Shield of Faith

In Ephesians 6 there are 6 different pieces of armor. 

The 1^st piece is the belt of truth. That piece is a commitment to the fact that God is truth and all He has spoken. In other words, the Bible is true. 

The 2^nd piece is the breastplate of righteousness which is a commitment to doing our best to live each day without sinning and knowing that when we do sin, we must be willing to confess that sin knowing God will forgive us.

The 3^rd piece is having our feet fitted with the readiness to stand firm and to take the gospel wherever God leads us.

The 4^th piece is the shield of faith.

Paul made it very clear that we are to put on the whole armor of God. By looking at each piece individually so we can better understand how each one fits into the overall armor. We need, however, to see them collectively as a package worn by us. 

Read Ephesians 6:16. To understand the imagery of the shield of faith we need to examine the details of a soldier’s shield that served as a model for Paul’s illustration. 

The “flaming arrows” served as the basis for the design of the shields. One of the weapons an enemy used against the soldiers was arrows that they soaked in oil and pitch or tar. As they got ready to shoot them, they would light them on fire. The intent of this weapon was that when they hit the intended target, they would spread the burning tar and at a minimum badly burn the one struck and perhaps even set his armor or clothing on fire. 

Roman soldiers used several different shields, but two were more common. The first common shield was a small round one about two feet in diameter. The primary use of the smaller shield was ward off the blows of a small sword the enemy commonly used in hand-to-hand fighting. 

The second popular shield was a much larger one called a scutum and was the shield Paul referred to here. This larger shield was about two and half feet wide and four and a half feet high and was designed to protect the entire body of the soldier. That shield was made of wood and covered with thick leather. The leather not only absorbed the impact of the arrows, but also protected the rest of the shield from the burning tar. Often a soldier would soak his shield in water to give it an additional barrier to the flaming arrows sent his way.

The edges of these shields were built in such a way as to allow an entire line of soldiers to interlock shields. When joined together, those large shields formed a wall behind which the troops could hide themselves from the flaming arrows sent their way by the enemy. In addition, the rows behind held their interlocking shields over their heads. That protected them from arrows that might rain down on them. In addition to providing protection when an enemy attacked, when they were interlocked the soldiers could march into the enemy like a solid wall. 

For a Christian, the shield is not something made of wood and overcovered with leather but a shield of faith. Of course, ultimately our shield is God Himself, but God works through our faith in Him to protect us from the attacks of Satan. Read Psalm 18:30; Psalm 28:7; and Proverbs 30:5. 

While God is our ultimate shield, here Paul called on us as Christians to put on faith. In the Bible the term “faith” has three different uses. 

1. The first it used to describe the body of truths that the make up our belief system. That is the way Paul used the word earlier in his letter to the Ephesians (4:13). Read Hebrews 11:6.
2. The second biblical use of the word “faith” is in reference to saving faith. Read how that faith is defined in Hebrew 11:1. Saving faith is the personal commitment that allows God to apply the provision of Jesus on the Cross to an individual. Read Ephesians 2:8. 
3. The third biblical use of “faith,” and the one Paul is urging believers to put on is allowing our belief system to impact our everyday living. The faith we are to use as our shield in day-to-day life is a faith that impacts everything we do because it is applied to every situation. 

Paul is calling on us to have a daily trust in who God is and what He has promised to do for us. The faith we are to put on is a living faith, a daily trust in the promises and the power of God. Paul presented that faith as the defensive weapon that protects us against Satan’s fiery darts. 

The Old Testament writer encouraged us protect ourselves against sin. Read Habakkuk 2:4 and Romans 1:17. If we are going to ward off the attacks of Satan, we must live every moment guided by and strengthened by our confidence in who God is and what He has promised to do for us. Read II Corinthians 1:24 and I John 5:4. 

Satan wants to hinder us from living the life God wants us to live and enjoying the blessings God has for us as His children. The imagery Paul used here to describe his attacks on us was that of fiery darts. The details of those darts will vary from individual to individual. Because Satan knows which dart is more likely to get to each of us because he knows where our shield of faith is weakest. 

