Spiritual Warfare and The Armor of God

Coffee, Recovery & Theology

The Armor of God – Spiritual Warfare
Ephesians 6:10-18

Paul was the author of Ephesians, he was a Jew, but he was also a Roman citizen. He would be familiar with the armor of the Roman soldiers, so he uses Roman armor as his reference to the Armor of God.
The Greek term for a fully outfitted soldier is Panoplia this is where we get the English term Panoply.
V. 11, 13 & 14 we have reoccurring terms of stand and withstand, these relate to the Shoes/Sandals of Peace, with our feet and footwear we are to stand with Jesus with our solid rock, our foundation.
There is significance to the order Paul uses in the armor. This would be the same order that soldiers actually put their armor on to be fully outfitted.
V. 14, in this verse we get to the first piece of armor, the “Belt of Truth” – the belt typically held the tunic in place and helped to hold the breastplate in place
-It is said that this is not talking about the truth of Gospel, but it goes to the idea, that is the undergirding of truth, in the sense of “integrity”, or “truth” in the inward being – Psalms 51:6 – Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
-The belt or girdle of truth would help with freedom of movement. This however gives us freedom with ourselves, our neighbors and with God.
“Breastplate of Righteousness” – This piece of the Armor covered from the neck to the top of the thigh
Isaiah 59:17
Putting on the Breastplate can be understood as choosing not to harbor and nurture known sin, striving to be more like Christ Jesus.
V. 15 – “Shoes of the Gospel of Peace” – Or sandals, which where common footwear in the 1st century. Soldiers’ footwear was described to be hobnailed sandals. To get a better idea of this I would think of these as sandals with cleats, not unlike the idea of what modern day athletes wear, so they can have good traction and not slip.
Our feet are in essence our foundation, and our shoes or cleats should be the firm foundation of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, our solid rock.
V. 16 – “Shield of Faith” – The shield of a Roman soldier was a large door shaped shield which is covered with leather or other metals. When covered with leather the leather would be soaked with water as a counter measure to extinguish flaming arrows – Being Wholly Reliant on God! 1 Thessalonians 5:8-9
The Shield of Faith offers protection to us, from people’s arrow tongues, shafts of impurity, selfishness, doubt, fear, plans of the enemy to burn and destroy – Faith in God – Faith in Christ quenches weapons of the enemy.
V. 17 – “Helmet of Salvation” – This is God’s gift of Salvation, from penalty of sin, yet even more as his saving help to protect form the power of sin.
“The Sword of The Spirit” – Speech in the Old Testament is often referred to as a sword. Words of the wicked are known to wound as a sword. – The Bible, God’s own word is also as a sword in his hand, a sword that lays bare, separating the false from the true, bringing judgment, also it brings us the joy of Salvation.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Matthew 4:1-10
V. 18 – “Prayer in the Spirit” – Before we dig into this I would like to point out, I have often been in discussion and listened to preachers over the years, when they cover the Armor of God, they stop at verse 17 and don’t keep reading. They leave out our greatest weapon that can be used in offense and defense – We don’t need to leave out this very important part of our armor. We need to be never ceasing in our prayer, coming to God the Father in prayer and supplication
Luke 18 - Jude 20 - Romans 8:26 - Colossians 4:2 - Philippians 4

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