The Armour of God

Near the end of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul stops teaching and starts giving orders. "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Ephesians 6:10-11).

It is easy to read this as a picture for children’s Bible classes: a soldier drawn in outline, with a word printed on each piece. But Paul did not write it as a picture. He wrote it as a command, to ordinary believers, in the imperative mood. "Be strong." "Put on." "Take." "Stand." These are not suggestions for the especially devout. They are orders given to the whole church, and Paul gives them because the enemy is real and the attacks are real. This letter takes each piece in turn, then the one thing Paul adds after the armour is complete: prayer in the Spirit.

1. An order, because the enemy is real

Paul is not the only apostle who says this. James writes: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). Peter writes: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith" (1 Peter 5:8-9). In the Greek, James and Peter use the same command, antistete, "resist" or "stand against." Paul uses the same verb in Ephesians 6:13, "that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day." Three apostles, writing separately, give believers the same order in the same word.

Nor is it a small matter. Jesus said to Peter on the night He was betrayed, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke 22:31-32). Peter denied Him three times before morning. Paul tells the Corinthians to forgive a repentant man "lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices" (2 Corinthians 2:11). He warns the Ephesians, "Neither give place to the devil" (Ephesians 4:27). And he says the attack rarely looks like an attack: "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14).

Paul names the enemy plainly. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12). The word for "wrestle," pale, is used nowhere else in the New Testament. It is the word for a wrestling match, fought body to body at close range. And the word for "wiles" in verse 11, methodeia, is the same word Paul used two chapters earlier for false teachers who "lie in wait to deceive" (Ephesians 4:14). The devil’s first weapon is a lie, as it was in the garden: "Yea, hath God said?" (Genesis 3:1).

But the command is not given in fear. The same letter has already said where Christ sits: "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion" (Ephesians 1:21). Paul tells the Colossians that at the cross Christ, "having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15). John writes, "greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4). The believer does not fight to win a war that is still undecided. The believer stands in a victory already won and refuses to give up ground.

2. His strength, and His armour

The first command is in a form that is easy to miss. "Be strong in the Lord" (6:10) is a present passive imperative in Greek. It means, roughly, "keep on being made strong." The strength is received, not produced. And Paul says whose strength it is: "the power of his might." He uses the same Greek words in chapter 1, where he prays that believers would know "the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead" (Ephesians 1:19-20). The strength offered to a believer in the fight is the same power that raised Jesus from the grave.

The armour is His too. Paul calls it "the whole armour of God." Almost every piece comes from the prophet Isaiah, and in Isaiah it is God, or His Messiah, who wears it. "For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head" (Isaiah 59:17). "And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins" (Isaiah 11:5). "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace" (Isaiah 52:7). Believers are not handed a soldier’s kit and told to become brave. They are clothed in what God Himself wore when He came to save.

"Whole armour" is one word in Greek, panoplia, the full equipment of a soldier. It appears only one other place in the New Testament. Jesus used it about Satan: "When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils" (Luke 11:21-22). Christ took the enemy’s full armour from him. Now Paul tells believers to put on God’s.

And the aim of all of it is one word, repeated four times: stand. "That ye may be able to stand" (6:11). "To withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand" (6:13). "Stand therefore" (6:14). This is not armour for conquering new ground. It is armour for holding ground that Christ has already taken, and not giving it back.

3. The belt of truth

"Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth" (6:14).

In the ancient world men wore long, loose robes. Before a man could run, work or fight, he gathered the robe up and tied it with a belt. Israel ate the first Passover that way, ready to leave Egypt in the night: "with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand" (Exodus 12:11). On a soldier, the belt held everything else in place.

Truth does that for a believer. It means the truth of God, the gospel and the words of Christ, who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). It also means truthfulness, a life without deceit. The two belong together. Jesus called the devil "a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44). A believer who knows the truth and lives it has nothing loose for the enemy to catch hold of. A believer who allows small lies, even to himself, is fighting with his robe around his ankles. Chrysostom, preaching on this verse in the 4th century, asked what a spiritual soldier girds himself with, and answered, "with that which is the head and crown of all our thoughts, I mean, ‘with truth.’"

4. The breastplate of righteousness

"And having on the breastplate of righteousness" (6:14).