To some Satan will shoot the arrow of doubt, to another the arrow of disobedience, to another the arrow of fear. To some Satan will shoot arrows of hateful thoughts and to others he will shoot fiery darts of lust. The list of his arsenal goes on and on, but the aim of each arrow is the same, to get through our shield of faith and inflict harm. If we do not extinguish those arrows, they will light fires within that will rob us of blessings and ultimately lead to sin that destroys our fellowship with God.

Our shield is faith. Faith that lays hold of God’s promises in times of doubt or fear. Satan fires the arrow of fear, and the shield deflects it with the promise that we do not have to fear. 

Our shield is faith, faith that lays hold of God’s power when we are tempted to sin. Satan shoots a temptation at us, and our shield deflects it reminds us of I Corinthians 10:13. Read that verse.  

As Christians we must grow in our understanding of the promises and provisions of our faith, so we are protected against the arrows of Satan. Our victory over those arrows is possible only through faith. If we fail to use that shield, the pitch from Satan’s arrows will get all over us. 

There is one more aspect to that shield of faith that we should not miss. The Roman shields were designed to interlock so all the soldiers moved forward together. As believers we are not in battle alone. We move forward as a team. That means that we are to be interlocked, encouraging one another as we use our shield of faith to quench the arrows Satan is throwing at anyone in our fellowship. When properly interlocked and working as a team we prohibit Satan from attacking from in front or raining down temptations from above. We are as responsible for one another just as the Roman soldiers were in Paul’s day.

Satan hates the fact that God loves us beyond measure and wants to shower the blessings of that love upon us. He will attack us in any way he can, so we miss out on all of that. God, however, has promised to help us win the victory, but He can only do that as we walk by faith. When Satan attacks, we are challenged to use our faith to overcome. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

Your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace.

Living the Christian life we would like to have is getting harder and harder as society becomes more and more opposed to those things we hold dear. We are living in a day when Satan, as God’s enemy, is seeking to destroy God’s people. To counter that, God has given us armor to enable us to withstand Satan’s attacks and attack his strongholds of sin. 

The 3^rd piece of armor is a challenge to translate. The King James version reads, “your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”  In the NIV reads, “With your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” You will notice that the NIV makes no mention of footwear. The reason for that is that the Greek denotes a readiness associated with peace but makes no mention such. Translators and commentators are called upon to determine exactly what Paul had in mind. 

The idea of shoes comes from the similarity between the language here and Isaiah 52:7. Read that verse. Paul quoted that verse in Romans 10:15 and saw a relationship between Isaiah and the responsibility of the church to proclaim the gospel.

In addition to trying to identify exactly what is meant by one being ready, there is a more difficult challenge in determining what Paul had in mind by that. The problem is that the Greek tense of the verb Paul used is identical in both the subjective and objective forms. Normally that does not create a problem because the context makes the choice obvious. Here it does not, so you can get two different meanings,  

Let me illustrate the problem. The word “sheep” is the same in both the singular and plural. If I say to you Sam just bought a sheep, you know sheep is singular. If I say Sam has a 100 sheep, you know sheep is plural. The context makes that clear. If I say Sam has a lot of pets including dogs, cats, a cow, and sheep, you cannot be 100% sure if sheep is singular or plural. 

In the Greek that Paul used here it is possible to see his meaning stemming from either the genitive subjective or the genitive objective and the context doesn’t help. What adds to our inability to say for sure what Paul meant is that both possibilities have significant biblical evidence elsewhere to be true. 

Before we look at those 2 lessons, however, let’s assume that in one form or another Paul was thinking about shoes. Go to a shoe store today, and you will have literally dozens of options to choose from. In Paul’s day no such options were available. Civilians going outside generally wore soft leather sandals and when they were inside, they wore what we might call a soft slipper. Soldiers, on the other hand needed something more. They often had to walk great distances over difficult terrain. Soldiers were expected to be able to march on rough roads, climb over jagged rocks and across thorny fields. Their feet need protection. A soldier whose feet were cut, blistered, or swollen could neither stand and fight or advance against the enemy. There are historical reports that occasionally an enemy would place sharp objects on the roadways to delay an advancing army. Once an enemy was engaged it was vital that a soldier be able to stand firm. 

