Eph 6:16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
The “Shield of Faith.” What does it mean?
Paul was a scholar of the Old Testament. He about shields in the Old Testament, and how they were used.
We do not know exactly what an Old Testament shields looked like, because we have no pictures. But we can infer some things about them. For one thing, they must have been very large. They were so large that that even a giant like Goliath had someone else to carry his unless he was actually in battle. If he carried it all day, he would have been too tired to fight!
We know they were made mostly of metal. When King Saul was killed in battle, the prophet Samuel said that it was stained with blood and would never be oiled again. Metal shields had to be oiled to prevent rust, and to make them shiny. If the shield were made of wood, wicker or leather, it would not need to be oiled.
Such a shield would of necessity be unwieldy in a battle. If the shield obstructed your vision or made it difficult for you to thrust and turn, But these kinds of shields was extremely helpful in siege warfare or mass movements.
But shields had three main uses.
The first was to display who you were. Your shield showed not only your side, but also your position in life. In most ancient armies, shield carried the crest of the warrior, their family and their tribe.
In Chronicles there’s an intriguing statement about King Solomon having two hundred shields of hammered gold. It is mind-boggling to think how much those golden shields would be worth. But golden shields would be useless in battle. These shields were for showing off Solomon’s authority and wealth.
The second use of a shield was to protect the bearer from missile or thrusting attacks. The main use of a shield was to stop arrows and spears. In a sword fight, you had to be quick, and a shield slowed you down. But against arrows, the shield was a necessity. You simply got behind it and hid.
The third purpose of a shield was not only to protect you, but to protect your fellow soldiers. When the army attacked a walled city, they would march in formation up to it with very large shields. That way, whatever they shot at them or dropped on them would not harm them. The Romans had a maneuver they called “the turtle” in which they locked their shields together over their heads and marched up to the gates of a city protected from the arrows and flaming darts reigned on them from above.
Shields show off who we are. They protect us from attack. They link with other shields and protect us all together. Keep these three uses in mind. We’ll return to them later.
In Paul’s metaphor, faith is our shield. Old Testaments metaphors abound about shields—for example:
Ps 5:12For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous: you surround them with your favor as with a shield.
Ps 7:10-13 My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day. 12 If he does not relent, he will sharpen his sword; he will bend and string his bow. 13 He has prepared his deadly weapons;
he makes ready his flaming arrows.
Ps 18:35 You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me;
God is our shield, victory is our shield. Joy is our shield. But nowhere in the old Testament does it say that faith is our shield. It is an entirely new concept.
I am a writer. The hardest part of being a writer is the constant rejection. Even famous writers were failures long before they were famous. Ernest Hemmingway, for example was said to have his study papered with rejection letters he received over the years from publishers who did not believe he was good enough to publish.
Today the situation for writers is in many ways much worse for writers. In order for a first-time writer to publish a book, it usually goes through two hundred publishers before it makes it to one who will print it. Most first time books lose money, not make it. To want to writ professionally is to be open to constant criticism and rejection. Most people give up before they find a publisher. If they knew their odds, they probably would not even try.
But some writers do get published. those the ones who do must believe in their own abilities. They persevere because they know that someday others will discover them. They must have faith in themselves. This faith is their shield against rejection.
As successful salesman is the sme. He must believe and have no doubt that one day, he will make a sale. Even if the first ten prospect say know, he must believe that one will say yes. It is faith that keeps him going through a sea of rejection.
I use these examples carefully. I do not ean to imply that Christians should have faith in themselves, or that they should practice the art of positive thinking. Such things are irrelevant to the task before us. It is not only the fact of faith, but its content that is important. To go up against the world, the flesh, and the Devil armed only with a foolish self-confidence is to face the enemy with a paper shield.. We cannot succeed unless our shield is strong and true.
The Christian life is tough. Our enemy will show us no mercy. He is going to come at us with everything he has. He will dangle irresistible temptations in front of us. He will belittle us with contradiction and guilt. He will call us all kinds of names. He will even incite our own family and friends against us. If we do not have faith, there is no way we can stand.
Our faith is not in ourselves. It is in Christ.
Faith functions in our lives the same way an ancient shield functioned in battle.
First, faith projects the emblem and authority of Christ. It is our badge.
Sometimes, a policeman’s badge is called his shield. In many ways it is. When a policeman goes out on patrol, his badge is his first line of defense. It is a display of authority which causes most people to immediately surrender. It will not keep the worst criminals away. But those who still have a modicum of fear of authority will yield to it. They know that the badge signifies that the entire weight of the law is behind us.
Jesus is our badge. Those who come against us will quake at his authority. That emblem gives us confidence that we cannot be overcome.
Jesus died on the Cross for you. This fact alone shows us how valuable we are to God. Think of the enormity of that! Do you think, then that He will allow such an investment to go unprotected? Do you think He will give up on you easily. We can take comfort in God’s security for us. When we feel scared or alone, remember the mark you wear as a Christian. God will defend you, because you bear His name. He has already pursued you to death. Do you think he will give up on you now?
Second, faith is our defense against the Devil’s fiery darts.
I once saw a stage production of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress that beautifully illustrated this. The Devil was represented by a thirty-foot Chinese dragon which snaked around the sanctuary and up the the stage. On the stage was Christian, holding his shield of faith. Out of the mouth of the dragon came fiery darts, right at the hapless knight. As the darts flew, a voice could be heard whispering their names—guilt, lust, worry, depression, wrath, pride, and so forth. Each dart was answered by the turn of his shield, and fell to the floor harmlessly.
Satan’s worst darts are not those of temptation, but of condemnation. It is much easier to him to make a believer lose his courage than to make him fall into sin. We guard against overt sins. But we do not know how important it is to equally guard ourselves against the illusions of the mind which cause us to fall.
