“Put on the full armor of God … with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:11-17, emphases added).
When the apostle Paul wrote these verses he was, of course, a prisoner guarded by one or more Roman soldiers, and he had ample opportunity to consider the arms and armor carried by the Roman legionary. But what was the origin of the analogy he makes – the spiritual analogs for each piece of the armor? In Part 1 of this short series (here) we looked at the likely origin of Paul’s metaphor – which can be found in what the prophet Isaiah tells us about God’s armor in Isaiah 11:4-5 and 59:17.
In the second part of this short series, we will look at what Paul actually intended to teach by the use of the armor analogy – and it may not be what we might expect. We tend to read Ephesians 6:11–17 and understand these verses as meaning God supplies us with spiritual armor that we put on to “fight the good fight ”– spiritual qualities that we must somehow develop and use. But there is another way to look at them. Each part of the armor has a scriptural connection:
The Belt of truth: John 14:6 Jesus is truth.
The Breastplate of righteousness: 1 Corinthians 1:30 Jesus is our righteousness.
The Shoes of the gospel: 2 Timothy 2:8 Jesus is the gospel.
The Shield of faith: Hebrews 12:2 Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith.
The Helmet of Salvation: Acts 4:12 Jesus (the name means salvation) is our salvation.
The Sword of the Spirit … the Word of God: John 1:1, 14 Jesus is the Word.
Every one of the pieces of armor can be tied to the person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. That this is not just a coincidence can be seen in that Paul writes in Ephesians 6:10 (the verse directly before the list of armor) – “Be strong in the Lord and power of his might. Put on the full armor of God.” Paul is doubtless indicating that putting on the armor of God is putting on Jesus Christ.
The proof of this is found in Romans where Paul writes specifically: “put on the armor of light … put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:12–14). This is a concept Paul stresses repeatedly in his letters – as when he writes “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). So, it should be clear that Paul intended us to see the armor of God that we are to put on as being Jesus Christ himself.
This understanding of the nature of the Christian’s armor is significant because it shows a very different focus. Instead of seeing the armor as a composite of separate spiritual qualities that we must somehow develop, we can see the armor as the presence of Jesus Christ himself in our lives. This is, after all, Paul’s emphasis in repeating the admonition to “put on Christ” in his letters.
The analogy is a deeply meaningful one. By the expression “put on Christ,” Paul means that we figuratively clothe ourselves with Jesus Christ in order to let him both protect us and shape us spiritually. We are shaped, so to speak, by becoming more and more like the One we put on (Romans 8:29). Paul explains this earlier in Ephesians when he writes that we must: “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24), and when he writes in Colossians: “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him” (Colossians 3:10, NLT).
Through the metaphor of the armor of God, Paul shows us that putting on Christ is also protective. In terms of our day to day lives, putting on Christ simply means walking with him. It is as we do this and stay close to him that the aspects of the armor of God – aspects of Christ himself – become part of us and protect us. It is to the degree that we do this, Paul tells us, that we can “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” (Ephesians 6:10).
When we think of Roman centurions and the Bible, we invariably think of Cornelius – the Roman commander who was the first Gentile to be converted – or perhaps the centurion whose servant Jesus healed, or the centurion who stood by the cross at the crucifixion. But there are actually some ten of these Roman military officers mentioned in the New Testament, and if we look at them we can see an interesting pattern in how they fit into the biblical narrative.
Centurions are often said to have been the backbone of the Roman army – the officers in charge of the units of infantry called “centuries” which usually numbered around eighty soldiers in the time of Christ. They were generally experienced men who had moved up through the ranks, and although some were very stern, many were honorable individuals, as those mentioned in the New Testament seem to have been. In this article we will look briefly at each of them.
1. The centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10). This was the man of such great faith we are told that Jesus “was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, ‘I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel’” (Luke 7:9).
2. The centurion at the cross when Jesus died (Matthew 27:51–54; Mark 15:38–39, 44–45; Luke 23:44–47). This officer uttered the words: “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54), and tradition says he became a believer.
3. Cornelius, the centurion who became the first gentile convert (Acts 10:1–7). Acts tells us this soldier and his family were devout and God-fearing. A man of prayer, Cornelius also gave generously to those in need.
4 and 5. The two centurions who arrested Paul (Acts 21:32). Acts tells us that when a disturbance against Paul broke out in the Temple, two centurions were sent with their men to stop the violence, and they then took Paul into protective custody. The centurion who saved Paul from being scourged (Acts 22:25–29) was most likely one of the two who had arrested him.
6. The centurion who took Paul’s nephew to his commander (Acts 23:17). This centurion accommodated Paul’s request and thus helped save him from the Jewish plot to kill him.