Roman soldiers were fitted with special footgear, wearing heavy military sandals called caliga. It was half boot and half sandal. The sole was made of several layers of leather up to three-quarters of an inch thick and studded with hobnails. The toes were often open. They were tied on with leather straps, wrapped halfway up the shin. For a soldier, proper shoes were essential. His life often depended upon his ability to hold a firm grip.  

Paul, looking at the feet of Roman soldiers he was chained to thought, “A Christian needs that kind of shoe for both footing and advancing forward in spiritual battles.”

First, proper shoes assure us of a secure footing whenever Satan attacks. Notice that Paul wrote that our feet should be “fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” Initially it seems strange to think of wearing armor for war and being fit for peace in the same sentence but remember, Paul was using a military metaphor to describe spiritual battles.

When Satan attacks us, he will generally attack on one of two fronts. Satan loves to try and convince us we are not really Christians. That may come in one of several forms. Sometimes he will try and convince us that what we did when we thought we were making a commitment to Jesus was just an emotional decision that really means nothing. Satan will tell us that if we really were a Christian, we wouldn’t act the way we do. 

If I am not a real Christian, then I may as well forget trying to enjoy the blessings I thought should be mine in Jesus. Paul wrote that to withstand that kind of attack we need to know with certainty that we belong to God and, therefore, are at peace with God. Read Romans 5:1. Satan tells us we not Christians. Our heart tells us we are because we have peace with God. 

Then Satan tries another approach. If you have peace with God, how come you’re in the situation you’re in? Obviously, somethings wrong. Satan will try to knock you off your feet spiritually by discouraging you. But if you have the proper footwear, you answer back, “I not only have the shoes of peace with God, but I also have the peace of God.” Read in Philippians 4:6-7 what it should mean to be wearing the shoes of peace. 

Put on the footwear of peace knowing that you have peace with God and because of that you can always enjoy the peace of God regardless of what Satan throws at you. You are grounded in Him. Insecurity leads to defeat, but faith assures you of victory. 

That takes us to the second part of this armor. Footwear enables us to move out. William Barclay, in his study of this passage wrote, “Sandals were a sign of one equipped and ready to move. The sign of the Christian is that he is eager to be on the way to share the gospel with others who have not heard it. (p. 183). We must put on the sandals of peace, so we are prepared each day to share the gospel of peace with a lost world. A faithful Christian is a witnessing Christian. If we wear the shoes of the gospel, then we have the “beautiful feet” mentioned in Isaiah 52:7 and Romans 10:15. Satan has declared war, but we are ambassadors of peace. 

The footwear of the Roman soldiers was designed to enabled them to travel great distances in a short amount of time. They did not conquer the known world by waiting for the enemy to come to them. They took the battle to the enemy. Too often the church today says to the world, “Come to church and get saved” but the Roman soldiers and the early church knew that their responsibility was to go to the enemy and subdue them where they were. The church today should be what the barracks were to Roman soldiers, a place of rest and renewal and the place from which they planned their next strategic attack on the enemy. 

We need to be ready to take the gospel wherever we are called to go. The Christian warrior must be ready to oppose the evil one by carrying the gospel to the lost. This will bring peace to those who are otherwise enemies of God.

Read the instructions Jesus gave in Matthew 28:19-20. That is no small task, but the good news is God has designed footwear to enable us to do that. It is time for the church to take off the comfortable slippers and put on that which God has designed so we can fulfill the commission we have. We have shoes of peace designed to remind us that as believers we are at peace with God and when the going gets tough, we have the peace of God. The world needs that peace. It is up to us to seek out the lost and share with them the gospel of peace.  