When we recognize what Jesus has done for us, why should we listen to anyone else? We can hold up our heads proudly anywhere, because we know that we are redeemed by His blood and by His power.
Third, faith joins us to others in mutual defense.
There are times for each one of us when our faith fails. We have all experienced those times. But when we are walking with other believers, if our faith fails, others can protect and defend us. We cannot be strong alone. We really do need one another.
Often I have been with people in the extremity of pain and suffering. At that time, often well meaning friends and fellow believers will say the exact wrong thing to them. They will tell them “just trust in God. He will help you.” If they could trust in God themselves, they wouldn’t be crying! At the worst times in our lives, we often cannot trust in God alone. We need someone else to trust God for us. We need people who will surround us with prayer. Who will encourage us to keep on going, who will offer us friendship and acceptance, until such time as we regain our faith and strength. We need, like the ancient Romans, to form the turtle formation over them, with the understanding that one day they will join the formation as well.
It is often interesting in the Bible when the shield is mentioned, it if often in the context of advancing, instead of defending. The reason that Satan is showering us with fiery darts is because he is under siege, not us. We are advancing on his territory, and he cannot stand it. So he sends down arrows of discouragement to keep us away. But it will not work for him. When one believer loses strength the others will be there. When one believer is wounded, the others will hold him up. Nothing can stop us as we go forward together under the banner of Jesus. Behind the shield of faith, we will go on forever.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Fit to Run
Eph 6:15 “and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”
Do you know why we call a marathon race a marathon?
The marathon began as a way of commemorating Phidippides, a Greek runner who lived in 546 B.C. In that year the Persians invaded Greece. At the battle of Marathon, the Athenians defeated Persians and Phidippides was sent to tell the good news to Athens. The distance beteen Athens and Marathon is twenty-six miles. Phidippides accomplished the run over mountainous terrain, and fell dead as soon as he got there!
I have always wondered why, if modern runners run marathons all the time, Phidippides died. The rest of the story is this. The day before the battle, Phidippides had just finished running to tell the Spartans—a round trip of 380 miles. This he accomplished without stopping. Then without resting Phidippides fought in the battle. Then without resting he ran back to Athens.
If I had been Phidippides, I would have fallen over dead after a couple of miles!
Phidippides was a professional runner. He had trained for it all his life. Thre were many such professional runners in ancient times. We even read about them in the Bible. Isaiah wrote about them in Isa 52:7
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
"Your God reigns!"
In ancient times, armies communicated by sending runners. They have beautiful feet when they carried good news. Everyone wanted to see them.
When Isaiah wrote these words, he was not being spiritual. They were in physiLIbercal danger ad the needed good news.
Isaiah is a puzzling book to scholars, because it describes two separate time periods over a hundred years apart. Liberal scholars assume there must have been two Isaiah’s and that their books got mixed together. They do not believe in prophecy, so they cannot account in any other way for the clarity of Isaiah’s vision. In both of them, the country needed to hear the footsteps of a Phidippides.
Isaiah lived in the Eighth century, BC. At that time, Jerusalem was under siege by the Assyrians. The Assyrians were just about the worst people in the world. The Assyrians were like a giant amoeba, surrounding and invading foreign countries. First they conquered then they digested. They dismantled its entire country and shipped off to many different places in their empire. 701 they tried to swallow Judah and Jerusalem. They almost succeeded, too. They laid siege to Jerusalem for years.
I have often wondered what it must have been like inside the walls of Jerusalem during those days. The picture the Bible paints of that life is truly terrible. They had no food to eat. They even resorted to cannibalism. When King Hezekiah of Judah heard this he put on sackcloth and
ashes, and walked the walls of Jerusalem, weeping.
The prophet Isaiah was inside those walls, praying for God’s help. And did deliver them. He destroyed most of the conquering army, and the rest went home, leaving all their food behind.
In the second part of Isaiah, chapters 40-66, Isaiah predicts another siege of Jerusalem, a hundred years in he future by another country--Babylon. This time, though the result was different. The beautiful feet never came. Jerusalem was destroyed. Many people were disappointed with Isaiah’s words. But they were not listening to them. Isaiah did not say the runners would say they were victorious, only that they would announce that their God would be victorious. They were defeated on the battlefield, but seventy years later, the country was reborn. The runners Isaiah saw coming were not announcing the country’s deliverance, but it’s rebirth.
In the Apostle Paul’s day, there was a third siege of Jerusalem. This time it was the Romans. It took almost two thousand years for the Jews to return after that.
Three sieges. Three outcomes--each one worse than the last. Each time God’s people looked to God for deliverance. Once it came. The other two times God brought resurrection. It was not until after the destruction that God came to help.
Now the people of God are in a fourth siege—a spiritual one. The Devil has us under attack from all sides. Militant atheism, Islam, rampant drug use, and pornography are attacking from the outside. The world which seemed so friendly to believers sixty or seventy years ago now despises us. We try to attract people, but all we get are refugees from other churches We are not impacting the rest of the world at all.
The world is also under attack from the inside. The people inside the church are turning on each other to make us feel better about ourselves. While enemy arrows are flying around us, we have our hands around each other’s throats.
But the message of Isaiah is clear. Our God reigns. At such a time as this, we cannot save ourselves, That salvation has to be from the Lord.
The problem with the church today is not lack of strength. We do not need strength. We need faith. If we have strength and no faith, we perish. But if we have faith and no strength, we will eventually triumph.
Christians today are losing hope. Hope is a byproduct of faith. If we believe God is coming, we get the confidence to stand our ground. Hope does not come when we hear the army. We have it as soon as we hear the messenger.
Athens did not have to see Miltiades to have hope, They just needed to see Phidippides. People today are like people back then--they need a messenger. They will die from the lack of it.
They need to know that God has not forgotten them, that they can still call upon him and get an answer. They need someone to come and tell them the answer that will provide hope.
