Ephesians

Fifth Day: Review Ephesians 6:10-17, concentrating on verses 14-16.

1. What is the next piece of armor we are to stand with? (Ephesians 6:14b)

2. The breastplate fits over the heart and guards our heart. That is one of the most frequent places of attack against a Christian. We feel a lack of assurance, we feel unworthy, we feel we are a failure in the Christian life and that God therefore is no longer interested in us. We feel that emotional sense of guilt and misery. What encouragement do you receive from Romans 8:1 and 1 Corinthians 1:30?

3. Challenge: We stand on Christ’s merits; He is our righteousness. God wants us, His children, to live righteous lives, and He does not condemn us when we fail. He deals with us as a Father, not as a judge. What do you learn of this from Hebrews 12:5-10?

4. a. After the breastplate, what is the next piece of armor? (Ephesians 6:15)

b. Aching, bruised, cut feet would render a soldier unfit to fight, but with the proper shoes a soldier can be ready. From Romans 5:1, how do we have peace with God?

5. Now we begin the list of armor we are to “take up.” What piece are we to take up first, and what can we do with it? (Ephesians 6:16)

6. Personal: Faith is not “positive thinking.” Faith is believing God—believing what He has said, what He has revealed to us in His Word. We have learned that the devil is an accuser and a liar. When he throws his fiery darts of lies and accusations, we must choose to believe God. Your faith will grow stronger and purer as it is exercised, and as you grow in the knowledge of God. Are you in the midst of conflict right now? Even if you don’t understand why God has allowed something in your life, will you choose to trust Him? Will you trust that He is all-powerful, that He is completely good, and that He loves you? Will you trust that He can work even this thing you are dealing with for your good?

Sixth Day: Review Ephesians 6:10-17, concentrating on verse 17.

1. From Ephesians 6:17a, what is the next piece of armor we are to take up?

2. We live in a confused, demon-dominated world system that bombards us with anti-Christian beliefs. The helmet of salvation is designed to protect the mind. When speaking of “salvation,” Paul is not looking back to when we accepted Christ as Savior, but toward a future salvation, the day of resurrection. What do Romans 8:18-25 and 13:11 say about this?

3. What is the final item we are to take, and what is it actually? (Ephesians 6:17b)

4. There are two Greek words translated “word” in our English Bibles. Logos refers to the total utterance of God, the complete revelation of what God has said. The other is rhema, which is used here. The “sword of the Spirit” is the word of God applied to a specific situation. When you read a passage of Scripture and the words suddenly come alive, when a passage of Scripture grips your soul so that you cannot escape its power, or when you’ve heard or read a Scripture passage and thought, “That is God speaking directly to me!”—that is God’s rhema, His word applied specifically to your life and your situation.¹³ What do you learn about this from Hebrews 4:12?

5. Personal: As a weapon, this sword is useful for both offense and defense. We use it in the battle against the lies of Satan in our own lives, and also in the lives of other believers and non-believers. We don’t have to defend it; we declare it. Share with your group, if you would like, a time when God’s Word became personal in your life.

Ephesians Lesson 20

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Ephesians 6:10-17 — The Armor of God

In any war, victory and defeat is often determined by how well armored we are. If we leave any part of ourselves exposed, we give the enemy an advantage in battle. That is why Paul tells us in Ephesians 6, “Put on the full armor of God” (italics added). Our enemy is too crafty and too fierce for half-hearted measures. Our armor must be full, impenetrable, and without chinks that he can exploit.

Paul warns us of the severity and intensity of the battle before us in Ephesians 6:10-13.¹⁴ Then he goes on to describe the full armor of God in detail, so that we can be fully armored on every side, leaving no part of our soul or spirit exposed to the enemy. The various pieces of armor Paul details for us are the specific ways we carry out his call to be strong in the Lord. The armor is nothing more than a symbolic description of various facets of the Lord Himself. The armor is the life of Christ, lived out in your life and mine.

There are two general classifications of the Christian’s armor, indicated by the tenses of the verbs used. The first division, Ephesians 6:14-15, covers the first three pieces of armor, which refer to something that has already been done if we are Christians. These are pieces of armor we only have to put on once and for all. We need never put them on again—but we must be aware of them and continually remind ourselves of what they mean in our lives.

The second division, Ephesians 6:16-17, includes those things that are to be put on or taken up at the present moment. These three pieces of armor are aspects of Christ that we must deliberately take up again and again whenever we are under attack.

The order in which these pieces are given to us is very important. You cannot reverse them or mix them up. The reason many Christians fail to properly exercise the sword of the Spirit, for example, is that they have never buckled the belt of truth around their waist.