Breastplate of Righteousness

Last week we began looking at the various pieces of what Paul called in Ephesians 6:11 the Armor of God. We looked at the first piece which Paul called the “belt of truth.” That belt represented two dimensions of our faith. Objectively it represents our commitment to God and His word. Practically, we are to put on truthfulness so that what we say and what we promise can be depended upon. The two go hand in hand.

This week we are going to look the “breastplate of righteousness.” “Righteousness” is defined biblically as being totally free from sin. Sin is anything contrary to what God desires. Righteousness is a chief characteristic of God who is totally free from sin. To sin would be inconsistent with God’s nature. God cannot sin because His righteousness will not it.

The Bible notes that God cannot be in the presence of sin. Read Habakkuk 1:13. God did design ways for sinful man to behold a part of His glory and live, appearing to the Israelites in a cloud, giving sinful man a limited and temporary view of God. Neither sin nor sinners can permanently dwell in God’s presence.

Moving forward from God’s sinless perfection, we discover that mankind is just the opposite. We are all sinners. We were not originally created that way but because Adam and Eve sinned, we have inherited a sinful nature. Read Romans 3:23. God went further to note that in our sinful state there is nothing righteous. Read Isaiah 64:6. It is because even our attempts at righteousness fall short of God’s standard that Paul wrote Ephesians 2:8-9. Read those verses. Man is totally unrighteous and the only way he can become anything but is through the gracious provision of God.

In the same passage in Romans 3 that spoke of all men being sinners, Paul noted that when we make a commitment to Jesus, God literally gives us His righteousness. Theologically we say that God’s righteousness is imputed to us. In Jesus we are viewed as perfectly righteous. It is God’s gift to us. We do not put it on. So, when Paul urged us to put on the “breastplate of righteousness” he was not talking about becoming a Christian, since he was writing to believers and, therefore, were already clothed in God’s imputed righteousness. 

Paul was talking about our practice as believers. Think about the breastplate that a Roman soldier wore in Paul’s day. In Roman most wars were fought on a hand-to-hand basis with the enemy looking for any opening into which he could thrust his knife into his enemy. A Roman soldier, therefore, wore a breastplate to protect his vital organs from such an attack. 

There were evidently a variety of styles of covering that were worn by the soldiers. Some primarily covered just the front chest while others apparently wrapped around a soldier to protect both his front and his back. Generally, a military battle involved face to face conflict, but it was possible for an enemy to get behind a soldier. It appears some had breastplates designed to protect against that possibility. God has provided for our complete protection if Satan attacks either directly or from behind.

The breastplate a Roman soldier put on was often a woven chain with pieces of metal attached. Others were made of leather or heavy linen, onto which they sewed overlapping slices of animal hooves or horns. Some were made of large pieces of metal molded or hammered to conform to the body.  All were designed to cover the soldier’s entire upper body from the neck to the waist. The purpose of that piece of armor was to protect all the vital organs including the heart and lungs.

In prison, looking at the battle-ready Roman soldier to whom he was chained, Paul thought, “A Christian needs to wear a similar piece of equipment to protect him from Satan’s attacks.” 

Paul, of course was not thinking about the imputed righteousness of God because, as we already noted, that was given to us the moment we believed. Read II Corinthians 5:21.Paul was urging us to holy living, knowing that if we are not seeking to live holy lives, we are leaving ourselves open to the attacks of Satan. The imputed righteousness God gives us what is called a positional righteousness so we can come into God’s presence in worship and prayer. Only obedience to the Lord makes practical righteousness a reality in our daily lives. We are called upon to develop a righteous character that results in righteous living. We are to reflect the righteous character of God in our everyday actions. 

In Ephesians 4, beginning with verse 17 Paul decried the fact that some of the believers in that church were still living the way they did before they made a commitment to Jesus. Read Ephesians 4:22, 22 and 24. That is what Paul meant when later he wrote we are to put on the breastplate of righteousness. 

The Hebrew name for the evil one, transliterated as “Satan,” means “adversary.” That means that Satan is the enemy of both God and God’s people. As the enemy of God, he is determined to keep as many as possible from making a saving commitment to Him. When that fails, his goal is to keep the believer from enjoying the multiple blessings of belonging to God.  

