Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Going on to Verse 14 we get the actual pieces of armor but before then, the first thing said in verse 14:
"Stand firm".
Guess what Spartan's TONIGHT, WE DINE IN HELLLLL!!!!! We are to stare this beast directly in the face, we aren't cowering, we got our Armor, we have the word, Satan already lost, we are looking at an already defeated "God of the world." "Belt of truth, buckled around your waist" why would wearing a belt be the first piece introduced by Paul, and it is as important as being the "belt of truth?" Great question! I am making a personal judgement here (Grab your grain of salt). A belt sort of "ties up loose ends" of clothing, and a Roman warrior battling back in the day could have been truly hindered by loose armor flailing about during hand to hand/melee portion of combat. A belt, would have been a great asset as far as allowing free movement, and keeping his clothes bound tightly to himself. Therefore a spiritual belt, one of truth, would be ordained to tie up the loose ends of truth, or truthfulness perhaps? No untruth hinders you, in the Christian, you aren't a hypocrite you fight with sincerity, you are self disciplined in the word of God which is all truth (cross references? 2 Timothy 2:4; Hebrews 12:1). Sound ok? (grain of salt down)
Breastplate of righteousness
Well a breastplate protects a heart, a vital organ, a spiritual breastplate is bound to do the same thing for your spiritual heart, and it is the breastplate of RIGHTEOUSNESS, or HOLINESS. This is the master armor crafted by God for us to preserve the very thing that separates us from the world.... Our Holiness, found in Christ who lives in us, is that which truly; sets us apart from the world.
Boots of the gospel (Cross reference Romans 5:6-10)
Ok didn't know this about the boots of battle back in the boonies :) but the boots that Roman soldiers wore had literal nails in them, which were used to, sort of, attach yourself to the ground for combat :) Look it up.... and the peace part? Well it is another piece of armor, therefore it isn't going to be a gospel of WAR! Gospel means "Good News" that we as believers have our peace in God, and walking in his steps haha pun hahahaha pun.....
Shield of faith
Shields back then, were HUGE! About 2.5 ft by 4.5 ft. which were used to protect the entire body of the user. The faith part of it is putting our entire trust in God, not about putting our trust in the body of believers so much (though Paul talks about that in 4:13) this part of the armor maybe the most important part, it implies of our trusting in God's eternal Word and Promise to back us up from every sort of temptation and sin the devil wants to send at us. Fiery darts, is a spiritual/Physical image of the fire arrows people used to like shooting at stuff back in the day to put you on fire. Very important to have a big shield, if you don't want to be put on fire, from fiery arrows. Solid advice for anyone.
Helmet of Salvation
Ok, this one took me FOREVER to find out about it, but it is vitally important, so I made sure I got this part down. Helmet's protect your heads, and in battle if your head was cut off, you were dead until further notice. The Armor that Paul is talking about is obtained after Salvation, so why would he call this the helm of salvation? (LORD OF THE RINGS MUSIC ENTERS BACKGROUND) Well believers are to be consciously aware (in a spiritual sense, not so much a physical, though the thoughts we have in our day to day lives very much play a part on how we are) Satan's going for our weak mind's and using his tool's of discouragement and doubt to make believer's question their very beliefs and salvation. Next time I start going through that, I am gonna remember my spiritual helmet, and how it probably has alot of spiritual strikes on it. Though it can be made stronger in the renewing of your mind. We as believer's since we get this piece of equipment, we can be confident in our worth as a Christian being saved and remaining Holy even when our mind is beating us up, and doubts are sinking in.....
Sword of the spirit
Finally we get a weapon! This is, unfortunately our only weapon, but I think that most demons would attest to this being a very VERY terrifying weapon Cross reference, though not really, but the Verse in James 2:19 is seriously EPIC! ((had to Mikey)). SO! A weapon forged on the Truth of the Word of God is gonna be mighty indeed, way way way more terrifying than anything Satan wants to be a butt and use against us.
HAHA! As a Christian, though you don't see this in the physical, our weapons aren't carnal, but we do get his truth to strengthen our understainding of each piece of Armor.
One last thing to add, this Armor is ordered and checked by God himself, our General, the only one who gives you orders, and your to follow them to your very death Soldier. He hasn't lost a battle yet, so without further ado, Psalms 34:17-20:
17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
That's our general Spartan, let's move.....
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