Part II of the Anatomy of a Spiritual Warrior: The Armour of God

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  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.  Ephesians 6:10-12

If we had time, it would be awesome to break down the entire book of Ephesians, but we don't, so we are going  focus on a small, but a highly significant section of this epistle.  Let it suffice for now to recognize that this letter Paul wrote was to do a few things: to emphasize the God head, our salvation by grace, how we interact with each other, and how to fight in a Spiritual manner.  It is interesting that Paul ended with this idea of putting on "the whole armour of God".  This tells me that it is the point he wanted us to remember, the take home message of sorts, because everything he wrote previous to this was to get us to this point of being able to fight evil.  So, without further delay, let's get into this week's study on the Armour of God.

The Setting:

It is believed that this letter was written around 62 AD while in his first imprisonment at Rome, approximately 4 years prior to his death in 66 AD. This letter was written later in his ministry as he started at around 47 AD, thus showing in his writing a level of understanding of the doctrines of Christ, and is full of wisdom on living a believer's life.

The Passage: 

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.  

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  

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.  


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. 

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, 

and having on the breastplate of righteousness;  

And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;  

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  

And take the helmet of salvation, 

and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:  

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;   Ephesians 6:10-18

The Lesson:

The first thing I want us to notice is this is not a physical battle, although the product that comes out of these battles are often  physical in nature.  Never the less, these physical manifestations are but symptoms of the real issues within our minds.  But Paul tells us to be "strong in the Lord, and how we are to be strong is in His Might.  We will cover the Holy Spirit characteristic of Might as its own study.  But this is significant in that this battle will need to be powered by His Might, not ours.

Second, notice that he encourages us not once, but twice to put on the "whole armour of God". Isn't that interesting?  Paul was known to repeat himself on numerous occasions where he wanted to make clear what was important.  Here, he is emphasizing this action of emplacing this armour because he understood this is of the utmost importance.  But, he is trying to convey two different things here.  In verse 11, he tells us to "put on" or to clothe ourselves with this armour, or in essence cover ourselves in His Spirit and Word, but in verse 14 he's encouraging us to  "take up, or to "carry" and "use" the armour.  There seems to be a different feel for the two statements.  It is not enough to just clothe ourselves, but we must be prepared to use it as well.

Third, here is a big hint as to what Paul was concerned about.  He points out that God's Armour is to be used for spiritual battles, not physical ones.  As we have worked through our study of the Holy Spirit, we have seen this time and time again, that what is important to God is the growth and maturity of the Inner Man.  Here, Paul admonishes us to take heed.  Our biggest battles in life will be what is going on inside us, not necessarily outside of us as he states that 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.  This is a tough concept to grasp for many of us.  We have been taught to pray for our external needs, because we believed that the sin was external.  But, Paul, James, Christ and the other New Testament authors know better.  They teach that the sin is the thought, the intention to act out against the will of God.  More of this study on sin later, but for now, let us recognize the rest of this passage will be designed to teach us to fight our thoughts, not our actions.

Fourth, The Armour begins with a very peculiar piece.  Paul chooses to discuss our loins.  Why?  The Hebrews believed that this area of the body was where the generative power of the human being came from.  In fact, the loin area physiologically is where our reproductive organs are.   Paul tells us to "gird up our loins with Truth".  It wouldn't be a stretch to understand that our thought processes either produce death or life depending on what we believe.  If we believe there is no God, then spiritual death will follow.  If we think I am a sinner, and I need Christ to cleanse me of my sins and to cover me with his Righteousness, then life will occur.  As life occurs in the physical from our reproductive area, so does Spiritual life occurs as we accept what God has for us.  What is needed then is to cover or protect our minds with God's Truth.  It is the right place to start!

Next Paul speaks of the breastplate of Righteousness.  Once we have Jesus in our heart (mind) we need to protect it.  The breastplate covers our main internal organs.  These organs are what sustains life.  Without them, life would not be possible.  As it is with God's Righteousness, we cannot be right with God, to be pleasing and acceptable to God, nor possess an ability to think feel and act in a proper way.  This can only happen because of God's righteousness, grace and love in us, not by what we do ourselves.  This is the heart of God working in us.  Thus the breastplate is to protect our Godly heart.

