Armor of God
Ephesians 6:14-18: Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 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, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints
NKJV
The Christian, in virtue of his service to Christ, is engaged in a spiritual war above all else. Ephesians 6:12, of which I have spoken on at length on my youtube channel, discusses how the Christian is to prepare for war against principalities and powers. Most Christians will nod in assent to this but they often fail to elaborate on what this war is like or, the topic of this essay, how one is to prepare for this war. Verses 14-18 of Ephesians 6 discuss the armor of God and in what it consists: the belt of truth; the breastplate of righteousness; the shoes of peace; the shield of faith; the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, prayer and perseverance. This analogical description of the Christian spiritual warfare kit is based of the equipment of the Roman soldier of Paul's day; many modern Christians use the imagery of the medieval knight. This does at least two things: (1) it highlights the stakes in this war and (2) the need to prepare for it. No sensible general sends men into combat without proper training or equipment, how much more so in the face of spiritual warfare? The stakes are the cosmic war of good against evil; Satan and his hosts and as the Hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” says “one earth is not his equal.” In order to fight Satan and win, the Christian must follow the orders of his Captain that is Christ; to quote from the hymn again “and he must win the battle.” If Christ is the Captain, then how are we to train for battle? Before one can even implament a plan of attack one must first be trained and equiped in the basics of the war. Now we shall turn to the Christian spiritual warfare kit.
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