What Does "Armor of God" Mean?

Some striking mile markers appear on the road through young adulthood: college, getting your first job, your first home, getting married, having children, starting a career – and for many, unfortunately, walking away from the Christian faith. According to a well-known research institute, the Barna Group, 70% of youth leave the church by the time they are 22 years old. 80% will leave by the age of 29. These numbers are only going up. And it has got to change.

Many of Satan’s victims do not even know there is a war going on. They make easy prey. Christians should know that we are in the midst of a great spiritual struggle, although many seem not to believe it. And even more distressing is the fact that many who consider themselves “in the war” do not understand the nature of Satan’s schemes, of the weapons which he employs, or of the weapons which God has provided for our defense.

Ephesians 6:10-18 is perhaps the clearest definition of the spiritual war which we find from the pen of the Apostle Paul. It not only assures us that there is a spiritual war, but it warns us that apart from utilizing the weapons which God has provided for us, we are hopelessly underpowered. This passage informs us as to what our divinely weapons are:

Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness. Therefore, take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and overcome all, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints (Ephesians 6:10-18).

Profess Christ today and be prepared for a battle. The world hates our Lord and just as He promised, it hates those who love Him as well (John 15:18). In other words, living for God is not for the fainthearted. But your most dangerous opposition is not the world. The battles you'll wage take place in the spirit. The enemies of your faith are also the supernatural enemies of your soul. Thankfully, none of us are defenseless; far from it.

Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. The assumption here is it will not be easy. It’s going to take strength. It’s going to take strength that you don’t have. This is not an easy walk. It is a walk that it is repetitive, constant, and is set at a pace. You have a lot of things working against you. First of all is the flesh. There are, in this body, impulses that go along with being human that are not yet glorified in Heaven. And that is what Paul calls the flesh in Romans chapter 7, and it wars against the Spirit. We are in this walk together as the body of Christ, because, as saved Christians, we all are in a constant battle with our flesh due to the sinful nature we all were born with passed down by our common ancestors Adam and Eve. There’s a battle going on in every believer between the Spirit which is that new creation, and the flesh which is what’s left of that old man. We learn more about this conflict in Galatians 5:17, “The flesh sets its desire against the Spirit. These are in opposition to one another.” The reality of living our Christian life of walking the way we ought to walk, walking a worthy walk is that it is not easy.

What are the elements of this flesh? Verse 19 of Galatians 5, “Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these.” So this is not an exhaustive list, this is merely a representative list. On the other hand, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and things like these. The battle inside us is that the spirit drives us towards what is holy while the flesh to what is unholy, but when you add the presence of the devil, the battle becomes all the more fierce. So we have an enemy that is within us and an enemy that is outside of us. We have to be aware of this.

 

And so, you come to Christ and Satan still is committed to your destruction. Once he had you, now he doesn’t have you. Once you were part of his system, now you’re not. You have become the enemy of Satan, an enemy indeed you are as he is an enemy to you, so you are an enemy to his cause now that you have come to Christ. At the point that we were saved, we were delivered out of the kingdom of darkness. We had been captive to certain ideologies that were fortifications, wrong views, wrong thinking, and we were set free and brought captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10). We were rescued out of Satan’s fortress, out of his lying, damning, deceptive ideologies, all those ideas raised up against the true knowledge of God. He doesn’t take it lightly. The question is how does Satan operate?
 
Satan operates against the people of God through a system that would be called "the world." That is why we say we have a three-fold enemy, the world, the flesh and the devil. The flesh is in us, the devil is outside of us. Christians don’t need to feel that Satan could come and live in them.

 

Second Corinthians 2:11 says, “In order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan for we’re not ignorant of his schemes.” You don’t want to give him any advantage. His system is the world. That’s why we read in the book of James that if you love the world you’re an enemy of God. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Or we hear John say, “Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life is not of God, it’s of the world and the world is passing away.” False religions, subtle deceptions as well as blatant immorality, all part of his arsenal. These are just examples. This day in age, Satan has many more methods in which he can work his covert schemes that he has never been able to use. With each new method, he tries to prioritize our lives with the things that do not have much substance and will slow our walk with God.

We are called to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might, recognizing we don’t have in ourselves the strength.Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. There is no temptation taken you but such is as common to man. God is faithful who will never allow you to be tempted above but will with the temptation make a way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13).