The breastplate covered the heart and the other vital organs. In Isaiah 59:17 it is God’s own. Paul says elsewhere that faith and love serve as the breastplate: "putting on the breastplate of faith and love" (1 Thessalonians 5:8).

Commentators read "righteousness" here in two ways, and both are true in Scripture. The first is the righteousness God gives: "And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Philippians 3:9). The devil is called "the accuser of our brethren" (Revelation 12:10), and his most common attack on a believer is accusation: you are too far gone, you have done too much, God is finished with you. The breastplate against that is the answer God has already given: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).

The second is righteousness lived out, an upright life. Paul pairs righteousness and truth in the chapter before: "the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth" (Ephesians 5:9). The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown commentary joins the two: "Christ’s righteousness inwrought in us by the Spirit." A heart covered by what God gives, and kept by how a believer lives, is hard to wound.

5. Feet ready with the gospel of peace

"And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace" (6:15).

An army moves on its feet. The ancient soldier’s sandals were often studded with nails to grip the ground, and his lower legs were protected. The word Paul uses, hetoimasia, means readiness or preparedness. Commentators disagree on the exact picture. Some read it as readiness to go and tell the gospel, which is Isaiah’s picture of the feet of the one who "publisheth peace" (Isaiah 52:7). Others read it as firm ground to stand on, a believer who does not slip because the gospel is under him.

Either way, the gospel is called a gospel of peace, and that is the strange thing about this armour. The believer wears it in a war, and it is made of peace. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you... Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27). A soldier at peace with his commander, and certain of the outcome, does not run. The enemy’s aim is to unsettle and to frighten. Peace with God is what keeps a believer standing.

6. The shield of faith

"Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked" (6:16).

"Above all" means "over all," covering everything else. The shield Paul names, thureos, was not a small round buckler. It was the large Roman shield, roughly the size and shape of a door, about four feet tall, behind which a soldier could crouch almost completely. Soldiers in a line could lock these shields together.

The "fiery darts" were real weapons: arrows with pitch or burning material tied to the head, shot to set fire to whatever they struck. A shield covered in hide could take the arrow and put out the flame. The darts of "the wicked," or "the wicked one" as the Greek reads, are the thoughts and temptations he throws: sudden fear, doubt about God’s goodness, a surge of anger, a lustful picture, despair. They come fast and they come burning.

Faith is the shield because faith trusts what God has said over what the moment feels like. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4). The psalmist says the same of God’s faithfulness: "his truth shall be thy shield and buckler" (Psalm 91:4). And Paul says the shield will work: "ye shall be able to quench all." Not some. All.

Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, writing to Polycarp about the year 110 on his way to die in Rome, used the same picture for the whole church: "Let your baptism endure as your arms; your faith as your helmet; your love as your spear; your patience as a complete panoply." He was not writing a Bible lesson. He was writing as a man in chains, and he meant it.

7. The helmet of salvation

"And take the helmet of salvation" (6:17).

Here Paul changes the verb. For the shield and the whole armour he wrote "take up" (analambano). For the helmet he writes dexasthe, which means "receive" or "accept," as one accepts a gift that is handed over. Salvation is not made by the soldier. It is received from God.

The helmet protects the head, and the head directs the rest of the body. Chrysostom put it this way: "We have need also of an helmet; for since the reasoning faculty is there... therefore he says, ‘the helmet of salvation.’" Paul calls it, in another letter, "for an helmet, the hope of salvation" (1 Thessalonians 5:8). The certainty of how the story ends protects the mind in the middle of it. A believer who knows he belongs to God, and that "in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37), is not easily talked into despair.

8. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God

"And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (6:17).

This is the only weapon for attack in the list. The sword Paul names, machaira, is the short sword used at close range, which fits the close fighting of verse 12. It is "of the Spirit" because the Spirit gave the word and the Spirit makes it cut. "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword" (Hebrews 4:12).

Paul’s word for "word" here is rhema, which often means a word spoken, a particular saying. The clearest example of the sword in use is Christ Himself in the wilderness. Three times the devil tempted Him, and three times He answered with a particular verse of Scripture: "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (4:7). "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (4:10). He did not argue with the tempter. He quoted God to him, and the tempter left.

That is why the sword has to be in the hand, not on a shelf. A believer who knows the Scriptures has the right verse ready when the lie comes. Albert Barnes wrote, "A single text of Scripture is better to meet a temptation, than all the philosophy which the world contains." And the sword is not only for defence. It is also how the gospel goes out and sets captives free, which is why Paul, in the next verses, asks for prayer that he may speak it boldly.