The Belt of Truth

The first classification of our armor begins with the belt of truth. That’s the place to start whenever you are under attack, whenever you feel discouraged, defeated, or depressed. Officers in the Roman army wore short skirts, like Scottish kilts. Over them they had a cloak or tunic secured at the waist with a belt. When they were about to enter battle, they tucked the tunic under the belt to leave their legs free and ready for action. Being belted in this way symbolizes one’s readiness to fight. You cannot do battle until you have surrounded yourself with the belt of truth.

In practical terms, this means you remind yourself that, in Jesus Christ, you have found the key to life, the secret of reality, the One who is Himself the truth, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). We know that Jesus is the truth by the things He said; the temple guards who heard Him speak at His trial, shortly before the crucifixion, said, “No one ever spoke the way this man does” (John 7:46). No one ever expressed such insight into the human condition nor spoke with so much authority as Jesus did.

He also demonstrated the truth by what He did. The New Testament record is filled with His amazing works and miracles—those spectacular intrusions from the invisible realm into the visible. Most important of all, He demonstrated the solution to the most insoluble problem of all—the problem of death. He raised people from the dead—and He arose from the dead Himself. We know Jesus Christ is the truth, because He solved the problem of death.

Truth is reality. It explains all things. You know you have found the truth when you find something wide enough and deep enough and high enough to encompass all things. The truth of Jesus Christ does that. Because truth is reality, truth never changes. It does not need to be updated, revised, or modernized. If something was true ten thousand years ago, it is true today, and it will be true tomorrow.

That is the good news of Jesus Christ—He is the truth, the same yesterday, today, and forever (see Hebrews 13:8). Remember that fact when you are under attack and when doubts come into your mind. And remember that doubt is always an attack on faith, so the fact that you have doubts proves that you have faith.

The Breastplate of Righteousness

The second piece of armor is the breastplate of righteousness. A breastplate fits over the heart and symbolizes God’s protection of our emotional well-being. The breastplate of righteousness is Christ, the source of your righteous standing before God. If you wear the breastplate of righteousness, you can rest secure that your heart is securely guarded and adequately protected against attack.

The heart—our emotional core—is perhaps the most frequent avenue of attack against a Christian’s faith. We often feel a lack of assurance. We feel unworthy of God. We feel we are a failure in the Christian life and that God, therefore, is no longer interested in us. When we feel that emotional sense of guilt and misery, we need to recognize it as a satanic attack, an attempt to destroy what God intends to do in us.

How do you answer an attack like this? You remember that you have put on the breastplate of righteousness. In other words, you do not stand on your own merits. You stand on the merits of Christ. You quit trying to be good enough to please God. You rest on the infinite merits of Christ. This is why Paul begins his great eighth chapter to the Romans with the words, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1, italics added). You are believing a lie when you believe that God rejects you. Remember, you stand on Christ’s merits.

This is not to say that unrighteous living means nothing to God. He wants us to live righteous lives and make righteous choices—but He does not judge us once we have come to Him for salvation. He deals with us as a Father, in love and discipline—but not as a judge.

The apostle Paul wore the breastplate of righteousness when he was under pressure or feeling discouraged. He had tremendous inner struggles because of his past as a brutal persecutor of the church. Writing in 1 Corinthians 15:9, he said, “I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” No wonder Paul often felt discouraged!

But Paul goes on to say, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect” (1 Corinthians 15:10). Here, Paul uses the breastplate of righteousness. “I don’t defend what I am,” he says, in effect. “I simply say to you, by the grace of God, I am what I am. What I am is what Christ has made me. I’m not standing on my righteousness; I’m standing on His. I am accepted by His grace, and covered by His righteousness.”

The breastplate of righteousness protects the emotions. You do not need to be discouraged. Of course you have failed. Paul failed, you fail, I fail, but failure is simply part of our learning curve. It is part of the process of discovering how to overcome. Jesus knows we will fail; we will struggle. Our lives will be an up-and-down experience, and we will lose a battle now and then. But Jesus has won the war, and we do not need to be discouraged or defeated, because we know we will win in the end.

Feet Fitted with the Gospel of Peace

In Ephesians 6:15, Paul introduces the third piece of armor: “and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” Shoes are absolutely essential to fighting. Imagine a soldier clad in armor from head to ankle but completely barefoot! Imagine how quickly the rough ground would tear and bruise his feet. His aching feet would render him unfit to fight. But with a stout pair of shoes he would be ready and equipped to fight.

Note that word readiness. It is peace in the heart that makes you ready to fight. Christ, our peace, gives us the calm courage to face the battle without flinching. He keeps our morale high, so we are ready for anything. No ground can be too rough for us, because Christ guards our steps.