We have to remember that people are not really our enemy. I know sometimes we believe that those who are blatantly immoral and who advocate immoral things are, but in reality our real enemy is far, far more powerful. They are just pawns; people that he uses. We’re struggling against the spiritual forces of this wickedness.

Satan rebelled against God in Heaven, according to Isaiah chapter 14. He was thrown out of Heaven by God. Now, on earth, he has been referred to in the Bible fifty-two times as Satan, which means our adversary; thirty-five times called the devil, which means one who attacks the reputation of another; the old-serpent; a dragon; the evil one; the destroyer; the tempter; the accuser; the murderer; the father of all lies; Lucifer, the anointed cherub fallen from Heaven, and the ruler of the demon world. We cannot sit idly by and be ignorant of his schemes; his methods of stalking Christians. God reveals truth; Satan conceals truth. God tells us the truth; Satan tells us lies. God gives life; Satan takes life. God gives us tests to make us mature; Satan brings along temptations to destroy us. James 4:7 states, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” This verse shows an example of the assurance and power we have through Christ in our fight. But Satan will try at any cost to keep you from following in the footsteps of Christ and telling others of salvation through Christ.

This means we have to prepare and be equipped for that. We have to know our enemy and we have to understand that we’re in a battle. So here is our instruction as we engage in the battle: “Take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist and have done everything to stand firm. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” That’s the promise of victory. Paul wonderfully understood that. Second Corinthians 4:8 states, “We are inflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.”

Clearly, a simple reading of that text lets us know that for us as Christians, as long as we remain in this world, we are engaged in a very serious battle; warfare. Consequently, every child of God must view himself or herself as a soldier. We have all been called to battle. We are not so vulnerable that we could ever lose our salvation, but we can certainly lose the battles for usefulness, the opportunity at the abundant life, and blessings, etc., if we do not learn to how fight effectively. We will not lose the war, but we can lose battles along the way and live in the slumps of defeat. We need to be aware of the fact that we are dealing with a very, very powerful spiritual system.

Let’s go to the specifics and look at the first element in the armor; the Belt of Truth. The devil is a liar from the beginning. His whole system is a system of lies. Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie or a half-truth (John 8:44). And therefore we would understand that the first line of defense is the truth. Speaking of truth here means that we are seriously committed to the battle. Because we believe the truth, because we love the truth, we go to war for the truth. The bottom line is that you’re really not going to win the battles that come with Satan if you’re not committed to winning. Attitude is the real issue here. We have to have a heart for the battle so that we are not out there in the battlefield unprepared.

You will never win the spiritual battles that come day by day against your formidable enemy unless you are seriously committed to that victory. If you’re just going to flop your way through your Christian experience, you will be a consistent loser. If you’re content with your infrequent interest in prayer, your infrequent interest in worship, your indifference toward great spiritual truth, if you’re content with your small understanding of the greatness of God, if you’re content with the sins in your life, and if you are not concerned and willing to help others know about salvation through Jesus Christ, you are an encumbered soldier; ill prepared for the battle; get ready to be defeated. If you’re going to run the race, you have to lay aside the weights that encumber you. You don’t see somebody running the hundred meter sprint with an overcoat. You get rid of what encumbers you. That’s exactly what the Apostle Paul is saying. He’s looking for that sincere kind of commitment, siniscera is a Latin term that means “without wax.” Where does that word come from? Well, when they made clay pots in those days they would bake them. Sometimes when you bake a clay pot it cracks. If it was cracked it couldn’t be sold, but people who were not honest would take wax and would fill, cover, and paint over the cracks in order to then sell it. The first time somebody put the pot on the stove the wax melted and everything ran out the crack. Somebody who is sincere has no covered cracks; they don’t melt and become useless when the heat is on.

The second piece of armor is the Breastplate of Righteousness. If you expect to go into the battle, you have to be living a holy life in obedience to God. If there’s a weakness in your armor: sins, acts of disobedience, wrong attitudes, sins unconfessed or unrepented, then your vital organs are vulnerable. When Satan sees sin, he moves in to that crack. You become vulnerable as the world system appeals to that crack in your armor. And the smallest crack can be exploited in a very fatal way. Satan knows your secret weaknesses and he will go after those the hardest in order to stop you in your tracks and make you an ineffective Christian. Satan’s schemes are many, and he attacks at any point he considers vulnerable. If you want to invade the kingdom of darkness and get aggressive, you need to make sure you are protected or you will be very vulnerable.

