Paul Instructs the Ephesian Believers on Spiritual
Warfare Part 5: The Pieces of our Armor
Ephesians
6:14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on
the breastplate of righteousness; KJVPaul has warned these Ephesian believers and we believers today of the powerful invisible evil beings that we are at war with at all times, but now he turns to us and reminds us of the greater and more powerful weapons we have been given by our Lord, Master, and Savior Jesus Christ to stand firm against the devil and his armies attacks. Note: “We must stand firm our spiritual ground in this war never retreating, yielding, or fleeing from the fight, but instead we must have a readiness of mind for the warfare at all times as this same Apostle Paul wrote to Brother Timothy to remind and encourage him to stand firm with these words, “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” (2 Timothy 2:3-4).”
The first of our defense weapons or armor we are to employ in our spiritual battle is the “having your loins girt about with truth” (Ephesians 6:14). The expression Paul uses here comes from his witness of the Roman soldier after having put on all of his armor, then he would cinch up or fasten up his belt around the waist to hold everything into place securely just as people today place a stable gear around a horse’s belly that holds the saddle in place. Paul list this armor of truth first because like the Roman soldier’s armor or the horse’s saddle the child of God has to believe the truth, put on the truth always, walk in the truth, and love the truth in order to fight this spiritual war and be victorious by being sanctified or set apart by the truth as our Lord Jesus declared with these words praying to God the Father before He went to the Cross, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.” (John 17:17-19) and with these words, “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning;” (Luke 12:35).
The English phrase “girt about” the Apostle Paul uses here is translated by one Greek word perizonnumi meaning to gird all around, that is, (middle or passive voice) to fasten on one’s belt (literally or figuratively): - gird (about, self). This is just how the truth and sincerity is to be spiritually fastened into our inner man or inner woman by God the Holy Spirit as our Lord Jesus Christ said He would with these words, “However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” (John 16:13). Note: God the Holy Spirit is the restrainer of evil in this world having a full free rein to go to an infinite limit, but more importantly to each one of us redeemed, regenerated, and resurrected followers of Jesus Christ, God the Holy Spirit within us is a restrainer to our old man or old nature continuing its free rein of sin without check or without repentance as we were before His intervention of grace just as the Apostle Paul has already informed these Ephesian believers and us today with these words at the beginning of this letter, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14). Paul is saying that without being grounded and rooted in the armor of truth of the Gospel and the entire Word of God, then there will be certain defeat in the spiritual battles that occur. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is the Truth of God and anything added to this, opposed to this, or that takes away from this is error and a lie from the enemy.
The next piece of armor Paul tells these Ephesian believers and we believers today “having on the breastplate of righteousness” (Ephesians 6:14). Again the Apostle Paul in his witness of the Roman soldiers assigned to guard him for the two (2) years he was in house arrest in Rome (Acts 28:31) saw them put on this thick piece of armor to cover their chest protecting them from arrows, swords, and spears thrust at their hearts. In like manner (in the spiritual sense) we are to put on our breastplate of righteousness that we have freely received from our Lord Jesus Christ (Isaiah 59:17). It is the imparted righteousness of Jesus Christ that makes us acceptable to God the Father as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman believers with these words, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:21-25).
“The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth of God; unless this be known and conscientiously believed no man can enter the spiritual warfare with any advantage or prospect of success. By this alone we discover who our enemies are, and how they come on to attack us; and by this we know where our strength lies; and, as the truth is great, and must prevail, we are to gird ourselves with this against all false religion, and the various winds of doctrine by which cunning men and insidious devils lie in wait to deceive. Truth may be taken here for sincerity; for if a man be not conscious to himself that his heart is right before God, and that he makes no false pretenses to religion, in vain does he enter the spiritual lists.” Adam Clarke
“That existent righteousness is to be put on. Other places of Scripture figure it as the robe of righteousness; here it is conceived of as the breastplate, but the idea of assumption is the same. It is to be put on, primarily, by faith. It is given in Christ to simple belief. He that hath faith thereby has the righteousness which is through faith in Christ, for in his faith he has the one formative principle of reliance on God, which will gradually refine character and mould conduct into whatsoever things are lovely and of good report. That righteousness which faith receives is no mere forensic treating of the unjust as just, but whilst it does bring with it pardon and oblivion from past transgressions, it makes a man in the depths of his being righteous, however slowly it may afterwards transform his conduct. The faith which is a departure from all reliance on works of righteousness which we have done, and is a single-eyed reliance on the work of Jesus Christ, opens the heart in which it is planted to all the influences of that life which was in Jesus, that from Him it may be in us. If Christ be in us (and if He is not, we are none of His), ‘the spirit is life because of righteousness,’ however the body may still be ‘dead because of sin.’” Alexander MacLaren
If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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