Armor of God
August 31, 2022 (Timewarp from August 8, 2022)
At Sunday School yesterday, the study was on the Armor of God (Ephesians 6, if you want to check it out). When I was ten (approximate age of my class), I loved studying different cultures, their people, ways of life, weapons, costumes, you name it. This armor of God passage clicked for me because I had just been reading of how the armor of the Etruscans, Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, and Egyptians had invaded or defended and defeated greater numbers due to their armor – either a superior weapon, superior body armor, superior tools (like chariots), superior tactics (like phalanx).
It was pretty easy to get the first part; our enemies aren’t other people walking around even though we’re tricked into thinking so and shove all our energy into being mad instead of focusing on the real enemy. It was the rest about all the cool armor that glowed to life with my recent understanding:
With all your armor on, you will stand strong; only with your armor (through Jesus), will you stand.
(The Bible repeats this for emphasis!) Super neat! Only with this armor (all of it requires Jesus, like He’s the master Creator who designed all this stuff in the first place, you know!) can you stand tall in victory!
Having your loins girt about with truth…
(My thoughts, again) Having is one of those multi-tense verbs in Greek, meaning have, having, and has had, aka always having or continually having. Girt = girded, or strapped around. In the body armor symbolism, being “girt about” or “girded” was having a belt/sash/rope tied tightly around your clothing to keep it in place and as a holder for weapons. Most sheathes were looped or tied onto the belt. The truth is the Word of God. (My ten-year-old brain already got this from Sleeping Beauty as the Sword of Truth is the Word of God – the voice of Light with the power to defeat darkness.)
(Still my thoughts) This translates to: continually having the Word of God in your mind.
…and having the breastplate of righteousness…
(My Thoughts) Same sentence, so this is still in the cool multi-tense of Greek. A breastplate was a thick piece of padded armor covering the front and back – most types connected at the top of the shoulders, and covered both the front and back, sometimes the front was more heavily padded. The strongest of these deflected arrows! All of them lessened the impact of bodily attacks. The purpose is to protect vital organs, like the heart, lungs, stomach, etc.
…and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace…
(My thoughts again – remember, same sentence, same tense) Wow! The preparation of the gospel of peace is like when John the Baptist is preparing the way for Jesus! It is the telling of everyone without regard to our own life and safety! It is the understanding that the eternal is the most real and that this life is temporal; a vapor, the Bible says! “Shod” is an old word that means “covering the feet.” Our most common use today is when we say a horse is “shod” – his feet are protected! My feet are being protected so I can share the gospel to prepare others to come to love Jesus as I do!
…above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked.
(thoughts…) Oh my! This one! Just wow! First off: this is “above all” so primary! Our defense is primary (of course, so we can continue to be effective, a wounded soldier isn’t effective). Then: fiery darts can be translated to arrows, flaming arrows, projectile, etc. “Fiery darts” in the Roman era when Paul is writing were the most devastating weapons because they were usually arrows or spears with the ends coated in a pitch/tar mixture that was lit before tossing or shooting and did its job effectively by sticking into the target, spreading, and burning. Quench means “to put out.” Basically, this shield can smother any fiery dart and since elsewhere the Bible warns of the devil throwing “darts” at us, it means everything the devil could throw at us is extinguished! Translated in my brain I saw the shield of virtue (yes, I’m reverting to my ten-year-old brain again) that the evil dragon breathes fire on and not even the heat burns his hand!
…and take the helmet of salvation…
(again) Helmets were to protect the head and later, the neck, one of the most vulnerable points. I think of the helmet protecting the brain; keeping fiery darts from our minds – the place most unseen attacks start for me. Salvation is the only way. Jesus is our salvation so He is the only way. Putting on the helmet of salvation puts us under Jesus and therefore our mind is protected!
…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
(my crazy thoughts again!) Finally! A weapon! The sword of the spirit is the Word of God. That can’t be more plainly spelled out, can it? The only weapon we wield that can do any damage is the Word of God! Isn’t that cool? Jesus used scripture to combat the devil when He was being tempted in the wilderness, when the Pharisees tried to trick Him, in answering His disciples, and anytime someone questioned something He did (you know, like healing on the Sabbath). If that sword is the one Jesus chose to use, we should follow His example!
…praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching with all perseverance and supplication for the saints.
Challenge accepted! (My thoughts again) Anyway, that translates to always having communication with Jesus and (prayer = talking, communicating) and asking everything (supplication = like begging or pleading) in the Spirit watching out with perseverance (perseverance = standing strong) and pleading or asking for every other brother (saints = followers of Jesus). So I took this / take this as a challenge from Jesus – He just told us this armor was so we can stand strong! Remember, “In this world, we will have trouble” but He has already overcome the world! Putting on all of His armor, which is tried and true, tested already for us, will enable us to stand strong and exterminate the attacks of the enemy!
This passage study is a little glimpse into my crazy writer’s brain that connects everything from cartoons to real life to old culture study to word origin and entomology. I use all of these things to analyze and interpret literature – including the Bible! When someone sends us a letter, we read it in his voice, so when I read the Bible, I read it as a letter from Jesus. The only way I know His voice is by reading and using the miracle of intelligence He gave us; I analyze and step into the time then and translate it to now. Crazy, I know, but still super cool!
Our weapons are a sweet total covering of armor for defense, a shield of ultimate defense (nothing gets through it!), and the best weapon ever made!
Thank you for reading,
Type at you later!
~Nancy Tart