That brings us to the third part of our armor; the Shoes of the Gospel of Peace. Shoes are important in hand-to-hand mortal combat. The Romans understood this. The Romans understood that it was essential to make sure that the soldier, with everything else that he had, and particularly because what he was carrying and wearing was relatively heavy, could stabilize himself. What this is speaking of is about standing firm in the battle against the devil when the attacking blows come as he assaults our lives. Slipping is not good in hand-to-hand combat. What is this Gospel of Peace? It is the good news that you have made peace with God through salvation. What does it mean to be at peace with God? It means God is not our enemy; he is our strength; that He is on our side. We can stand firm because we know that, with Him, we're invincible. This verse takes us back to Ephesians 6:10 stating, “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, or any other created thing is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

That brings us to the fourth part of our armor; the Shield of Faith. The word here, thereon, is not referring to a small shield; it was around four feet in height and two and a half feet in width. The design of this shield was to put it in the ground and be able to put your entire body behind it. This is a large oblong shield, like a small door, designed for full protection.

You have to have our belt on, you have to have your breastplate on, you have to have your shoes on, your helmet, which we will explore next, and on top of that all, you need to have your shield. This provides double protection. That’s why it states “above all” here when referring to the shield.

In the battles in those days there were ways in which you attacked those men who had shields. They made arrows that would have a metal tip. And they would put around those metal tips a kind of tar. Just before shooting these arrows, they would light the tar to make them catch fire. Shields were often covered in leather that would be saturated with a kind of oil that would extinguish a fiery arrow. A soldier without a shield in the front lines would be powerless to protect himself. Even if he was able to keep something from hitting him in a vital area, if he got hit by a fiery arrow, it would set his clothes on fire. So the shield was very important as that front line protection. These fiery arrows that this is depicting are symbols of seducing temptation, of impurity, lustfulness, greed, vanity, materialism, pride, anger, impatience, covetousness, etc., which are fired at us all of the time. The heart of all sin is dissatisfaction; not only dissatisfaction of what you have, but dissatisfaction with what God says you should have or gives you. Those are the fiery arrows. And faith that God has the best intentions for you is what extinguishes them.

So, when you sin, who do you believe? Satan. You either say, “You know, you’re right, Satan,” or you say, “I’m going to trust God that His commandments are best, are true, produce the greatest fulfillment, the greatest satisfaction, and the greatest joy.” So whenever Satan comes at us in the world system and panders to our fallenness, it is to make us believe him instead of believing God, that our real satisfaction, real happiness, real fun, and a real fulfillment is going to be found in the things he tells us to do rather than the things God tells us to do. When you sin, you believe Satan; when you don’t, you believe God. Satan wants to try and trick you into compromising to do things his way.

Here is a fictional story as an analogy of this: 

A hunter once went out to hunt for a bear. He found a bear, got him in the sights of his gun, started to squeeze the trigger, but the bear said, "Hold it! Don’t pull that trigger! Let’s go out here to the middle of the road, you put the gun down, and let’s talk. Let’s reason this situation out. Now why are you hunting? You want a fur coat, isn’t that right?" The hunter replied saying, "That’s right." "Why am I out here in the woods the bear asked? To get a good meal. Can you understand that?" The hunter said, "Yes." The bear said, "Well let’s talk it over." They did, and when it was finished, the bear had a good meal and the hunter had a fur coat. The bear devoured. Do you think you can negotiate with the devil? If you try and have a compromise with the devil he is going to devour you, just as this bear did, as 1 Peter 5:8 states, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.” The word “sober” here means to get your priorities right, think straight. The word “vigilant” here means to be alert, on lookout. The shield that protects you from temptation is faith in God. If you reject the temptation and you follow the path of holiness, you have said "I believe God. I believe God, I trust Him. I trust Him that fulfillment, satisfaction, joy, blessing is found in obeying Him."