7 and 8. The centurions who escorted Paul to Caesarea (Acts 23:23). The commander Claudius Lysias called for two centurions to assemble soldiers and to take Paul to Felix, the Governor, for Paul’s protection.
9. In Caesarea, the Governor Felix commanded a centurion to guard Paul (Acts 24:23).
10. Julius, a centurion of the Augustan Regiment (Acts 27:1–43). Julius and his men escorted Paul to Rome with other prisoners. In Sidon, Julius kindly permitted Paul to visit his friends who might provide for his needs (vs. 1, 3). Later in the journey, when a great storm arose, acting on Paul’s counsel Julius prevented the crew from escaping and after the ship was wrecked, Julius again intervened to prevent the soldiers from killing Paul and the other prisoners (vss. 11, 31–32, 42–43).
Although we only know the names of two of these centurions, Cornelius and Julius, the New Testament shows us that they all played some role in establishing and furthering the Christian faith. While the importance of Cornelius is obvious, the other centurions, who are mentioned in the book of Acts, all played some part in protecting Paul and allowing him to both carry the gospel as far as Rome, and to bring his message of faith to many there who had turned to Christianity. The centurions who had a vital part in Paul’s protection are shown to have often acted decisively, with discretion, with kindness, and sometimes with great courage. While diligently fulfilling their military duty, several of these soldiers were important in the development of Christianity, and the others among the group certainly helped in the spread of the faith.
The extent of these centurions’ contributions to the growth of the faith is evident in their portrayal given by the New Testament, even though – because they were often seen as representatives of the hated Roman oppressors – most centurions were shunned by the ancient Jews. Yet the honorable and often faith-serving nature of the ten centurions found in the New Testament is clear. As Christians, we might well look back and admire the faith of some of them, and we might well thank them all for their service!
The seasoned and successful warrior learns to recognize dangerous terrain from which ambush or sniper fire might come. This is just as true of the spiritual warrior as it is of physical soldiers – if we are oblivious to where attacks may come from, we are likely to fail repeatedly.
As a highly successful warrior king, David doubtless learned to be aware of areas that might conceal enemies and from which a salvo of arrows or other sudden attack might come, and we have only to read his psalms to see that he was just as aware of the directions from which spiritual attacks might come – whether from his own nature or from external enemies. Notice what he says in this regard in Psalm 141:
“Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil so that I take part in wicked deeds along with those who are evildoers …” (Psalm 141:3-4).
David’s words here are intriguing – he asks for help not to fall prey to wrongful words (“mouth” and “lips”), thoughts (“heart”), or deeds (“deeds”) that would compromise his desire to obey God, and there is more to these verses than first meets the eye. Although David does not say so explicitly, based on a pattern we find in the Psalms, he appears to list the dangers in order – not in order of sinfulness, but in order of likelihood of the danger occurring. Here and elsewhere, he not only places the danger of wrongful speech first, but he also places a double emphasis on that danger by repeating it (“guard … my mouth,” “watch over… my lips”).
Many of the Psalms follow this same pattern in speaking of right or wrong expressed in words, then in thoughts, and finally in deeds – almost always with the same double emphasis placed on speech. For example, the behavior of the righteous and unrighteous is contrasted in exactly this way.
We read of right behavior: “The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom, and their tongues speak what is just. The law of their God is in their hearts; their feet do not slip” (Psalm 37:30-31). Right words are mentioned twice, then thoughts, and finally deeds.
The same pattern is found of wrong behavior: “But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant” (Psalm 78:36-37). Again, words are mentioned twice, then thoughts, and deeds.
So it is perhaps not surprising to see this pattern in many other contexts – as when the psalmist writes:
“I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer” (Psalm 66:17-19).
Sometimes, words are only stressed once (for example, Psalm 49:3-4), but the pattern of words, thoughts, and deeds usually remains the same.
Interestingly, in the New Testament we find the apostle Paul also frequently placing speech before deeds (Colossians 3:17; 1 Timothy 4:12; etc.), as does Peter (1 Peter 3:9-11). In stressing the great importance of speech the apostle James goes so far as to say: “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless” (James 1:26). James follows this up by stressing: “We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check” (James 3:2).
Putting these scriptures together, we see a clear pattern that confirms what David tells us. We must be continually alert to the dangers of our own possibly wrongful words, thoughts and deeds – and especially our words – if we are not to be surprised and overthrown by the hidden tendencies of our own nature and external temptations.
This makes good sense. If we are trying to do what is right in our lives, actual wrongful deeds may be the least likely dangers we will have to grapple with. It is more likely that we will usually face attacks in our thoughts – and, according to what David tells us, perhaps the greatest dangers on a day to day basis come through words spoken hastily, in frustration, in anger, or in some other unconsidered way.