We are the messengers of Christ’s hope.
Isaiah describes what it is like when the messengers of hope arrive. The watchmen on the walls of the city see them first. A shout goes up. Then the townspeople pour up the stairs to the walls, looking for the man with running feet. Then news spreads like wildfire through the town. The defenders on the wall fight harder. Those who have been laying around suddenly get up and get busy. The whole town comes alive when hope comes.
You are the messengers. You are the ambassadors of hope. Therefore, Paul says we must be ready. Like Phidippides, we must train for the mission of bringing hope to the people “Let your feet be shod ith the preparation of the Gospel of peace.”
There are two reasons that our church does not have a greater impact on the world. The first is that we do not believe that we can. The second reason is that we are not prepared. We have not trained ready for Spiritual warfare.
How long does it take for a person to prepare for a marathon? Experts tell me that if a person is reasonably healthy, it should take about a year. Maybe if we as a church trained and prepared, in about a year, we would be prepared to be messengers of peace.
What would it take to be trained for a spiritual marathon?
First, it will take prayer. Not just occasional prayers prayed when we feel like it, but a concentrated effort of prayer that is ongoing. Before we can withstand the pressures of a marathon, we have to learn to breath. Prayer is our breath. We take our sins to God, and we receive His forgiveness. We take our desires to God, and He gives us back instructions. We take our will to God, and He changes our hearts.
Then we need the right food. We feed on the word of God. How many of us are on a training regimen diet? Do we study the Bible when we feel like it, or do we study the Bible as if our lives depended upon it?
Then we need to join a group. Studies have shown that most people do not get fit alone. They need the encouragement of others. We need to make this an open source of discussion and sharing. We will not make a difference right away, but we must talk and continue to talk together. More than that, we need to pray and read the Bible together.
Then we need to lose some weight. Most of us have tons of spiritual fat on us. Those are the things we should not be doing that we are doing. We have allowed ourselves to eat spiritual junk food, and feast on television and modern culture, until we have no spiritual strength left. We are defined not only by what we read, but by what we do not read. If we do not read the Bible but constantly read junk, are we any difference, or can we expect any other result than if we did not eat vegetables but tried to live off Coke and Twinkies. These things are fine for a treat once in while, but we cannot live off them.
Then we need to practice, practice, practice! Start small. Start by praying for the lost. Then go on to meeting the lost. Third, bring them to church. Finally, tell them about Jesus. Once we all get those skills down, then we need to meet the lost in large numbers. We need to provide events and programs that will bring them into this church. Furthermore, we need to go out where they live and tell them in their homes, schools, and markets. We do not know exactly where God will send us. But if we are not prepared, we know where we will go—nowhere.
We have a choice. We can stay in our comfortable pews, growing older and fatter, slowing dying off until the last one of us left turns off the lights. Or we can train as a church to be the messengers of God that He wants us to be. God has all power and sovereignty. He who made us to spread the good news also made it possible for us to do it, if we take the training seriously.
Do you know why we call a marathon race a marathon?
The marathon began as a way of commemorating Phidippides, a Greek runner who lived in 546 B.C. In that year the Persians invaded Greece. At the battle of Marathon, the Athenians defeated Persians and Phidippides was sent to tell the good news to Athens. The distance beteen Athens and Marathon is twenty-six miles. Phidippides accomplished the run over mountainous terrain, and fell dead as soon as he got there!
I have always wondered why, if modern runners run marathons all the time, Phidippides died. The rest of the story is this. The day before the battle, Phidippides had just finished running to tell the Spartans—a round trip of 380 miles. This he accomplished without stopping. Then without resting Phidippides fought in the battle. Then without resting he ran back to Athens.
If I had been Phidippides, I would have fallen over dead after a couple of miles!
Phidippides was a professional runner. He had trained for it all his life. Thre were many such professional runners in ancient times. We even read about them in the Bible. Isaiah wrote about them in Isa 52:7
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
"Your God reigns!"
In ancient times, armies communicated by sending runners. They have beautiful feet when they carried good news. Everyone wanted to see them.
When Isaiah wrote these words, he was not being spiritual. They were in physiLIbercal danger ad the needed good news.
Isaiah is a puzzling book to scholars, because it describes two separate time periods over a hundred years apart. Liberal scholars assume there must have been two Isaiah’s and that their books got mixed together. They do not believe in prophecy, so they cannot account in any other way for the clarity of Isaiah’s vision. In both of them, the country needed to hear the footsteps of a Phidippides.
Isaiah lived in the Eighth century, BC. At that time, Jerusalem was under siege by the Assyrians. The Assyrians were just about the worst people in the world. The Assyrians were like a giant amoeba, surrounding and invading foreign countries. First they conquered then they digested. They dismantled its entire country and shipped off to many different places in their empire. 701 they tried to swallow Judah and Jerusalem. They almost succeeded, too. They laid siege to Jerusalem for years.
I have often wondered what it must have been like inside the walls of Jerusalem during those days. The picture the Bible paints of that life is truly terrible. They had no food to eat. They even resorted to cannibalism. When King Hezekiah of Judah heard this he put on sackcloth and
ashes, and walked the walls of Jerusalem, weeping.
The prophet Isaiah was inside those walls, praying for God’s help. And did deliver them. He destroyed most of the conquering army, and the rest went home, leaving all their food behind.
In the second part of Isaiah, chapters 40-66, Isaiah predicts another siege of Jerusalem, a hundred years in he future by another country--Babylon. This time, though the result was different. The beautiful feet never came. Jerusalem was destroyed. Many people were disappointed with Isaiah’s words. But they were not listening to them. Isaiah did not say the runners would say they were victorious, only that they would announce that their God would be victorious. They were defeated on the battlefield, but seventy years later, the country was reborn. The runners Isaiah saw coming were not announcing the country’s deliverance, but it’s rebirth.