Everyone who has asked Jesus to be their Savior is automatically made a child of God and given the Holy Spirit. But there is much more potentially available to the Christian. Read Psalm 103:2. Then in Psalm 2:3-12 note all the blessings that God gives to His people. 

While those blessings are available to all believers, they do not become a reality when God imputes His righteousness. A Christian must grow in his faith via deeper commitment to God. Putting on the breastplate of righteousness is seeking to live in a moment-by-moment obedience to God.

The life we live either strengthens us against Satan’s attacks or makes it easier for him to defeat us. Satan’s tactic is to disrupt the daily blessings God wants us to enjoy. To do that he focuses on our daily living, searching for some kink in our armor that will allow him to stab us. A soldier in battle looked for a weak spot in the enemies’ armor. He looked for a spot left open when he constructed the armor. He looked for a spot not maintained so it has begun to rust and grown weak. Carefully the soldier examines the armor to see how to best attack.

Satan, who is wiser than any soldier, does the same thing. He looks at a believer to find his weak spots. He spots a Christian who dabbles in pornography and immediately he detects a weak spot that he can use to inflict greater harm. He surveys a Christian’s daily/weekly time spent with God and notices that he skips church regularly or never has time for personal Bible study. Immediately he stabs his knife designed to weaken the believer’s faith and confidence in God. Satan looks at the believer’s friends to see which ones he can use as his knife to cut the believer away from God. The reality is that our positional righteousness in Jesus, without practical day by day righteousness in life, gives Satan opportunity to attack us.

A Christian determined to live a righteous life and to confess sin when he fails is a Christian who minimizes Satan’s opportunities to attack. Satan has no place from which to operate. If there is sin, there is an opening and Satan moves in. He doesn’t need to find a hole from a major sin. All he needs is a crack because we ignore what we might call a minor sin.

Paul urges us to put on the practical breastplate of righteousness to minimize the opportunities Satan has to destroy the blessings that should be ours as believers. Paul would say, “Pursue practical righteousness for even what you think is a small sin is an opportunity for Satan to attack.”

Belt of Truth

Acts 19 records that Paul visited Ephesus on his third missionary journey. In total he spent close to three years planting the church there. For the first 3 months Paul spoke of Jesus in the local synagogue. After he was forbidden to teach any more there, he moved close by to a lecture hall where he taught daily for two years. Six or seven years later, while in prison in Rome, he wrote a letter to that church in Ephesus.

In Ephesians Paul described who we are and what we have in Jesus. He then wrote about our Christian walk in chapters 4-6. Paul went on to note that when the Christian lifestyle begins to become a reality in our lives, we automatically put ourselves in conflict with Satan. The Christian described in Ephesians 1-3 who seeks to live the faithful life described in 4:1—6:9 can be sure he will face the spiritual warfare described in 6:10-20. That is why we need to put on the armor of God.  

In Ephesians 6:10-13 Paul explained why we need the armor and then went on to describe various pieces of armor and how they should be used to protect a Christian from the attacks of Satan and how they should be used to attack the strongholds of Satan.

Read Ephesians 6:14. If Satan is a liar, and the Bible says he is, then we must all be guarded with the truth. If he deals in falsehood, then we must deal in truth. The belt was used to keep together the robe a soldier wore into battle. In a battle a soldier that did not have such a belt would easily trip and fall and then he would be easy prey for the enemy.

The Roman soldiers wore a tunic or an outer garment that served as their primary clothing. It was a large piece of cloth with holes cut out for the head and arms. Ordinarily it was simply draped over the body. For a soldier this presented a challenge. The greatest part of ancient combat was hand-to-hand, so a loose outer garment was a potential danger. Before a battle it was carefully cinched up and tucked into the heavy leather belt that went around his waist. The design of that belt was to hold everything in place and minimize the danger of falling. 

