Lesson 28 – Our Armor, Part 2
Read Ephesians 6:10-17 - https://www.bible.com/bible/59/eph.6.esv
We look at the last three pieces of our armor in this lesson. Our armor so far is the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and shoes of preparedness of the Gospel of peace. We begin in verse 16 for our next item – our shield of faith. A shield is something that is moved as needed to block incoming weapons. It is attached to us but remains movable.
How is faith “movable” in our lives? It is movable when we are able to apply it to various situations, all kinds of attacks, or hold it at different angles to deflect things properly. When we are attacked for what we believe, our shield of faith is used for that frontal assault, it takes the blow directly, like a bullet into a flack-jacket. We stand firm on what we believe, we take the bullets of doubt directly onto our shield. Sometimes we deflect a weapon, like a sword or knife is deflected off its course by an angled shield, throwing the force of the attack away from us. We deflect lies about us away from us so that the power they may have is directed somewhere else rather than at our hearts.
Our faith must be versatile. It must be able to handle all kinds of attacks. We must know our position with God – we are righteous in Him, we must know His word – personal and intimate knowledge from every-day contact, and we must know His promises – they will never fail.
The second piece of armor in this lesson is the helmet of salvation. The helmet protects the head, the mind. How can salvation protect our minds from attack? Our minds are most susceptible to the attacks of lies from Satan, he wants us to doubt God, His love for us, and that He cares about us.
We must make sure of our salvation, KNOW we are His. The wonderful little book of 1 John is an excellent book to read because God WANTS us to KNOW we are His eternally. This helmet – salvation – will protect us from those doubts that can paralyze us with fear and doubt. We cannot fight effectively without our helmet.
The last piece of armor is the only offensive weapon we are given. Everything else is defensive in nature. This is the “sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.” We think of a sword being a weapon perhaps 2-3 feet long that lets us strike an enemy at arm’s length. The word here is actually a shorter weapon than the great broadsword we usually picture a soldier using.
Our only offensive weapon is one that must be used in close, intimate contact. The word of God is best wielded in that same personal, relationship-based contact with another person. God reminds us that we cannot fight “long distance” as modern weapons can.
Remember, our enemy is not flesh and blood; so when we’re close and personal with someone of flesh and blood, our weapon is best used to free that person from the bonds they are carrying – show them God’s love, how His love can set them free and they no longer need to serve the enemy as a slave.
*The 3 additional pieces of armor are _____ , _____ , and _____
*What do we know about God’s promises?
*Our enemy is not _____ and _____