In the Apostle Paul’s day, there was a third siege of Jerusalem. This time it was the Romans. It took almost two thousand years for the Jews to return after that.
Three sieges. Three outcomes--each one worse than the last. Each time God’s people looked to God for deliverance. Once it came. The other two times God brought resurrection. It was not until after the destruction that God came to help.
Now the people of God are in a fourth siege—a spiritual one. The Devil has us under attack from all sides. Militant atheism, Islam, rampant drug use, and pornography are attacking from the outside. The world which seemed so friendly to believers sixty or seventy years ago now despises us. We try to attract people, but all we get are refugees from other churches We are not impacting the rest of the world at all.
The world is also under attack from the inside. The people inside the church are turning on each other to make us feel better about ourselves. While enemy arrows are flying around us, we have our hands around each other’s throats.
But the message of Isaiah is clear. Our God reigns. At such a time as this, we cannot save ourselves, That salvation has to be from the Lord.
The problem with the church today is not lack of strength. We do not need strength. We need faith. If we have strength and no faith, we perish. But if we have faith and no strength, we will eventually triumph.
Christians today are losing hope. Hope is a byproduct of faith. If we believe God is coming, we get the confidence to stand our ground. Hope does not come when we hear the army. We have it as soon as we hear the messenger.
Athens did not have to see Miltiades to have hope, They just needed to see Phidippides. People today are like people back then--they need a messenger. They will die from the lack of it.
They need to know that God has not forgotten them, that they can still call upon him and get an answer. They need someone to come and tell them the answer that will provide hope.
We are the messengers of Christ’s hope.
Isaiah describes what it is like when the messengers of hope arrive. The watchmen on the walls of the city see them first. A shout goes up. Then the townspeople pour up the stairs to the walls, looking for the man with running feet. Then news spreads like wildfire through the town. The defenders on the wall fight harder. Those who have been laying around suddenly get up and get busy. The whole town comes alive when hope comes.
You are the messengers. You are the ambassadors of hope. Therefore, Paul says we must be ready. Like Phidippides, we must train for the mission of bringing hope to the people “Let your feet be shod ith the preparation of the Gospel of peace.”
There are two reasons that our church does not have a greater impact on the world. The first is that we do not believe that we can. The second reason is that we are not prepared. We have not trained ready for Spiritual warfare.
How long does it take for a person to prepare for a marathon? Experts tell me that if a person is reasonably healthy, it should take about a year. Maybe if we as a church trained and prepared, in about a year, we would be prepared to be messengers of peace.
What would it take to be trained for a spiritual marathon?
First, it will take prayer. Not just occasional prayers prayed when we feel like it, but a concentrated effort of prayer that is ongoing. Before we can withstand the pressures of a marathon, we have to learn to breath. Prayer is our breath. We take our sins to God, and we receive His forgiveness. We take our desires to God, and He gives us back instructions. We take our will to God, and He changes our hearts.
Then we need the right food. We feed on the word of God. How many of us are on a training regimen diet? Do we study the Bible when we feel like it, or do we study the Bible as if our lives depended upon it?
Then we need to join a group. Studies have shown that most people do not get fit alone. They need the encouragement of others. We need to make this an open source of discussion and sharing. We will not make a difference right away, but we must talk and continue to talk together. More than that, we need to pray and read the Bible together.
Then we need to lose some weight. Most of us have tons of spiritual fat on us. Those are the things we should not be doing that we are doing. We have allowed ourselves to eat spiritual junk food, and feast on television and modern culture, until we have no spiritual strength left. We are defined not only by what we read, but by what we do not read. If we do not read the Bible but constantly read junk, are we any difference, or can we expect any other result than if we did not eat vegetables but tried to live off Coke and Twinkies. These things are fine for a treat once in while, but we cannot live off them.
Then we need to practice, practice, practice! Start small. Start by praying for the lost. Then go on to meeting the lost. Third, bring them to church. Finally, tell them about Jesus. Once we all get those skills down, then we need to meet the lost in large numbers. We need to provide events and programs that will bring them into this church. Furthermore, we need to go out where they live and tell them in their homes, schools, and markets. We do not know exactly where God will send us. But if we are not prepared, we know where we will go—nowhere.
We have a choice. We can stay in our comfortable pews, growing older and fatter, slowing dying off until the last one of us left turns off the lights. Or we can train as a church to be the messengers of God that He wants us to be. God has all power and sovereignty. He who made us to spread the good news also made it possible for us to do it, if we take the training seriously.
The Breastplate of Righteousness
I once got into a spirited discussion with one of my professors about the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. Goliath was shouting out his treats and taunts to the army of Israel near Bethlehem. Little David came to the front, not to fight, but to bring a care package from home to his older brothers. When he saw the situation, little David took up to challenge Goliath. King Saul took an “it’s your funeral” attitude and let the boy do it. But before he did, King Saul offered little David his armor to wear. Little David refused. The armor did not fit. He got out his stones and sling instead.
Now my professor said that this was a sign of David’s great faith. Little David said that God would fight for him, so why should he need armor? It was all about Israel.
“That may be,” I said, “But if I were David, I would rather be able to run quick stand at a distance, and throw rocks.”
That’s the problem with armor. If it works, it’s great, if it fits, but if it doesn’t it is a real problem. We’ve all seen the pictures of knights in shining armor, but what we fail to recognize is that this was not battle armor. This was jousting armor. It was used for tournaments. If knights had tried to use those helmets with the little restrictive visors in battle, they would have been easy pickings for anyone attacking their flank, They were only designed to hold off an attack directly in front of them.