These, then, are the first three components of our armor—the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and the shoes of the gospel of peace—that we only have to put on once and for all, yet we must remind ourselves frequently that they are there, ready for our use in time of need. Now we move to the second division, consisting of three pieces that we must consciously, actively take up and put on—the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.

The Shield of Faith

Paul writes in Ephesians 6:16, “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” The devil’s arrows come in many forms, including blue moods of depression, dark nights of fear, gray days of doubt, and more. Sometimes those arrows come in the form of evil thoughts—and they occasionally come at the most unwelcome, incongruous times. We may be reading the Bible or on our knees in prayer or thinking about something else entirely when suddenly a filthy, lewd, or blasphemous thought comes to mind. Where did that come from? we wonder. But we don’t need to wonder at all. It is a fiery arrow of the devil. The devil’s fiery arrows can be recognized by two characteristics:

1. The flaming arrows of Satan seem to arise out of our own thoughts. We think, “What a shocking thought! How could such a thing even cross my mind?” But it is really the devil whispering to us, trying to influence us. In our ignorance and innocence, we blame ourselves for a horrible thought that really has its source in the deceiver. That, of course, is exactly why the devil sent that thought your way. He sends us doubts to make us think we have already lost our faith. He sends us horrid thoughts to make us feel dirty and unworthy. He sends us blue moods to make us feel hopeless and defeated.

The arrows of the devil take their toll on us in the form of mental anguish, emotional strain, confusion, and tension. It is important that we recognize the source of such thoughts. It’s important that we recognize the lies of the devil for what they are. We are not the source of such thoughts. Satan is.

2. The flaming arrows of Satan always seem to attack our position in Christ. They insinuate doubt about the reality or reliability of our relationship with God. Read the Bible from beginning to end and you see this satanic strategy all the way through, beginning with Satan’s subtle attack on Eve in the garden: “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1). Here is a subtle insinuation of doubt—not a blatant attack, but a sneaky undermining. The same devil was at it again—not in a garden this time, but in a barren wilderness—when he tempted Jesus with these words, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” (Matthew 4:3). If?! The devil knew well who Jesus was, but that word if is subtly inserted to insinuate that Jesus’ sonship was somehow in question.

So what can we do? How can we combat the devil’s arrows of fire? The apostle replies, “Take up the shield of faith!” Notice that Paul does not say “the shield of belief.” Faith is more than a belief system. To have faith means to act on what we believe. Faith is decision, resolution, action.

Have you learned to take up the shield of faith when doubts come? It means saying to yourself, “Christ is the truth. He is reality. I have committed myself to Christ because I have been persuaded that He is the way, the truth, and the life.

Have you learned to take up the shield of faith when feelings of unworthiness come? It means saying to yourself, “Yes, I’ve failed God—but His promise to me is that He always accepts me. Great men and women of the Bible have failed God from time to time, yet God still used them, and I know He will use me. Christ is my righteousness—I am one with Him and His righteousness covers me. Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ.”

Have you learned to take up the shield of faith when depression and anxiety come? It means saying to yourself, “Feelings are not facts. Feelings come and go, but the truth of God is forever. I refuse to believe the lie of Satan. With the Lord Jesus Christ as my shield, I am going to cling to my faith despite my feelings.”

Have you learned to take up the shield of faith when evil thoughts arise? It means saying to yourself, “These evil thoughts are not my thoughts. They came into my mind as fiery arrows from the devil. I reject them. Lord Jesus, fill my mind with Your thoughts. Drive everything out of my mind but what You want me to think!”

This is what the Bible calls resisting the devil (see James 4:7). This is the shield of faith. Refuse to believe the lie of the devil. Take refuge in the truth of God. When you resist the devil, says James, he will flee from you. Resist those thoughts whenever they come your way, refuse to yield your position, and sooner or later, those thoughts will clear up. Your feelings will change. The attacks will cease.

The Helmet of Salvation

In Ephesians 6:17, Paul tells us, “Take the helmet of salvation.” The figure of a helmet immediately suggests to us something designed to protect the mind, the ability to think and reason. This helmet can keep our thinking straight and preserve us from mental confusion as we make our way through this dark and evil-infested world.

We live in confused times. The demon-dominated world system bombards us with conflicting philosophies and anti-Christian belief systems, all designed to undermine the faith of Christians and prevent non-Christians from ever discovering the truth. But the Christian is not defenseless. We have the helmet of salvation.

What is this helmet that keeps our thinking straight in the midst of a confused world? Paul answers in one word—salvation. Understand, Paul is not talking here about the salvation of the soul. He is not looking back to the moment where he invited Christ into his life as Lord and Savior. He is talking about a salvation which is a future event. This is what he means when he says elsewhere in the New Testament, “Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11).