That brings us to the fifth piece of armor; the Helmet of Salvation. You wouldn’t have the shield of faith, you wouldn’t have the shoes of the gospel of peace, you wouldn’t have the breastplate of righteousness, and you wouldn’t have the belt of truth if you were not already saved. Here, Paul is talking about salvation in its future aspect. There are three aspects of salvation; past, present and future. At the time you first trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you were saved from the penalty of sin; that’s called justification. You are now in the second phase of your salvation, being saved continually from the power of sin, in the sense that sin longer has dominion over you; that’s called sanctification. But there’s a third phase of salvation; to be freed from the presence of sin; and that speaks of your glorification. The term “salvation” includes all three of those aspects. From the moment you receive Christ to the time you enter into heaven, your salvation is secure. How is this part of our armor? Well, if you believe you can lose your salvation, you are ill equipped to engage in the battle. If you’re not sure you can win, you very likely will be tempted to flee from any threat at all. You don’t have the heart of a victor, one who knows triumph and victory is absolutely sure. It makes a huge difference. You cannot lose. That is the promise of Scripture. So know this, and this is the good word of the helmet that protects you from any fatal blow, all blows attempting to, as it were, crush your head, obliterating your salvation, will be deflected by the truth which is your confidence that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. You can engage yourself in the battle, fully confident that you will not be defeated. You have the promise of eternal Heaven.

When you understand the greatness of your salvation, when you understand the permanence of your salvation, when you understand the eternality of your salvation, when you understand the love of your Savior, it anchors you in the middle of the battle. You don’t get discouraged. You are not defeated before you ever engage the enemy. The schemes of Satan are relentless; they never stop. But we labor, toil, fight and war for the cause of the Kingdom and against sin because we know in the end we will triumph. And the helmet of salvation is that absolute confidence in the saving, keeping power of God’s sovereign grace. And so, we can engage in this great struggle without fear. 

The belt; commitment. The breastplate; purity and holiness. The shoes; confidence in peace. The shield; trust in God. And the helmet; security and assurance. That leaves us with one more.

The sixth and final piece of armor; the sword of the Spirit; which is the Word of God. We want to know that if we’re going to pick up the Word of God and use it, that we’re using the right instrument. If you, for example, question the accuracy of Scripture, the clarity of Scripture, or the integrity of Scripture, you’re going to be reluctant to use it. If you second guess on whether God wrote the Scripture, you’re not going to be able to wield it. A high view of Scripture is necessary for the believer to be ready and eager to pick it up and use it at every occasion. And that takes us back to what the Bible claims for itself; to be infallible, which means that everything it states is true and without error. To be infallible, complete, authoritative, sufficient, powerful, and divinely authored belongs only to Scripture. As such, it is obviously a formidable weapon. That is why we only need one weapon; the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. It is the source of truth that brings people to the knowledge of the truth; the way it really is.

Scripture is the source of happiness, blessedness, growth, guidance, comfort, victory, and of power. “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). “The Word is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12), cutting into, revealing the innermost realities, and healing and restoring our hearts. When we put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, pick up the shield of faith, put on the helmet of salvation, and lastly, grasp the sword of the Spirit, we are set for victory. What is this telling us? That your defense is going to be the knowing of the truth. It doesn’t do you any good to own a Bible if you don’t know what is in it. And when Satan comes at us, if we are ignorant of a certain area of biblical truth, we are defenseless in that area. If you’re going to go forward into the kingdom of darkness and penetrate that darkness, you had better know the truths of the Word of God so that you can defend yourself against the deceptiveness of Satan. Explore and study the Bible. Sit back and think about it. Expand it in your mind. Give quiet attention to its truth. And then maybe the most helpful thing you’ll ever do is teach it. Find some people and teach them what you have learned on your own and what someone else has taught you. This is how you become capable of using the sword and the armor effectively.

And finally, we are called to be praying at all times. In addition to wearing the full armor of God we cannot neglect prayer, as it is the means by which we draw spiritual strength from God. Without prayer, without reliance upon God, our efforts at spiritual warfare are empty and futile. The full armor of God -- truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer -- are the tools God has given us, through which we can be spiritually victorious, overcoming Satan's attacks and temptations.

Don’t become a statistic, joining those who have walked away from the faith. The fight is hard, but it is and will be worth every second. Jesus is coming back soon, and we need to be found walking in His footsteps and battling against Satan’s schemes. Ultimately we will have to undertake the slow but fruitful work of building friendships with those who have left the faith. Once we have listened to their stories, and build bridges of trust, we will be ready to light their way back home.