of God on Him and so must we.  We must pray in the Spirit for the saints to be able to fight the good fight along side of us.  We are in this together.  We are not alone.  He took those who were far and those who were near and made us one nation in Jesus the Messiah.  We must stay alert to this fact and the fact that the enemy will also stay alert for any weakness in our armor.  We must not let Him find one.

Finally, Paul asked for prayer for himself.  Not to be released from his chains, but for boldness to proclaim the mystery for which he is in chains.  Would you, would I, be willing to be in chains to proclaim the mystery, nonetheless, desiring to proclaim that mystery while in those chains.  No matter our circumstances we must put on His armor in His resurrection power and pray in the Spirit.  If we do we will be more than conquerors. 

Stay strong my fellow warrior,

Vicky