The medieval armor was more of a burden than a blessing in many ways. The Moslems discovered that in the Thirteenth Century fighting the Crusaders in Palestine. At the battle of the Horns of Hattim, the Muslims discovered that if they just set fire to the field, nights in shining armor were doomed. In the Fourteenth Century at the battled of Crechy the English discovered that their longbows could penetrate French armor, and the French did not stand a chance. Ten thousand knights died, but only a few dozen archers.
If armor to be of any help it must be suited for the occasion, and it must fit like a glove.
So why does Paul say to us “put on the breastplate of righteousness?” Doesn’t he know who owns that armor?
The breastplate of righteousness” comes from the Old Testament—Isa. 59:17
The LORD looked and was displeased
that there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no one,
he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm worked salvation for him,
and his own righteousness sustained him.
17 He put on righteousness as his breastplate,
and the helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on the garments of vengeance
and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
The breastplate of righteousness is God’s armor, not ours. So why is Paul telling me to put it on? There is no way the breastplate of righteousness would fit us, any more than Saul’s armor fit little David.
If I were David and Saul were to ask me to go up against Goliath, unless Saul bought his amor from the local big and tall shop I couldn’t get in it. Some of us are too small for God’s armor, some are too fat. Some are too weak to get into it. Others just look ridiculous. God’s armor fits on one, not the way it fit Him. So why does Paul want us to put it on?
That armor is symbolic. God doesn’t literally wear armor. When Isaiah coined the term he was expressing something of God’s righteous nature. God comes down from heaven and fights for righteousness.
God is love, of course. He is our shepherd. He is our friend, and our gentle Father. Isaiah said of him that he would not break a bruised reed. But God is not always that way. He can be a warrior, too.
God looked down from heaven and saw how wicked the world had become. The enemies of God’s people were getting the upper hand. So God decided to show another side of his nature. He put on his armor and came down to wreak havoc.
What does God need with armor? Nothing. Armor is defensive. God does not need defending. The putting on of armor is strictly a way of showing His intention, not for any other purpose. It is a display of power.
It is interesting that Isaiah used a term for armor that is not specific, but generic. He does not refer to chain mail or plate armor, but he uses a term that can mean any kind of breastplate. It can refer to the breastplate that the priest uses in the temple. Or it can refer to a lady’s corset. It is an artificial skin put on so that other people can know you mean business. It is a sign of someone who is ready to fight for righteousness.
Now Paul takes this metaphor of the wrath of God and turns it around. Now, it is not God who wears the breastplate. We do.
How can we wear a breastplate that belongs to God?
There is a passing of responsibility here. In the Old Testament, God comes out of heaven and wreaks vengeance upon His enemies. They come to fear the gleaming of his armor. But now, in the New Testament, God comes as a lamb, not a lion. He comes as a human being, with human limitations. Now, he does not promise to fight our enemies, but to help us fight them. He will not fight—we will fight.
It hardly seems fair, does it? We are not up to the challenge. When we knew that God would come out of heaven and fight for us, wearing the breastplate of righteousness, we felt safe and secure. But when God gives us that same breastplate and says “Here, put it on and fight,” we would just as soon leave it where it is and let someone else take up the challenge. Like the Israelite army of old when faced with Goliath, we wait for someone else to take up the armor.
I have known many confident, even arrogant people in my life. People with confidence and bravado achieve the admiration of others. But they are unrealistic. Sooner or later, we all meet our match. There is always someone bigger and stronger. Even if there isn’t, sickness and death comes to us all.
There are those who think they are a match for the Devil, too. They will never fall to temptation. They will never cower in fear. They will never let the world get them down. But sooner or later, we all do. We all fail, we all fear, we all fall.
But Paul does not mean that we ought to feel helpless and impotent, nor does he mean we should be arrogant and naïve--far from it! Paul says that God has given us His breastplate. This breastplate is one size fits all. His breastplate is never any more than we can handle. It is made of the most amazing material—the righteousness of God, which will not break or shatter, neither will it weigh us down with an impossible burden. When we put it on, we are completely protected from harm.
The armor of God does two things for us. First it gives us authority. By virtue of wearing the armor, we claim the authority of God over the world.
The armor of God changes our identity. Like a supehero’s mask, when we put it on, we assume the authority and the power of someone else. We become God’s righteousness. We must claim that identity as our own, and exhibit His power and might, so we may be able to fight against the Evil one
The word Christian is an interesting word. It does not mean ‘one who believes in Jesus.” It literal means more like “one who lives in Jesus.” We are the same inside. We are frail and sinful human beings. But in the spiritual realm, we are viewed in an entirely different way. We bear the power and love of Jesus. He becomes us and we become Him. We become His soldiers, wearing his uniform, representatives of his power and love.
One of minister friends occasionally wore a clerical collar. (Personally, I’ve never even owned one.) The reason he did it, he said, was that when he wore it in public, people treated him differently. Some people avoided him Some people even insulted him, but he did not mind. tHe were not insulting him personally, but they were insulting the collar. Other people were drawn to him. Total strangers would come up to him and start telling him their problems. Nurses in hospitals would stop him on visits and ask him to see other patients. It was the collar that did it. People knew that he was God’s man walking the halls
When we put on the armor of righteousness, we have something of the same reaction. We are not personally attacked, God is attacked, and He an bear it. When the Devil comes after us, God’s armor deflects it. When people run from us, we know it is not our power, but his. The Blood of Jesus defends us and covers us, so that people can only see Christ when they see us.
Second, we claim His power. Authority without power is merely an empty threat. If all we could do is to give orders, and we did not have the coercive power to back up those orders, then our authority will not hold.
God battles through us for the sake of righteousness. We don’t have to be strong. He will strong through us. We don’t have to love, He loves through us. We don’t have to take the blows of the enemy. He has already takes the blows on our behalf.
This requires on our part a change of attitude. We have to recognize that armor before it can be effective.