The written word is the sword. The Word who wrote it is alive, and He still speaks to those who love Him and abide in Him, and never against what He has already said. That is taken up on Did the Gifts Stop?.

9. How the armour is worn: praying in the Spirit

Paul does not stop with the sword. In the same sentence he goes on: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (6:18).

Prayer is not one more piece of armour. Paul does not give it a place on the soldier’s body. It is how the whole armour is put on and kept on. A soldier fully armed who never speaks to his commander is still alone.

What does "in the Spirit" mean? The phrase in Greek is en Pneumati, and Paul uses it four times in this letter. Every time it means the Holy Spirit, though the King James Version translates it differently in each place, which hides the connection:

• "an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22)
• "revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit" (Ephesians 3:5)
• "be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18)
• "supplication in the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:18)

And one verse in chapter 2 gives the whole shape of Christian prayer in a single line: "For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Ephesians 2:18). Through Christ, in the Spirit, to the Father. To pray in the Spirit is to pray as someone the Spirit lives in: brought by Him into the Father’s presence, prompted by Him, and helped by Him when words run out. "We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered... according to the will of God" (Romans 8:26-27). He is the one who teaches a believer to say "Father" at all: "God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6). Jude gives the same instruction in almost the same words: "praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God" (Jude 20-21).

The chapter before shows what a life filled with the Spirit sounds like: "be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs... Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:18-20). It is the same "always" as 6:18. Praying in the Spirit is not a special technique for a few. It is the ordinary breathing of a Christian who depends on God.

Some readers take "praying in the Spirit" to mean praying in tongues, from 1 Corinthians 14:15: "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also." That verse is worth reading closely. The verse before it says "my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful" (14:14), so in that passage "spirit" is the believer’s own spirit, set against his mind. Ephesians 6:18 has no "my." It uses the phrase Paul keeps for the Holy Spirit, and it is given to every believer, to be done "always." Praying in tongues may be one form of praying in the Spirit, but it is not the whole of it, and no believer is shut out of Ephesians 6:18.

Paul adds three things to the command. Pray always, in every season. Watch, staying alert rather than drowsy, as Jesus told the disciples in the garden and found them sleeping. And pray "for all saints." The armour is worn in a line, not alone. Then Paul asks for prayer himself: "And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds" (6:19-20). He wrote this as a prisoner. If the letter comes from his house arrest in Rome, as most think, he was writing with "a soldier that kept him" (Acts 28:16) in the room. He was looking at armour every day. He did not ask for release. He asked for boldness.

Where this lands

The armour of God is not a picture to admire. It is a command given to every believer, because the enemy is real, his attacks are many, and they are aimed at people who belong to Christ. Peter was sifted. Paul was not ignorant of the devil’s devices, and did not want the churches to be.

But every piece is God’s before it is ours. The belt is His truth. The breastplate is His righteousness. The peace is His peace. The faith rests on His faithfulness. The salvation is received as a gift. The sword is His word. And the prayer is His Spirit praying in us to the Father. Jerome, writing to Augustine, put it in one line: "But our armour is Christ."

The victory is already His: "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). And the promise at the end of Paul’s longest letter is the one this letter ends on too: "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly" (Romans 16:20).

So put it on. Stand. And pray.

Study the passages

• Ephesians 6:10-20: the armour and the prayer
• Isaiah 59:17, 11:5, 52:7: the armour God wears
• Luke 11:21-22: the strong man disarmed
• James 4:7 and 1 Peter 5:8-9: resist the devil
• Matthew 4:1-11: the sword in use
• Ephesians 2:18, Romans 8:26-27, Jude 20: praying in the Spirit

The Holy Spirit, the whole set

These letters were written separately and belong together. Start anywhere; each one assumes the others rather than repeating them.

Related: The Power of the Air, on the enemy; Patrick, whose Breastplate is Scripture made into armour; Prayer That Moves the Hand of God; David’s Mighty Men. Scripture from the King James Version, linked to the Study Bible; the Greek from the interlinear behind it. Commentary quoted verbatim from the public-domain editions in our library (Barnes, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Chrysostom). Ignatius from the Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1; Jerome’s line is from his letter to Augustine, number 75 in Augustine’s collection.