Day 99: What Are the Pieces of God’s Armor, PT1?
Today, we begin looking at the six pieces of our Spiritual Armor and their significance in our life. As we discuss these pieces, we are going to talk about two aspects of their blessing. There is an objective reality in this armor—Father God has done something to us, given something to us. There is also a subjective reality—We should do something with these pieces of armor. Simply stated, Father God has blessed us with these things and now we must put them to good use.
Ephesians 6:13-20
For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm therefore, by fastening (1) the belt of truth around your waist, by putting on (2) the breastplate of righteousness, 15 by fitting your feet with (3) the preparation that comes from the good news of peace, 16 and in all of this, by taking up (4) the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take (5) the helmet of salvation and (6) the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
1. The Belt of Truth
The first item that Paul mentions is the Belt of Truth. This may be analogous to the cingulum militare or balteus of Roman armor. This would have been a long apron like garment of sewn leather thongs that functioned to protect the thighs. Other weapons could have been hung on this “belt” and other garments could have been tucked into this belt to allow the soldier greater mobility. This belt is the central part of the armor.
Spiritually speaking this belt is truth. As we take up this belt and put it on, we are clothing ourselves with the truth that God has revealed to us by His Word. We live in light of the Gospel, the Message of Truth. As we “put on” this truth, we should become people who are truthful. So, we have received Truth from Father God and so we ourselves should “walk in the Truth.” Where the is truth, the Devil has no foothold.
2. The Breastplate of Righteousness
This is probably analogous to the Roman pectorale which was a fabricated metal plate worn to protect the chest and back. The importance of this piece of defensive armor is obvious in that it protects the vital organs.
Spiritually speaking, this piece of armor is defined by righteousness. Objectively, we have been justified by God, which means that God has declared that we are right with Him because we have done the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, with the right motives when we placed our faith and trust in Christ. Remember your blessings? Righteous is related to justification.
Since we have been objectively declared to be righteous by God’s grace and Christ’s faithfulness, God desires that we live as righteous people. As we gird our waist with the truth, we live out this truth in righteousness by doing the right things, in the right way, with the right motivations, at the right time. We become concerned with doing all things which are pleasing to Father God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And notice, as we take up this piece of spiritual armor, it protects the vital organ of our heart. There is no greater defense against the Devil and His schemes than living according to the righteous pattern that we see in our Lord Jesus Christ. Where goodness and righteousness prevail, the coming Kingdom of Christ outshines the dark dominion of our wicked Enemy.
3. The Feet Prepared by the Gospel
Roman legionnaires wore heavy sandals (caliga—“half boot”) studded on the bottom with hollow headed nails. This gave the soldiers great traction in rough terrain as they came together to form the phalanx—a square of several lines of soldiers grouped together to make a near impenetrable box.
Spiritually we prepare our feet with the “preparation of the Gospel of Peace.” The spiritual reality that prepares us to stand firm is the content of the Gospel (the Good News in Christ, the message of Truth). This True Gospel is all about Peace: peace with God, peace with one another, peace coming to our war-torn world.
Here the idea is not so much that we are “preaching the Gospel” (although that is very important) but that we are “standing firm” in the Gospel that we have received and believed. Peace is the natural outcome because the Gospel tells us that the True King has come, He has taken up His authority and that He has defeated His enemies so that He will bring peace to all of creation. We stand firm, in the Gospel in the Peace that it brings to us.
As we do this, we become people who are characterized by peace. We turn away from our old way of life filled with hatred, fighting and shame and live with one another and with all people, giving all a taste of the Kingdom to Come (see Romans 12:18-21 and 14:17-20).
4. The Shield of Faith
Paul shifts emphasis a little at this point. Where as the other pieces of armor that we just discussed are all explanatory of how we “stand firm” (the main verb of that section), now Paul uses another main verb “take up” to indicate that we are not to forget three very important pieces of our armor: the shield, the helmet, and the word.
The word that is used of our shield here is a word that is related to “door.” This refers to an oblong shield (scutum) that looks like a door. Polybius, a Roman historian, describes such a shield as being 2 ½ feet wide and about 4 feet tall. The shield was made of planks of wood covered by canvas and then calf skin which could be watered down to protect the soldiers from flaming arrows.
This type of shield was used to cover and protect the whole body. In some instances, the shield would have a lip around the outer edges that could be locked together with other soldiers’ shields standing side by side to make a wall of complete defense.
Spiritually speaking our shield is made of faith. The shield is such an apt metaphor for our faith. The thing that defends us in battle more than anything else is our trust in the person and plan of God. And as we come together as the people of God and “lock our faith” together, being of one mind and heart, we set up a defensive perimeter that not only blocks the “flaming arrows” of the Enemy, but also extinguishes them so that they become completely useless.
We will continue our discussion of the armor in tomorrow’s reading.
Before moving on, make sure you understand the pieces of armor we have discussed today. Do you understand the spiritual significance of these things and how they equip you for the attacks of the Enemy?
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
