THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD (1)

Ephesians 6:10-13 ERV

“To end my letter I tell you, be strong in the Lord and in his great power. Wear the full armor of God. Wear God’s armor so that you can fight against the devil’s clever tricks. Our fight is not against people on earth. We are fighting against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world’s darkness. We are fighting against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly places. That is why you need to get God’s full armor. Then on the day of evil, you will be able to stand strong. And when you have finished the whole fight, you will still be standing.”

The ‘whole armour of God’; what exactly does it mean? Are they different pieces of equipment you put on? Or is it a one-pill inoculation you take and stand up to do battle?

The way KJV listed the armour from verse 14 – 17 makes it seem like they are different pieces of equipment and one needs to go shopping for each of them.
Worse still, by taking on the task of finding each item and adding it to your arsenal, there’s a tendency to see yourself as the one doing the battle.
I believe this is where the error of ‘prayer warrior’ crept into the Church from.

But thank God for the light of revelation. “We have the mind of Christ” SELAH.

What is ‘the whole armour of God’?

Having been an officer of the Armored Corps, I know the feeling when you get into an armored tank or personnel carrier.
You are much less likely to fear of exposure to enemy fire than an infantry soldier who is clad with pieces of Bullet proof at vital points in his body.

The later scenario is unfortunately what the Church had hitherto painted of this message.

We get a clue from the same verse 13 as to what Paul meant. And that’s from the last phrase: “Having done all, to stand”.
Let’s compare it with another mention of the concept ‘to stand’ by Paul.
1 Cor 15:1
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand.”

Therefore, if receiving the gospel makes you to STAND Paul says here, and putting on the whole armour of God also makes you STAND he says at another place, it then follows that the “Gospel ” truly is the “whole armour of God “. QED.
In the next few episodes, we shall be looking in detail what provisions, not components, are in this “whole armour”.

– Dr Nich Mbaezue-Daniel