Ephesians 6:17
Pick up your Armor
and Stand

This verse comes near the end of the letter of Paul to the church in Ephesus. It is part of the description of the spiritual armor believers have to wear in order to be able to stand against the methods of Satan (vs 10). The armor is defensive. Four times, Paul uses the verb ‘histemi’ (or a derivative of it), which means to stand. When Satan schemes and deceives in order to make us fall, the pieces of spiritual armor help us to stand. They protect us, if we use them as intended. 

Verses 14-16 describe various pieces of the defensive armor: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, and the sandals of the gospel. Our verse describes two more pieces: the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.

The word for helmet is ‘perikephalaia’, a combination of ‘peri’ (around, as in the perimeter) and ‘kephale’, which means head. So it is something to protect your head. To protect your head in a spiritual sense means to protect your thoughts.  Now how does our salvation protect our thoughts?

Let’s look a bit more into that word for salvation. In Christianity, we tend to immediately jump to the conclusion that our salvation refers to the fact that our sins are forgiven and that we will not go to hell but to heaven. The Greek word is ‘soterios’, which comes from the verb ‘sozo’, which literally means to save. For example, when the disciples in the boat on the stormy lake thought they were going to drown, Matthew used this verb to describe how they asked Jesus to save them. So in the bible, it does not always refer to our ticket to heaven. Salvation means to be saved from something, and the context will have to give clues about what it is we are being saved from.

The NIV study bible has the following to say about salvation: “The bible speaks of salvation as (1) past – when a person first believes, (2) present – the continuing process of salvation, or sanctification, and (3) future – when Christ returns and salvation, or sanctification, is completed through glorification.” (Zondervan NIV Study Bible notes on 1 Peter 1:5)

Does the past aspect of our salvation help us to protect our thoughts? Perhaps. It probably helps us to remind ourselves that our past sins are forgiven when Satan tries to accuse us. But our ongoing sanctification is a far stronger help, since sanctification means that we are becoming more and more holy, so that we start to see the world differently. And the hope of our future glorification also helps because each time Satan tries to deceive us into sin, we realize that we will lose some glory if we give in, so we have a good motivation to stand.

The sword of the spirit is the final piece of the armor. Some say that this is the only offensive piece of the armor, which is true, but swords are also used defensively; deflect the attacks of someone else. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. The word for ‘word’ is ‘rhema’, which comes from the verb ‘rheo’, to speak. It refers to spoken word and it is the same word that Jesus used in Matthew 4:4, when He was tempted by Satan in the desert.

Matthew 4:4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

Now this is very interesting. Paul describes the spiritual armor that we need to stand against the deceitful methods of Satan. Jesus was tempted three times by Satan and He used the word of God each time to deflect the temptations. He did not use the word of God offensively but defensively. And it worked; Satan stopped the attacks and walked away. Jesus yielded the sword of the Spirit (the word of God) and he stood and did not fall.

We can protect ourselves as well if we are able to yield the word of God and if we protect our thoughts through our salvation. Godspeed!