The helmet of salvation is further defined for us in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians: “But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet” (1 Thessalonians 5:8). This future tense of salvation can be found in a number of passages, especially Romans 8:18-25, in which Paul talks about the day of resurrection, when creation will be delivered from its bondage, when Christ will return to establish His kingdom. This helmet, therefore, is the recognition that all human schemes to obtain world peace and harmony are doomed to fail. But Jesus Christ is working out His own plan, which will culminate in His appearing again and the establishment of His own reign in righteousness on the earth. That is the helmet of salvation which will keep our thinking straight, even in unsettled times, when the systems of the world collapse around us, when society is torn by wars and rumors of wars. No matter how terrible and chaotic this world becomes, we trust in God and patiently await our ultimate salvation.

We are to remind ourselves frequently of the coming of the Lord. Jesus continually told us to watch and be ready for that hour (see Matthew 24:42; 25:13). We must live daily in that hope and anticipation. This battle we have been examining in Ephesians 6 is an epic struggle against the devil and his angels, against the principalities and powers—yet it is being fought right where we live, in our homes, our offices, our churches, and the inner core of our hearts. Yet we must never forget that this battle is not ours, but the Lord’s. We are individual fighting units in a great army. The ultimate cause is sure and the end is certain. In this struggle between Jesus Christ and Satan, we already know the outcome.

With our minds securely protected by the helmet of the ultimate salvation of God, we can face the evil days ahead with our thoughts ordered, our hearts calm, and our souls undisturbed by the trumpets of war. The battle is coming, and we are almost ready to meet it. We only need one more implement to make our armor complete: a sword.

The Sword of the Spirit

Finally, Paul tells us, “Take…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). What is the word of God? It is Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is our life—but in this instance, Paul means that Christ is made available to us in practical ways through the writings in His Word. That is why the Word of God has been given to us: to acquaint us with the nuts and bolts of our faith, so that we can live it in daily practice.

In writing to the Colossians, Paul says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16). By this he is indicating that the authority of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Scriptures are one and the same. To attempt to distinguish the two is like asking which blade of a pair of scissors is more important, or which leg of a pair of pants is more necessary. We know Christ through the Bible, and we understand the Bible through the knowledge of Christ.

It is important to understand that it is not the complete Bible that is referred to by the phrase, “the word of God.” There are two words used in Scripture for word. There is the familiar Greek word logos that is used in the opening verse of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word [logos], and the Word [logos] was with God, and the Word [logos] was God” (John 1:1). But there is another Greek word translated “word” in English, but which is used less frequently in Scripture: rhema. Logos refers to the total utterance of God, the complete revelation of what God has said. Rhema means a specific saying of God, a passage or a verse that has special application to an immediate situation.

When Paul says, “Take…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” he uses the word rhema, not logos. So the “sword of the Spirit” is the saying of God applied to a specific situation. This is a powerful weapon in the hands of a believer. Have you ever heard or read a Scripture passage and thought, “That is God speaking directly to me!”? That is God’s rhema, His word applied specifically to your life and your situation.

Or perhaps someone has asked a question or shared a problem with you, and you were caught off guard, without an answer for that person. Then, in the next moment, you felt a glimmer of illumination and a word of Scripture came to mind—and suddenly you had the answer your friend was seeking. That’s God’s rhema, spoken in your thoughts so that you can minister God’s word to that person.

These are examples of God’s rhema, God’s word that slices through all the extraneous clutter of our scattered thoughts, cutting right to the heart of the matter. That is why God’s rhema is called “the sword of the Spirit,” because it is not only originated by Him as the author of the Word, but it is also recalled to mind by the Spirit and made powerful by Him in our lives. It is the Spirit’s answer to the attack of the devil, who comes to discourage us, deceive us, and defeat us.

As a sword, it is useful both for defense and for offense. This, by the way, is the only part of our armor that has an offensive capability. It both defends and protects us, but it also penetrates other hearts and destroys the lies of the devil in others besides ourselves. As Christians we are to wield this sword in the battle against the lies of Satan. We are to go on the offensive, proclaiming the word of God. We do not need to defend it. We are simply to declare it.

A word of caution is needed here: do not act on the strength of a single verse yanked out of context. Compare it with other Scripture. Is it in balance? Or has that verse’s meaning been distorted by isolating it from the rest of God’s Word? The fact that a particular verse of Scripture comes to our mind at a particular moment does not automatically mean that we have received a rhema from the Lord. Remember, the devil can quote Scripture as well, as he did when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness (see Matthew 4:1-11). But the quotation of the Scripture by the devil is never balanced. When Jesus was tempted by Satan, He always countered by quoting Scripture or by comparing Scripture with Scripture. Then the devil left Him. This is always what happens. The devil is put to rout by the sword of the Spirit.