Let’s say that there is someone you don’t love, but you recognize that God wants you to love Him. We are in Christ. Christ is our strength. Though we may be full of anger and hurt feelings, Jesus still loves the man. So we respond, not on our own strength, but His. We let Him use our hands and arms, and let Him love through us.
Let’s say that there is some temptation we cannot resist. Then we must pull all the closer to God, and to his Son. If we rely upon Him, the temptation has no power over us.
Let’s say we are under attack for our beliefs. We must realize that it is not us they are attacking, but Jesus in us. Jesus is big enough to weather the attack.
Let’s say we know ourselves to be failures. Whenever we take on Satan by ourselves, without the help of Jesus, we will fail. But when we allow Jesus to work through us, we will succeed. It does not matter that we have failed a hundred times, Jesus never fails, not even once.
Don’t despair when you face Goliaths. You wear the armor ofGod. You may fail God a thousand times, but he will never fail you.
Now my professor said that this was a sign of David’s great faith. Little David said that God would fight for him, so why should he need armor? It was all about Israel.
“That may be,” I said, “But if I were David, I would rather be able to run quick stand at a distance, and throw rocks.”
That’s the problem with armor. If it works, it’s great, if it fits, but if it doesn’t it is a real problem. We’ve all seen the pictures of knights in shining armor, but what we fail to recognize is that this was not battle armor. This was jousting armor. It was used for tournaments. If knights had tried to use those helmets with the little restrictive visors in battle, they would have been easy pickings for anyone attacking their flank, They were only designed to hold off an attack directly in front of them.
The medieval armor was more of a burden than a blessing in many ways. The Moslems discovered that in the Thirteenth Century fighting the Crusaders in Palestine. At the battle of the Horns of Hattim, the Muslims discovered that if they just set fire to the field, nights in shining armor were doomed. In the Fourteenth Century at the battled of Crechy the English discovered that their longbows could penetrate French armor, and the French did not stand a chance. Ten thousand knights died, but only a few dozen archers.
If armor to be of any help it must be suited for the occasion, and it must fit like a glove.
So why does Paul say to us “put on the breastplate of righteousness?” Doesn’t he know who owns that armor?
The breastplate of righteousness” comes from the Old Testament—Isa. 59:17
The LORD looked and was displeased
that there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no one,
he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm worked salvation for him,
and his own righteousness sustained him.
17 He put on righteousness as his breastplate,
and the helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on the garments of vengeance
and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
The breastplate of righteousness is God’s armor, not ours. So why is Paul telling me to put it on? There is no way the breastplate of righteousness would fit us, any more than Saul’s armor fit little David.
If I were David and Saul were to ask me to go up against Goliath, unless Saul bought his amor from the local big and tall shop I couldn’t get in it. Some of us are too small for God’s armor, some are too fat. Some are too weak to get into it. Others just look ridiculous. God’s armor fits on one, not the way it fit Him. So why does Paul want us to put it on?
That armor is symbolic. God doesn’t literally wear armor. When Isaiah coined the term he was expressing something of God’s righteous nature. God comes down from heaven and fights for righteousness.
God is love, of course. He is our shepherd. He is our friend, and our gentle Father. Isaiah said of him that he would not break a bruised reed. But God is not always that way. He can be a warrior, too.
God looked down from heaven and saw how wicked the world had become. The enemies of God’s people were getting the upper hand. So God decided to show another side of his nature. He put on his armor and came down to wreak havoc.
What does God need with armor? Nothing. Armor is defensive. God does not need defending. The putting on of armor is strictly a way of showing His intention, not for any other purpose. It is a display of power.
It is interesting that Isaiah used a term for armor that is not specific, but generic. He does not refer to chain mail or plate armor, but he uses a term that can mean any kind of breastplate. It can refer to the breastplate that the priest uses in the temple. Or it can refer to a lady’s corset. It is an artificial skin put on so that other people can know you mean business. It is a sign of someone who is ready to fight for righteousness.
Now Paul takes this metaphor of the wrath of God and turns it around. Now, it is not God who wears the breastplate. We do.
How can we wear a breastplate that belongs to God?
There is a passing of responsibility here. In the Old Testament, God comes out of heaven and wreaks vengeance upon His enemies. They come to fear the gleaming of his armor. But now, in the New Testament, God comes as a lamb, not a lion. He comes as a human being, with human limitations. Now, he does not promise to fight our enemies, but to help us fight them. He will not fight—we will fight.
It hardly seems fair, does it? We are not up to the challenge. When we knew that God would come out of heaven and fight for us, wearing the breastplate of righteousness, we felt safe and secure. But when God gives us that same breastplate and says “Here, put it on and fight,” we would just as soon leave it where it is and let someone else take up the challenge. Like the Israelite army of old when faced with Goliath, we wait for someone else to take up the armor.
I have known many confident, even arrogant people in my life. People with confidence and bravado achieve the admiration of others. But they are unrealistic. Sooner or later, we all meet our match. There is always someone bigger and stronger. Even if there isn’t, sickness and death comes to us all.
There are those who think they are a match for the Devil, too. They will never fall to temptation. They will never cower in fear. They will never let the world get them down. But sooner or later, we all do. We all fail, we all fear, we all fall.
But Paul does not mean that we ought to feel helpless and impotent, nor does he mean we should be arrogant and naïve--far from it! Paul says that God has given us His breastplate. This breastplate is one size fits all. His breastplate is never any more than we can handle. It is made of the most amazing material—the righteousness of God, which will not break or shatter, neither will it weigh us down with an impossible burden. When we put it on, we are completely protected from harm.
The armor of God does two things for us. First it gives us authority. By virtue of wearing the armor, we claim the authority of God over the world.
