Is these verses, after a prefatory resumption, we come to the particulars of the Christian’s armor. “Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.”
The first thing to be noticed is that the Holy Spirit calls on us to take up the panoply of God. Neither strength nor wisdom of man avails in this conflict. As we have to do with the hosts of Satan on the one hand, we need on the other “the whole armor of God” (vs. 11). Our natural character and habits may not signify, where the Spirit of God is at work to save our souls in His grace; but they are of vast moment in presence of a foe who knows how to take advantage of every unguarded opening. Even to those at Corinth, carnal as they were, and only fit to bear the food of babes, (not the solid meat which is set before the Ephesian saints,) he had shown that, walking in flesh, we do not war according to flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but divinely mighty to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down reasonings and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Not flesh, but the Spirit of God has power against Satan.
Here, too, the character of the time in which the conflict goes on is designated as “the evil day.” Evil indeed is the entire period since Christ was crucified and the enemy acquired the title of “the prince of this world” (1 Cor. 2:88Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Corinthians 2:8)). Hence, in chapter 5 we are expected to walk with carefulness, not as fools but as wise, seizing every good and suited opportunity, because “the days are evil” (ch. 5:16). But here we have something more precise, “that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day” (vs. 13). For there are occasions when the power of evil is allowed to press more closely and the danger is great for the careless soul. It is emphatically then “the evil day;” and it is well when the Christian has anticipated it; for the point at such a time is not to take up the panoply, but, having already taken it, “to withstand.” “The evil day” should find us already and fully armed, if we are to make effectual resistance. Nor is this enough. For how often the victory of faith is too great for the faith that won it, and a saint who has long and afresh vanquished the enemy, may tire of the struggle and turn aside into a seemingly easier path, to prove his own folly, and his exceeding danger, even if in the end delivered by the pure mercy of God. To resist, then, does not suffice, but “having done all,” (vs. 13) having thoroughly accomplished all things requisite, “to stand.” The fight—the fights—may have been keen, the victory complete through the Lord’s goodness and might; but the war is not over. Our place is still to stand our ground.
“Stand, therefore, having girt your loins about with truth, and put on the breastplate of righteousness, and shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” I have changed the English version slightly, so as to adhere more closely to the true sense, which supposes not only a settled position, but the soul in activity according to the summons of the Holy Spirit. Much mischief has arisen from regarding this passage as if it treated of standing, whereas, in truth, it is essentially different. It is practical arming and conflict, founded on the most blessed standing anywhere revealed in the New Testament, and suitably closing the epistle which reveals it.
To know the truth and be set free by the truth is one thing; to have girt about our loins with truth is another. It is the intimate dealing of truth with the soul, so that there is no laxity of heart or indulged will, but on the contrary, the affections and judgment braced up to Christ and the things of Christ. Thus the saint cleaves to the Lord with full purpose of heart; and, self being searched and judged by the truth, there is vigor imparted through the revelation of His mind and grace, which are now more than ever enjoyed. It is the power of truth in keeping the soul, delivered in God’s rich mercy, and too thankful to be under an authority so comprehensive and penetrating and absolute as to leave nothing, let it be ever so inward, outside the range of God’s will and the saint’s obedience. To bear and delight in this, however, assumes that the heart is established in grace; it can then welcome the truth in all its energetic claim and control.
Next follows “the breastplate of righteousness” (vs. 14) put on. This is quite distinct from the righteousness of God, which we are made in Christ. The latter we need before God; the former we want for successful wrestling with our adversary, the devil. As the Spirit, in the girding round our loins with truth, shows the first piece of armor to be the thorough application of the word to us in self-judgment and withal in moral energy, so the next demanded is that we put on practical righteousness as our breastplate. Nothing exposes a saint in conflict more readily than a bad conscience in his ways. I do not mean a conscience unpurged, but where evil, after the knowledge of redemption, has been allowed and communion is broken.
Connected with this is the having “the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” This, again, is evidently a matter of practical power and enjoyment, the effect of maintaining a good conscience, as the latter can only be where all is held and guarded by the truth. Then the soul goes on in peace. “The fruit of righteousness,” (ch. 5:9) as another apostle says, “is sown in peace of them that make peace” (James 3:1818And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. (James 3:18)). Where there is laxity, the conscience gets bad; and the result is trouble, and making trouble; where truth governs, the conscience is kept bright, and, happy ourselves, we shed happiness around us.
Verse 16 introduces another and quite as necessary a part of the divine armor, but, doubtless, justly put subsequent to what we have seen. “Above [or, beside] all, having taken up the shield of faith with which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” This means that confidence in God Himself which the soul is entitled and encouraged to cherish: I say, in Himself, because, though inseparable from the godly and righteous state the previous portions of the panoply intimate, it is a confidence springing only from what God is known to be in His own nature and character. All the envenomed efforts of the wicked one are futile where God is thus known in the power of the Holy Spirit ungrieved within us; all his darts not only Fail to produce despair and distrust, but they are extinguished by the shield of faith.
But there is more: “and receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God” (vs. 17). The shield of faith is more general confidence; the helmet of salvation is rather the bold and joyful consciousness of the full deliverance God has wrought for us in Christ. This crowns the various parts of the armor already noticed, and is therefore followed, not by further means of defense, (for it is complete,) but by the instrument of offensive energy against the adversary, the sword of the Spirit, even God’s word. How wisely it is thus placed in the last place of all, will be apparent to the instructed mind. Indeed, if there be not this order known practically, the word is made a mere toy of, or perhaps a scourge for self, rather than it has the character of the sword of the Spirit; it is misused and powerless. Handled in the Spirit, what deliverance it works! What disabling of adversaries and what a detector of Satan!