The next piece of equipment is to protect our feet, or our "way", which is to say the preparation of the gospel of peace within us.  This will enable us to share the same gospel with others, but it must be prepared within us first. David wrote "Thy word [is] a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."  (Psalms 119:105).  His motive to write this pictorial phrase was to express that the Word of the Lord guides his way in life.  Paul writes in Romans: 

"And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things"  Romans 10:15

In both verses above, the feet picture the way a person goes, and lives or ministers to others.  The Gospel is of peace as it gives the recipient the steady assured knowledge that God loves them and has set a place in Heaven for them, that mercy, forgiveness and salvation has been given by a gracious Father.  This is the peace we all seek, whether we know it or not.

Next, Paul speaks of the shield of Faith that "quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."   This is God's hedge of protection for us within our minds.  As we grow in Christ, our faith in Him grows stronger, and thus we become less shakable, more sure of God and ourselves.  This is not to say God calls us to a blind faith.  On the contrary, God expects us to test all thoughts or words before we put our trust in it.  This is what makes our autonomy so powerful.  As we choose to believe, follow, worship, and serve God, He then is able to bless us more and more with spiritual maturity that will enable us to truly live a free life!

The Helmet of Salvation assures us that our Hope is protected.  As with the shield of Faith, the helmet is a metaphor that depicts our salvation will be ironclad.  As this is the Armour of God, God Himself has cast each piece, thus making this armour no match for the evil one. 

And finally Paul writes of the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  There is so much in this phrase, but we will only give an introduction to it here.  First, the sword is an offensive weapon, but can also be used for defense as well.  This depicts that the Word of God will be able to thrust into the heart of the matter for us as a deterrent of false doctrine, or even just false thoughts that attack us.  In fact, one might argue that as the shield of faith defends against the fiery darts, the sword of truth would then cut down the enemy to stop the attacks. 

The Application of the Armour of God:

So, to put it together, we know that Jesus has taught us, that God is Spirit and the word of God is Truth, thus Christ tells us we need to worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:24, John 14:17).  We know that Christ is the Word of God that came to dwell here on earth in the flesh (John 1:11), that we are brought into God's family through faith in Christ (John 20:31). 

As we go through each item above, we recognize that the protection of our thoughts, the regeneration of truth, and the hope of salvation and the use of our faith are all of a spiritual nature, and those spiritual things are based on Christ within us...our inner man.  This is why it it imperative to have a relationship with God through Christ Jesus, to know the Word of God, and to elicit the Spirit of God with as much muster as we can.  The passage does not end with the Sword of the Spirit though, does it?  Paul continues his thought by writing;

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;   Ephesians 6:10-18

Isn't this interesting?  Paul spends a good amount of time articulating all these weapons to use, then suggests that the key factor in the fight is to pray, but to not just pray, but pray in the "Spirit".  Paul writes in Romans about what this means; 

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what [is] the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to [the will of] God.     Romans 8:26-27

We are then to use our spiritual weapons to pray.  We are to pray for ourselves, others, but most importantly we are to pray in the Spirit...or as Paul puts it, allow the Spirit to intercede for us.

Here is our homework this week.  Set a scheduled time...literally look at your calendar, day planner, scrap piece of paper, whatever, and write a time down that you will go to God in prayer.  Pray for yourself, your family, those whom you work with, your boss, your pastor or accountable partner.  Pray for our country and the leadership in it.  Pray for the opportunity to be a witness for Christ.  Pray for the sick, You may not know what to say, and that's ok.  Many times I just thank God for being God.  This gives us a tangible exercise to work on being a warrior for Him. 

For our scripture readings this week, let's review a few Psalms that can lead us into prayer.

Psalms 5            Psalm 54
Psalms 45          Psalm61
Psalm 46            Psalm 63
Psalm 51            Psalm 64