The sword
This week is on Ephesians 6:11-18:
I don't know how many times I am going to share these verses. I admit to feeling a bit self-conscious about reusing verses I've shared before. But these are really useful for staying safe in the kind of spiritual reality we live in. When the apostle Paul wrote them, he wanted to help people understand the situation they were in, and how to protect themselves. He used the analogy of Roman battle armor to explain the sort of spiritual conditioning people would need.
Nowadays we might describe riot gear and talk about bullet proof vests, steel toed boots, ceramic rifle plates, kevlar helmets, etc. But it's a brilliant analogy. Wen someone is trying to physically attack us, it is obvious to us that we need protective gear of some kind if we don't want to be hurt. Paul is saying that we need the same thing for the non-physical part of us, which can be attacked spiritually.
He starts right off by spelling out the reason for it all: So that we can stand against the schemes of the devil. A scheme is a set of underhanded plans, like plotting a coup d'état. For the devil, the goal is to separate us from God. If we can be made to mistrust God, or to rely on something other than God, or to become angry with God, the devil's goal is closer to being accomplished. These are things which take place in the mind or the spirit, the same way as a coup d'état might take place on the senate floor.
In this week's verses, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit are the two things I want to focus on. The other things fit into the picture too, but if you're reading this during lunch, you'll appreciate my feeble attempt to be brief.
So what does the helmet protect? The brain! But back in Paul's day, people didn't really think of the brain as the home of the mind. In a partial sense, maybe, but when people talked about the mind, they pictured it more in terms of the heart, which would have been covered already by the breastplate. But much in the same way as we're handed scientific explanations of things nowadays that don't exactly explain reality as it is observed, people must have noticed that the head had something to do with the mind too.
If the heart was the center of thought and emotion, the head was still undeniably related to perception, as that's where most of our senses live. Sight, smell, hearing, and taste all live in the head. Jesus describes our perceptions as being related to our eyes and ears. So obviously we need to protect that or the rest of our body isn't going to be able to do much. But how does salvation protect our senses? Another way of looking at it is the way Paul describes it elsewhere. He talks about "the helmet of the hope of salvation", so we can look at it as believing and trusting that we will be saved from ending up in Hell.
So Paul describes the helmet of salvation, or the helmet of the hope of salvation, as belonging right where our senses are, right where we know we are the most vulnerable to an unexpected blow. If we see something or hear something, or visualise something, without being confident that we are saved, we can be very seriously hurt. We can doubt God's love for us, or that we are truly clean, or that Christ's sacrifice was enough to pay for our special rare pharmaceutical-grade sin. Our life as Christians is based on an anchor of belief, which is that we are accepted and loved and protected by what Jesus did.
What does life through the lens of salvation look like? It is grace, and love, and safe humility. We are free of guilt and condemnation. When we see our flaws, it isn't a fatal wound. When we see flaws in others, we aren't blinded by judgement. (Yes, you can see and react to flaws in others without "judging" them!) If you lose your hope of salvation, you lose everything.
We should never lose sight of what Jesus did for us. I have a couple friends who like to remember it daily by taking communion and really thinking about what it means. (I find myself partial to communion too, and not just because I love bread and wine.) The value isn't in the substance, but in doing whatever is necessary for you to keep that helmet strapped in place. For you, it might be reading some Bible verses now and then from one of the gospels and dwelling on what they mean. Different shaped helmets for different shaped heads.
Which brings us to the sword, which is the word of God. Some commentaries describe the sword as the only offensive weapon in the line up, but I don't like to categorise it that way. The sword was still also a defensive weapon in the way the Romans fought. You'd make these massive shield walls with your neighbors, and then the enemy would push and slam into them and try to create a gap that they could get something through so they could start hacking people apart. If you spotted a gap forming, or part of the enemy sticking through, like his fingers, you'd lash out with the sword to stop the breech. Maybe one of the enemies got his arm in there to try to pull down your neighbor's shield and exposed his flank. So you'd run your sword into him, or try to hack off his arm. It was basically a cross between a rugby scrum and a vicious ghetto knife fight.
Jesus fights like this when he is in the wilderness being tempted. Obviously Jesus's Helmet of Salvation is on tight. But the devil keeps scheming and trying to get a foothold or a grip inside Jesus' life, trying to reach out to pull him off balance. Jesus has the word of God handy and uses it to cut off whatever the devil tries to stick inside the boundaries of his life. He manages it expertly, which shouldn't be surprising from our perfect example on how to do things. The devil is all like "Hey maybe you should do bla bla bla" and Jesus is like "Nope. Here is the word I am living." And that's what Paul is saying we should do.
Doing that, of course, means we have to know what God actually said. That means reading the Bible and also praying. Doing that during a time when you're not under attack means you're more likely to have it ready when you need it. What Paul is saying, and what Jesus showed, is that having that sword ready is effective in stopping any attack that isn't prevented by the other things. Nothing says "leave me alone" like a machete in the gut, spiritually speaking.
Paul says we should be praying all of the time in the Spirit, thereby being alert to any attacks that may come in. Remember, these are spiritual protections that often have some relationship to prayer anyway. If we're standing against the schemes of the devil, that implies a kind of vigilance. The Christian life isn't just clapping our hands, singing happy songs, and high-fiving all of our friends. There's a constant battle and we need to stay alert and be prepared for what may come.
Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand 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 rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand. Stand firm therefore, by fastening the belt of truth around your waist, by putting on the breastplate of righteousness, by fitting your feet with the preparation that comes from the good news of peace, and in all of this, by taking up the shield of faith with which you can 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 every prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and to this end be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints.
I don't know how many times I am going to share these verses. I admit to feeling a bit self-conscious about reusing verses I've shared before. But these are really useful for staying safe in the kind of spiritual reality we live in. When the apostle Paul wrote them, he wanted to help people understand the situation they were in, and how to protect themselves. He used the analogy of Roman battle armor to explain the sort of spiritual conditioning people would need.
Nowadays we might describe riot gear and talk about bullet proof vests, steel toed boots, ceramic rifle plates, kevlar helmets, etc. But it's a brilliant analogy. Wen someone is trying to physically attack us, it is obvious to us that we need protective gear of some kind if we don't want to be hurt. Paul is saying that we need the same thing for the non-physical part of us, which can be attacked spiritually.
He starts right off by spelling out the reason for it all: So that we can stand against the schemes of the devil. A scheme is a set of underhanded plans, like plotting a coup d'état. For the devil, the goal is to separate us from God. If we can be made to mistrust God, or to rely on something other than God, or to become angry with God, the devil's goal is closer to being accomplished. These are things which take place in the mind or the spirit, the same way as a coup d'état might take place on the senate floor.
In this week's verses, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit are the two things I want to focus on. The other things fit into the picture too, but if you're reading this during lunch, you'll appreciate my feeble attempt to be brief.
So what does the helmet protect? The brain! But back in Paul's day, people didn't really think of the brain as the home of the mind. In a partial sense, maybe, but when people talked about the mind, they pictured it more in terms of the heart, which would have been covered already by the breastplate. But much in the same way as we're handed scientific explanations of things nowadays that don't exactly explain reality as it is observed, people must have noticed that the head had something to do with the mind too.
If the heart was the center of thought and emotion, the head was still undeniably related to perception, as that's where most of our senses live. Sight, smell, hearing, and taste all live in the head. Jesus describes our perceptions as being related to our eyes and ears. So obviously we need to protect that or the rest of our body isn't going to be able to do much. But how does salvation protect our senses? Another way of looking at it is the way Paul describes it elsewhere. He talks about "the helmet of the hope of salvation", so we can look at it as believing and trusting that we will be saved from ending up in Hell.
So Paul describes the helmet of salvation, or the helmet of the hope of salvation, as belonging right where our senses are, right where we know we are the most vulnerable to an unexpected blow. If we see something or hear something, or visualise something, without being confident that we are saved, we can be very seriously hurt. We can doubt God's love for us, or that we are truly clean, or that Christ's sacrifice was enough to pay for our special rare pharmaceutical-grade sin. Our life as Christians is based on an anchor of belief, which is that we are accepted and loved and protected by what Jesus did.
What does life through the lens of salvation look like? It is grace, and love, and safe humility. We are free of guilt and condemnation. When we see our flaws, it isn't a fatal wound. When we see flaws in others, we aren't blinded by judgement. (Yes, you can see and react to flaws in others without "judging" them!) If you lose your hope of salvation, you lose everything.
We should never lose sight of what Jesus did for us. I have a couple friends who like to remember it daily by taking communion and really thinking about what it means. (I find myself partial to communion too, and not just because I love bread and wine.) The value isn't in the substance, but in doing whatever is necessary for you to keep that helmet strapped in place. For you, it might be reading some Bible verses now and then from one of the gospels and dwelling on what they mean. Different shaped helmets for different shaped heads.
Which brings us to the sword, which is the word of God. Some commentaries describe the sword as the only offensive weapon in the line up, but I don't like to categorise it that way. The sword was still also a defensive weapon in the way the Romans fought. You'd make these massive shield walls with your neighbors, and then the enemy would push and slam into them and try to create a gap that they could get something through so they could start hacking people apart. If you spotted a gap forming, or part of the enemy sticking through, like his fingers, you'd lash out with the sword to stop the breech. Maybe one of the enemies got his arm in there to try to pull down your neighbor's shield and exposed his flank. So you'd run your sword into him, or try to hack off his arm. It was basically a cross between a rugby scrum and a vicious ghetto knife fight.
Jesus fights like this when he is in the wilderness being tempted. Obviously Jesus's Helmet of Salvation is on tight. But the devil keeps scheming and trying to get a foothold or a grip inside Jesus' life, trying to reach out to pull him off balance. Jesus has the word of God handy and uses it to cut off whatever the devil tries to stick inside the boundaries of his life. He manages it expertly, which shouldn't be surprising from our perfect example on how to do things. The devil is all like "Hey maybe you should do bla bla bla" and Jesus is like "Nope. Here is the word I am living." And that's what Paul is saying we should do.
Doing that, of course, means we have to know what God actually said. That means reading the Bible and also praying. Doing that during a time when you're not under attack means you're more likely to have it ready when you need it. What Paul is saying, and what Jesus showed, is that having that sword ready is effective in stopping any attack that isn't prevented by the other things. Nothing says "leave me alone" like a machete in the gut, spiritually speaking.
Paul says we should be praying all of the time in the Spirit, thereby being alert to any attacks that may come in. Remember, these are spiritual protections that often have some relationship to prayer anyway. If we're standing against the schemes of the devil, that implies a kind of vigilance. The Christian life isn't just clapping our hands, singing happy songs, and high-fiving all of our friends. There's a constant battle and we need to stay alert and be prepared for what may come.
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