The armor of God changes our identity. Like a supehero’s mask, when we put it on, we assume the authority and the power of someone else. We become God’s righteousness. We must claim that identity as our own, and exhibit His power and might, so we may be able to fight against the Evil one
The word Christian is an interesting word. It does not mean ‘one who believes in Jesus.” It literal means more like “one who lives in Jesus.” We are the same inside. We are frail and sinful human beings. But in the spiritual realm, we are viewed in an entirely different way. We bear the power and love of Jesus. He becomes us and we become Him. We become His soldiers, wearing his uniform, representatives of his power and love.
One of minister friends occasionally wore a clerical collar. (Personally, I’ve never even owned one.) The reason he did it, he said, was that when he wore it in public, people treated him differently. Some people avoided him Some people even insulted him, but he did not mind. tHe were not insulting him personally, but they were insulting the collar. Other people were drawn to him. Total strangers would come up to him and start telling him their problems. Nurses in hospitals would stop him on visits and ask him to see other patients. It was the collar that did it. People knew that he was God’s man walking the halls
When we put on the armor of righteousness, we have something of the same reaction. We are not personally attacked, God is attacked, and He an bear it. When the Devil comes after us, God’s armor deflects it. When people run from us, we know it is not our power, but his. The Blood of Jesus defends us and covers us, so that people can only see Christ when they see us.
Second, we claim His power. Authority without power is merely an empty threat. If all we could do is to give orders, and we did not have the coercive power to back up those orders, then our authority will not hold.
God battles through us for the sake of righteousness. We don’t have to be strong. He will strong through us. We don’t have to love, He loves through us. We don’t have to take the blows of the enemy. He has already takes the blows on our behalf.
This requires on our part a change of attitude. We have to recognize that armor before it can be effective.
Let’s say that there is someone you don’t love, but you recognize that God wants you to love Him. We are in Christ. Christ is our strength. Though we may be full of anger and hurt feelings, Jesus still loves the man. So we respond, not on our own strength, but His. We let Him use our hands and arms, and let Him love through us.
Let’s say that there is some temptation we cannot resist. Then we must pull all the closer to God, and to his Son. If we rely upon Him, the temptation has no power over us.
Let’s say we are under attack for our beliefs. We must realize that it is not us they are attacking, but Jesus in us. Jesus is big enough to weather the attack.
Let’s say we know ourselves to be failures. Whenever we take on Satan by ourselves, without the help of Jesus, we will fail. But when we allow Jesus to work through us, we will succeed. It does not matter that we have failed a hundred times, Jesus never fails, not even once.
Don’t despair when you face Goliaths. You wear the armor ofGod. You may fail God a thousand times, but he will never fail you.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
In Defense of Impurity
The word "Puritan" is a kind of shibboleth word when it comes to Reformed theology. If you are a Reformed Christian, you are likely to be attracted to them. If you are not a Reformed Christian, then the picture you are likely to have of Puritans is likely to bring images of dunking stools and witch hunts.
This is an unfair picture of the Puritans. They were not the prudish, judgmental fanatics they have been portrayed to be in popular culture. They were not killjoys. To the contrary, they were passionate people who ate, drank, smoked, and made love with passion and gusto. Because they loved God, they loved life, and they showed it.
The Puritans were not perfect, and did not claim to be. But they understood that they were saved by grace and grace alone. But they did get angry at times, and yes, they were judgmental sometimes. They were called Puritans not be cause they themselves were pure, but because they sought God with an even greater passion their love of life. Their greatest passion was to walk always in step with God.
But "puritanical" is a different word altogether. A puritanical person insists that they are morally and doctrinally pure already, and seeks to making everyone else conform to their own standards. Puritanicals are the rightful heirs of the Pharisees. They are reminiscent of the Pharisee who Jesus described in one of his parables as praying in the temple, pointing to a sinner in the back and saying aloud. "I'm glad I’m not like some people I know!"
The Puritans sought to be pure in grace and love of God. Puritanicals have their eyes on this world, and on themselves. They narcissistically apprise the world around them, and find that it falls short of their own standards. In their self-centered opinions, God's standards and their standards are one and the same.
When Puritanicals take over a church, they are always doomed to failure. The more they insist on doctrinal and moral purity, the less they exhibit the characteristcs of love and grace that God most clearly calls us to in the Scriptures. purity that the Bible calls us to is not a purity of doctrine or even behavior, but a purity of love and trust.
When God calls us to be pure, what kind of purity is he talking about? It can't be purity of doctrinal belief, since our understanding of doctrine is and always will be incomplete. We may pretend do understand the mysteries of the universe, but we can no more comprehend them than a flea can comprehend the nature a dog. We can only understand the little part of the universe we personally experience. It cannot be purity of behavior, either. If our knowledge of God's word and will are limited, our own will to resist is even more limited. Besides, there is that tricky problem of situational relativism. What is right in one situation is wrong in another. Even Solomon in all his wisdom was often deceived.
The purity I believe we should seek is a purity of the heart, which leads to a purifying life. It is a purity in living and understanding the central, saving message of Christianity, which is plainly expressed in the Bible.
Ephesians 2: 8-9. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, it is a gift of God, not of yourselves, so that no one can boast."
I John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness."
John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever would believe in Him would have everlasting life."
We will never be pure in any other way, but in our pure desire to attain the grace of God through faith.
This pure Gospel is expressed in two loves,--love of God and love of others.
1 John 3:2-3
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure .
I John 4: 7-8 Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God,. He who does not love does notlove God, for God is love.
Now, here’s the odd thing about it. We cannot be puritanical and pure at the same time. The more we insist on the church being completely pure, the less we love our brothers. The more we insist of being absolutely right about God in all things, the less we love him. We remake God in our own image. We think Him as judgmental as we are. But the more we forsake judging others and accept them gracefully, as God accepts us, the more we reflect God's love in the world.
I am not "totally" Reformed. I am not totally anything except Christian. I freely admit that there are things I am not sure about doctrinally and morally. I also admit that many of the things I do know, I fail to live up to. But the desire to get everything right is a foolish waste of time, compared to the goal of loving God and others purely and sincerely.
