Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 6:10-17.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:11).
In Ephesians 6:11-17 the apostle Paul offers one his most
expressive, intriguing, and enduring metaphors for the equipment needed by
believers for living the Christian life. It requires putting on the whole
armour [panoplia] of God.
This is a martial or military image
of the Christian life. The Christian life is like a military contest. It
involves spiritual warfare. Later theologians will contrast the church on earth
as “the church militant,” as over against the church in heaven as “the church
at rest.”
There are other places where Paul
uses this type of military imagery. He sometimes refers to his ministry
colleagues as his “fellowsoldiers.” In Philippians 2:5 he refers to
Epaphrodites as “my brother, and companion in labor, and fellowsoldier.” In
Philemon 1:2 he refers to Archippus as “our fellowsoldier.” He speaks of
Christian service as like that of serving as a soldier in battle. In 1 Timothy
6:12 Paul exhorts Timothy: “Fight the good fight of the faith….” In 2 Timothy
2:3 Paul further exhorted Timothy to “endure hardness, as a
good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
In modern times, some Christians became
uncomfortable with the martial imagery. Back in the 1980s some mainline
Protestant churches even removed the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” for fear
that its words might be misunderstood. BTW, it is still in our Trinity Hymnal
(# 490) under the topic line, “The Christian Warfare.”
Paul, in using this martial imagery, was
certainly not advocating violence. It is a metaphor. This is what the spiritual
struggle of the Christian life is like. Paul exhorts, “Put on the whole armour
of God…” (v. 11) and “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God…” (v. 13).
The
apostle was drawing an analogy from a reality that was familiar to his first
readers. All the Ephesians would likely have seen a Roman soldier (the most
lethal and feared and capable warrior of the first century) fully decked out
with his military kit, allowing him not only to defend himself when attacked
but also to go on the offensive.
The
Christian is to arm himself spiritually with the belt of truth, the breastplate
of righteousness, having feet shod with the gospel of peace, taking the shield
of faith, and taking the helmet of salvation (Ephesians 6:14-17a). Finally, he
is to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (v. 17b).
May
we thus arm ourselves so that we might stand “in the evil day” (v. 13).
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