THE ARMOR OF GOD

A spiritual warrior in the armor of God! So, what is the armor of God anyway?

God's armor is not actual, physical armor. The Nazis are not looking for it in the desert. Although, there is a great story about a man named Simon who tried to buy the power of God. Maybe we'll explore that at a later time. The armor of God is not waiting somewhere to be found by an Indiana Jones type of character. But it is ready and available for you to put on and use.

God's armor was written about by the Apostle Paul (early church leader) in a letter to some people who lived in the city of Ephesus.  They were called Ephesians and their city was located in Asia Minor, what is now modern day Turkey. At the time of this writing Paul had been arrested for bringing a gentile into the Hebrew temple in Jerusalem, a capital offense, and was under the guard of roman soldiers. While in this circumstance Paul wrote that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12 NIV) Interesting that Paul did not say that our struggle is against these roman dudes who are keeping me in prison. After all, they are flesh and blood.  Our struggle is of a spiritual nature and we need the right kind of armor.

Paul saw in the armor worn by the roman soldiers a metaphor for how christians can protect themselves in a spiritual struggle.  In his letter to the Ephesians Paul tells us to put on these things:

• TRUTH as a belt buckled at your waist
• RIGHTEOUSNESS as a breastplate
• READINESS THAT COMES FROM THE GOSPEL OF PEACE as shoes upon your feet
• FAITH as a shield
• SALVATION as a helmet
• THE WORD OF GOD as a sword

And while wearing this armor stay alert and pray.

So... are we to wear all this metaphorical armor so we can live boring lives, unchallenged by hardship, apart from a decaying world? Not so. We wear God's armor so that we may stand. We are called to much greater things. There is evil in the world around us - not people - spirits. We wear the armor of God so that we may bring the good news of new life through Christ to people who are all dead inside. And we do this while facing the opposition of spirits who want them to stay dead inside. Paul said it best when he wrote "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." (Ephesians 6:13 NIV)

So... what does it mean to put on truth as a belt buckled at your waist? I will look at that question in my next blog post.

Everett Paul Burris
spiritmancomics.com