In Ephesians 6:14 Paul told us to put on the belt of truth because truth holds everything together, so one does not stumble. One of the fascinating things about this first piece of armor is that the way it is written allows for two interpretations. First,  it allows us to understand that we are to be held together by the truth of God and second it insists that we practice truth in our dealings with others. One without the other is incomplete. 

We need to know what Paul meant when he told us to wrap a belt of truth around us to keep us from falling.

From a biblical perspective there are 2 dimensions to truth. One is the fact that God is truth. In Him there is no deceit, no falsehood, not even a hint of lying. He is truth. Read John 14:6. 

The truthfulness of God stands in contrast to that of Satan. From the very beginning Satan has lied to mankind. See Genesis 3:1-5. See how Jesus described Satan in John 8:44.  

Satan is a liar but God is truth so when Paul wrote that we are to put on the belt of truth he means that we are to figuratively wrap God around us so He can hold us together. One of the truths of the armor of God is that it is He himself who is our resource. The closer we are to God the better able we will be to ward off the lies Satan throws at us to trip us up.

A second part of the definition of truth is that because God is always truth, whenever He speaks it is truth. That means that God’s Word is truth. Read II Timothy 3:16. There is no weapon for a believer who is confronted in battle by Satan or who wants to attach the strongholds of sin that compares to a knowledge of God’s Word.

In the spiritual battles we will face as we seek to grow in our faith and grow in the way we live out the life we are called up to display, nothing will be more challenging than confronting the lies of Satan. Satan will constantly lie about the nature of God. Satan will try to convince us that God is a God of love who will not judge sin or that God is some being bent on spoiling all our fun, so He has set up rules that are no longer relevant. Satan says it is fine to do all sorts of things that in the end are contrary to how God wants us to live. He will present those lies under the guise of it being our right, being what everyone says is acceptable. He tells us it is the only way to get ahead etc. but God’s Word says something else. We need to know His word as truth.

Earlier in this letter Paul wrote about what we will be like without knowledge of biblical truth. Read Ephesians 4:14.

Want to know what the problem is in America? We are a biblically illiterate nation. We fall for every lie Satan tells. In all honesty that should not surprise us. Read to I Timothy 4:1. We see it all about us and while it is perhaps inevitable as we draw closer to the return of the Lord, we need to be on guard that we are not drawn that way.

We are to gird ourselves with truth, truth about God, truth about ourselves and our sin problem, truth about how He wants us to live, and truth about our future. 

The word Paul used here for truth refers not only to knowing what is true but carries the idea of having an attitude of truthfulness. We are not only to know God’s truth, but we are to determine to live out the implications of that truth day by day. The Christian is to gird himself in an attitude of total truthfulness.

Being truthful implies several things including sincerity, that is no hypocrisy. Being truthful also implies that we are committed to keeping our word. Isaiah 11 describes the promised Messiah that was to come and in Isaiah 11:5 He is described this way, “faithfulness the sash around his waist.” The word the NIV translates as “faithfulness” was translated into the Greek as “truthful.” Because God is truthful it is expected we will gird ourselves with that same commitment to truth.

Read Psalm 15:1 and then verse 4.  God is pleased when those of us who know truth consistently seek to be truthful in all our dealings.

Earlier in this letter to the church in Ephesus Paul began a long discussion of what it means to live as Christians with the command found in Ephesians 4:17. Read that verse and then verse 25. 

One additional key teaching on wrapping ourselves tightly in truthfulness so we do not stumble in our battle with sin is found in what we call the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:33-37 Jesus dealt with the practice of people making a promise carefully worded so they could wiggle out of it. Jesus condemned such a practice. Read what He said in Matthew 5:37. Our word should be our bond and people should know that whatever you say, or promise,  is true.

Read Ephesians 6:12 on the battle we are in as Christians. The forces Paul wrote about are led by Satan himself and as we have seen, he is a liar and the father of all lies. If we are going to prevail in our battle against a liar, we must know the truth and we must live truthfully. Paul wrote, “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.” The first piece of armor to put on is truth and that includes truthfulness. Withoutthat the rest of the armor will be all but useless,