We should strive to live moral lives in accordance with God's will. We should also struggle to understand the meaning of the Scriptures. But there are limits to what is possible in our quest to be good. No matter how good we think we are impurity is there. It is part of God's plan all along that it be this way.
This impurity is not necessarily a bad thing. Iron is strong, but when it contains the impurity of carbon, it becomes steel, which is even stronger. Brass made impure with tin becomes bronze. The quality that makes live music so superior to mechanical music is the impurity, not the purity of the voices. No choir completely sings in harmony, we just overlook the difference. At some point our quest to purify makes our commitment to the Gospel impure.
God made a world where few things are completely pure. He did it on purposes, to show His grace and creativity. If we insist that the church we serve has to be on one completely without variation in thought or practice, then we will serve a church that has ceased to preach the gospel of grace.
Groucho Marx once quipped that he would never be a member or any group that would have him as a member. I feel the same way. If the church insists that all members look alike, act alike, and behave alike, then they should never have me as a member, and I do not want to be a part of it. But if the church can open its arms widely enough to accept believing Christians who think and act in a way that is different from the norm, then there may be a place for me in it.
Let's not sacrifice the peace and prosperity of the church for the sake of a purity we cannot ever fully attain. Instead, let's embrace our differences in the bond of love.
This is an unfair picture of the Puritans. They were not the prudish, judgmental fanatics they have been portrayed to be in popular culture. They were not killjoys. To the contrary, they were passionate people who ate, drank, smoked, and made love with passion and gusto. Because they loved God, they loved life, and they showed it.
The Puritans were not perfect, and did not claim to be. But they understood that they were saved by grace and grace alone. But they did get angry at times, and yes, they were judgmental sometimes. They were called Puritans not be cause they themselves were pure, but because they sought God with an even greater passion their love of life. Their greatest passion was to walk always in step with God.
But "puritanical" is a different word altogether. A puritanical person insists that they are morally and doctrinally pure already, and seeks to making everyone else conform to their own standards. Puritanicals are the rightful heirs of the Pharisees. They are reminiscent of the Pharisee who Jesus described in one of his parables as praying in the temple, pointing to a sinner in the back and saying aloud. "I'm glad I’m not like some people I know!"
The Puritans sought to be pure in grace and love of God. Puritanicals have their eyes on this world, and on themselves. They narcissistically apprise the world around them, and find that it falls short of their own standards. In their self-centered opinions, God's standards and their standards are one and the same.
When Puritanicals take over a church, they are always doomed to failure. The more they insist on doctrinal and moral purity, the less they exhibit the characteristcs of love and grace that God most clearly calls us to in the Scriptures. purity that the Bible calls us to is not a purity of doctrine or even behavior, but a purity of love and trust.
When God calls us to be pure, what kind of purity is he talking about? It can't be purity of doctrinal belief, since our understanding of doctrine is and always will be incomplete. We may pretend do understand the mysteries of the universe, but we can no more comprehend them than a flea can comprehend the nature a dog. We can only understand the little part of the universe we personally experience. It cannot be purity of behavior, either. If our knowledge of God's word and will are limited, our own will to resist is even more limited. Besides, there is that tricky problem of situational relativism. What is right in one situation is wrong in another. Even Solomon in all his wisdom was often deceived.
The purity I believe we should seek is a purity of the heart, which leads to a purifying life. It is a purity in living and understanding the central, saving message of Christianity, which is plainly expressed in the Bible.
Ephesians 2: 8-9. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, it is a gift of God, not of yourselves, so that no one can boast."
I John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness."
John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever would believe in Him would have everlasting life."
We will never be pure in any other way, but in our pure desire to attain the grace of God through faith.
This pure Gospel is expressed in two loves,--love of God and love of others.
1 John 3:2-3
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure .
I John 4: 7-8 Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God,. He who does not love does notlove God, for God is love.
Now, here’s the odd thing about it. We cannot be puritanical and pure at the same time. The more we insist on the church being completely pure, the less we love our brothers. The more we insist of being absolutely right about God in all things, the less we love him. We remake God in our own image. We think Him as judgmental as we are. But the more we forsake judging others and accept them gracefully, as God accepts us, the more we reflect God's love in the world.
I am not "totally" Reformed. I am not totally anything except Christian. I freely admit that there are things I am not sure about doctrinally and morally. I also admit that many of the things I do know, I fail to live up to. But the desire to get everything right is a foolish waste of time, compared to the goal of loving God and others purely and sincerely.
We should strive to live moral lives in accordance with God's will. We should also struggle to understand the meaning of the Scriptures. But there are limits to what is possible in our quest to be good. No matter how good we think we are impurity is there. It is part of God's plan all along that it be this way.
This impurity is not necessarily a bad thing. Iron is strong, but when it contains the impurity of carbon, it becomes steel, which is even stronger. Brass made impure with tin becomes bronze. The quality that makes live music so superior to mechanical music is the impurity, not the purity of the voices. No choir completely sings in harmony, we just overlook the difference. At some point our quest to purify makes our commitment to the Gospel impure.
God made a world where few things are completely pure. He did it on purposes, to show His grace and creativity. If we insist that the church we serve has to be on one completely without variation in thought or practice, then we will serve a church that has ceased to preach the gospel of grace.
Groucho Marx once quipped that he would never be a member or any group that would have him as a member. I feel the same way. If the church insists that all members look alike, act alike, and behave alike, then they should never have me as a member, and I do not want to be a part of it. But if the church can open its arms widely enough to accept believing Christians who think and act in a way that is different from the norm, then there may be a place for me in it.
Let's not sacrifice the peace and prosperity of the church for the sake of a purity we cannot ever fully attain. Instead, let's embrace our differences in the bond of love.
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