Understanding and remembering this bit of spiritual “military intelligence” can help us in our day to day walk. And the military analogy we have used here is one used by the warrior David himself:
“They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows. They shoot from ambush at the innocent; they shoot suddenly, without fear” (Psalm 64:3).
Keeping in mind this principle of guarding against wrongful words, thoughts, and deeds (often in that order) can help us to remain vigilant and to avoid the surprise attacks we all sometimes face from within our own nature as well as from without.
* For further reading on this subject, download our FREE e-book Warriors of the Way: Christian Training, Combat, and Victoryhere.
People who study the apostle Paul’s armor of God passage most often focus on the pieces of that spiritual armor: the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shield of faith, etc. However, I ask you to consider the reason Paul gives for putting on that armor of God. In Ephesians 6:11 (NASB95), Paul writes: “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (emphasis mine). Verse 13 continues that theme: “take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” And then verse 14 begins, “Stand firm.”
Are you picking up a pattern? “Stand firm” is not limited to Ephesians 6. Paul encourages the Galatians to stand firm (5:1, NIV), as well as the Philippians (4:1) and the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 2:15). James also encourages believers to stand firm (5:8), as does Peter (1 Peter 5:9). Standing firm spiritually is a major theme of the apostles’ teaching.
My favorite “stand firm” passage is 1 Corinthians 16:13 (NIV): “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” This verse consists of four terse commands, each closely related to the others.
Command 1: Be on your guard. In Greek, this command is expressed in one word: gregoreo. In its secular usage, this was a military term meaning “Be alert! Be vigilant!” Paul borrows this command from the military and applies it to our spiritual warfare against the lies and enticements of the world, the flesh, and the devil. “Watch out!” he commands throughout his inspired writings. Watch out for false teachers and false gospels. Watch out for temptations to stray from focusing on Jesus. Be on your guard!
Command 2: Stand firm in the faith. Paul uses “the faith” here exactly as Jude uses it in Jude 3: “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people” (NIV). In other words, the faith in which we are to stand firm is the good news about Jesus, that Jesus himself preached: In Jesus, the kingdom of God has come.
Command 3: Be courageous. As in Command 1, this term in the Greek is one word: andrizomai. A more accurate translation might be “Act like men!” Courage is part of that, but the emphasis seems to be upon maturity. “Exercise a mature-in-the-faith courage!” is Paul’s command. Maturity in the faith is a theme throughout 1 Corinthians. In 14:20, Paul has just pleaded with these believers “do not be children in your thinking . . . but in your thinking be mature” (NASB). To stand firm in the faith, one must be mature in the faith.
Command 4: Be strong. A bit more Greek? This command is a verb in the passive voice. Passive verbs receive rather than perform action. A better translation than “Be strong!” is “Be strengthened!” The spiritual strength we need to stand firm in the faith is not something we can create ourselves. It is something God creates within us as we submit to Him in Christ. Be strengthened!
Four spiritual imperatives: Stay alert! Stand firm! Behave mature! Be strong with God-given strength! That’s a recipe for Christian faithfulness.
*Reprinted from The Bible Advocate, July-August, 2021.
“Put on the full armor of God … with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:11-17, emphases added).
When we think of the “Armor of God” we all think, of course, of these inspiring verses in Ephesians, but the analogy was not original to Paul. We find in the book of Isaiah, in the Old Testament, the origin of Paul’s metaphor in verses that the apostle and his readers doubtless knew well.
The first of these verses appears in Isaiah 59: “He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle” (Isaiah 59:17). The second group of verses that would have been well-known to Paul is found in Isaiah 11: “He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist” (Isaiah 11:4-5).
Paul does not simply quote the words found in Isaiah about the armor of God, however. Instead, he develops the idea in two ways. First he focuses on the elements found in Isaiah. Instead of the seven items of armor mentioned in the parallel verses in Isaiah, Paul lists six items of armor in Ephesians 6, and he adjusts and combines some items in order to do this. He combines the belt of righteousness and sash of faithfulness into the belt of truth. He also combines the only offensive weapons mentioned by Isaiah – the “rod of his mouth” and “breath of his lips” – into the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” This is also the only offensive weapon mentioned in Ephesians 6 and is clearly the same thing, the “rod of his mouth” being the “word of God.”
Paul leaves out the “mantle of zeal” and “garments of vengeance” as these belong to God alone (Romans 12:19), but the “breastplate of righteousness” and “helmet of salvation” are identical in both lists. The only items of armor Paul adds to those mentioned explicitly in Isaiah are the “shield of faith” and the shoes of the “gospel of peace,” although the idea for the latter can also be found in Isaiah as well: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” (Isaiah 52:7) – a verse which Paul quotes in Romans 10:15.
