"THE ARMOR OF GOD" Paul rehearses that which the child of God must put on, keep on and rely on. The soldier of Christ must gird his waist with truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness, have his feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, take up the shield of faith, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Eph 6:14-17) The adversary plans to deceive the mind. How easy it is to get someone to go along with something, as long as they think it is alright. “You will not surely die” the devil lied (Gen 3:4) And he is still lying, convincing people to question God’s word. We need, therefore, to fasten on the belt of truth, by having a love, knowledge of and belief in the truth (2Thes 2:10; 1Tim 2:4; 2Thes 2:13) The tempter will attack the will as well as the mind. We cannot continue in sin, but we must wholly dedicate ourselves to righteous living in order to have the protection available with the breastplate of the righteousness of God (Rom 6:1) The devil hopes to weaken our resolve, but the gospel that provides peace equips us with firm spiritual footing. The evil one wants to destroy our hope and diminish our convictions, but the shield of faith will quench all his fiery darts. But we must lift it up. We must believe what God reveals and do what the Lord requires. This is biblical, shield-like faith. Satan would tempt us to minimize the importance of salvation. He would like for us to think of it as a past experience only. Paul encourages us, however, to recall and consider the meaning of salvation today. We are saved by the grace of God through faith and therein we stay. We have had our access by faith into the grace in which we abide, and we must remain in it (Rom 5:1-2) If, at any time, we rely on our own merit, we are severed from Christ and fallen from grace (Gal 5:4; 1Jn 1:7-9) If we fail to spiritually develop, Peter says that it is because we have forgotten the cleansing of our old sins (2Pet 1:9; Acts 2:38) Salvation! Receive it and be moved by the great love wherewith he loved us and salvation constantly appreciated will be your helmet. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. The Spirit supplies the cutting power, because these are the words of God (Heb 4:12) The Christian should not underestimate the power of this weapon. It is indispensable. It is, in reality, the source from which all these spiritual attributes are obtained. It is how we learn the truth. It reveals God’s plan of justification and righteousness. It unfolds the gospel plan and thereby is the source our faith (Rom 10:17) Through it, we are saved By reading four to five chapters a day, one can read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice in a year. Only by giving it our time and affection will we be like an unmovable, beautiful, fruitful tree (Ps 1) Or, in the metaphor of Ephesians 6, one must wield the word of God, or die the second death. Every preacher, elder, deacon, mother, father, and teenager — every member of the Lord’s church who neglects the word of God, needs to repent and ask the Lord’s forgiveness. Put your eyes on the book and the book in your heart, “that I might not sin against thee” (Ps 119:11). This battle is real, difficult and dangerous. We ought to take our sword and armor very seriously and be made strong in the Lord.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 08:36:15 +0000
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