More important than the minor adjustments to the individual items, Paul’s developed analogy of the armor of God differs from those found in Isaiah by applying the concept of the armor of God himself to the servant of God – the Christian. He also lifts the weapons of spiritual warfare out of the realm of things that we must somehow put together of our own strength, for the items of armor Paul shows we need so badly are, like salvation itself, the gift of God.
When David tried the armor of King Saul he could not use it as he had not “tested” or practiced with it (1 Samuel 17:38-39). Paul also reminds his readers that we must not keep these elements of armor on display or locked in some spiritual armory (Ephesians 6:11). The armor of God is something with which we must practice. It is a gift to be used.
It’s a verse that every Christian knows well: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong”(1 Corinthians 16:13). But it’s easy to know the verse and not see it in context – and this is the kind of verse where context is everything. To really understand Paul’s powerful statement, we must notice his very next words, where he writes: “Do everything in love.” This is actually not a separate thought, as it might appear to be in our modern Bibles where thoughts are artificially separated into numbered verses.
Looking at the context in the sixteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, we can clearly see how verses 13 and 14 really belong together – the verses before vs. 13 are about Apollos, and the verses after vs. 14 are about a different subject, the family of Stephanus. The two verses 13-14 are a single thought that Paul has in mind, and when we read the two verses together – as they should be read – we get what Paul wanted to tell us: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.”
But when we read the two verses together, they still sound like two separate thoughts – not because they are, but because of our flawed sense of what strength looks like. What does strength have to do with love? According to Paul, everything. Paul’s thought is simply that strength and love have to operate together, because without the one, the other is incomplete.
That may not sound like a profound concept, but it is one, nonetheless. In our culture Christians – and especially male Christians – can often be divided into two groups: what we might call the muscular believers and the loving believers. It’s not that those who stress love can’t have muscle tone and those who stress strength can’t be loving – but that most of us simply tend to fit one of those stereotypical groups better than the other.
Society in general forms along the same fault lines, of course: the jocks and the nerds, the powerful and the poets, the assertive and the sensitive. But is one of these approaches to life somehow better (or more “manly”) than the other?
Consider the story of Jacob and his brother Esau (Genesis 25, 27). Esau was an outdoorsman with hair on his chest – a hunter who liked to spend time in the wilderness. Jacob, on the other hand, was a man of the great indoors – he preferred to stay at home, liked to cook, and was clearly closer to his mother, while Esau (as you probably guessed) was his father’s favorite. The contrast could hardly be stronger – the “rugged” man and the “milder” kind of man. But you know what? God loved Jacob (Malachi 1:2) and chose him as the one whose name would identify the nation God wanted to build (Psalm 135:4). Clearly, God knew that being an outdoor “manly” man was not the only way to do masculinity.
But the story doesn’t end there. We see Jacob having to apply strength as God worked with him. Perhaps in that sense Jacob had to “toughen up,” but he wasn’t changed to a kind of “man’s man” identity – Jacob just developed a side he may have been somewhat lacking in.
When we look at the biblical record, all the “mighty men” of God exhibited or came to exhibit both sides of the strength-divide. David is the classic example, of course. David was a gentle shepherd as well as a giant slayer, a poet and musician as well as a powerful and mighty man. The same can be said of Jesus himself. The Jesus who forcefully cleared the temple and the Jesus who wept for his friends were one and the same – the loving-tough Jesus who talked about sparrows and flowers in his parables yet was strong enough to endure great hardship (Luke 4:1-2) and to sacrifice himself for others (Hebrews 12:2).
The balance of strength and love is something that Jesus also taught his followers. There were times when he urged his disciples to “toughen up” (Matthew 26:40), but there were other times when he showed them they needed to roll back the tough stuff – like the occasion some of them wanted to call in an air-strike on a Samaritan village that had refused Jesus hospitality (Luke 9:54). Jesus made the point that mere insults do not call for munitions – heavenly or otherwise. He showed his followers that strength and love are both necessary: that strength must never prevent us from applying love and love need never prevent us from being strong.
Paul himself exhibited the same balance. The apostle who suffered hardships with great strength – ranging from being repeatedly beaten to being shipwrecked three times (2 Corinthians 11:25) – was the same apostle who penned the Bible’s greatest chapter on love (1 Corinthians 13). He knew that strength and love are both needed.
And that is Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14. We need to learn a right balance if we do not already have it – we are called to be strong and we are called to love. We are called to let our love be expressed without weakness and our strength to be used continually in love.
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