APRIL 18, 2024

 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:” (Ephesians 6:17)

Ephesians 6:10–20 concludes Paul’s practical application of Christianity with a famous series of metaphors. Here, he describes the ”armor of God.” In this passage, Paul uses the allegory of a Roman soldier’s basic equipment to show how the components of Christianity work together as we strive to serve God. The soldier’s tools include a belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet, and sword, representing the truth, righteousness, gospel, faith, salvation, and the Word of God the Christian receives. Christians are also given prayer. Just as a soldier’s equipment is designed for earthly battle, a Christian’s equipment is meant for spiritual warfare.

Helmets are essential in battle. A helmet can protect against stones, hand weapons, projectiles, fists, impacts with the ground, or other attacks aimed at the head. Soldiers knew one hit to the head could mean disaster in battle. For this reason, the helmet does more to put a soldier at ease than almost any other armor. Paul associates the helmet in the armor of God with salvation. Salvation is ultimately the best protection against Satan since nothing, not even Satan, can separate us from the love of God in Christ.

In addition, Paul mentions “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” This is the first offensive weapon mentioned. The sword was used to kill and defeat enemies during the attack. The typical Roman sword was not a long, cumbersome weapon. Instead, they were short-bladed, easy to draw, and quick in combat. Paul uses the term “machairan” here, which refers explicitly to a short-bladed sword of this type.

In the same way, God’s Word helps us defeat our enemies during spiritual attacks. During Jesus’s temptations by Satan, Jesus used Scripture on all three occasions to overcome temptation. Those who study and know Scripture can best fight against temptation and prevent the Devil from knocking them off their posts.

The sword was an essential part of an ancient soldier’s armor. His other weapons were the bow, the spear, or the battle axe. But without a sword, no soldier would have regarded himself as well-armed. This sword is the truth that the Holy Spirit has revealed. It is what God has spoken. It‘s only by this that Satan can now be met. We can never hope for victory unless we are armed with truth.

Thus, we should study the Bible to understand the truth. We should have Scripture at command, as the Savior did, to meet the various forms of temptation, and we should not depend on our own reason or our own wisdom.

A single text of Scripture is better than all the philosophy the world contains to meet temptation. The tempter can reason and reason plausibly, too. But he cannot resist a direct and positive command of the Almighty.

APRIL 16, 2024

“And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.” (I Kings 20:11)

This was King Ahab’s response to a threatening message from the Syrian King Benhadad. These two kings were on the verge of going to war. It was the custom of combatants in those times to send stinging, insulting messages, exciting each other’s worst passions before they commenced the battle. Benhadad’s last message to Ahab was quite boastful: “The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of the Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me.” Ahab countered with the words of our text: “Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.” Ahab was a wicked man, and certainly not known for his great wisdom, but here, in an attempt at sarcasm, he inadvertently uttered a proverb of the wise.

It is safe to say that most people find braggarts to be very off-putting, especially so when their boasting comes before the fact. Once, in defense of a certain self-aggrandizing baseball player, Yogi Berra famously said, “It ain’t braggin’ if you can do it.” No, Yogi, it is still braggin’ and it is still obnoxious. My dad offered much better counsel to his basketball team: “You boys just play the game; if you do something worth talking about, other people will take care of that for you.” The legendary coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Tom Landry, must have been of the same mind, saying to his players, “When you make it into the endzone, act like you’ve been there before.” It is refreshing these days to see outstanding athletes who are willing to display their amazing skills, leaving it for others to extoll their greatness.

However insultingly intended, our text contains a great deal of common sense. This is one of those cases in which we can learn something very worthwhile from the mouth of a very wicked and foolish man. Though this may not be exactly what Jesus had in mind when He suggested that we might learn from children of darkness who are wiser in their generation, than the children of light, we do well to heed what Ahab here said.

The text is peculiarly adapted to those who are commencing the battle of the Christian life. The new believer is just girding on the harness. He or she does not yet realize the intense battles that are coming. It is easy to allow youthful zeal to underestimate the forces of the enemy, and the difficulties that lie ahead. We have known of newlyweds who talk about successful marriage as if they were coming upon their golden anniversary. Sometimes new parents consider themselves authorities on child rearing having not yet dealt with any of the inevitable struggles of parenthood. Young ministerial students arrive on campus already having all the answers before even attending a class. Young ministers enter the pastorate as if they have been in the harness for many decades, even though it has not a single dent in it.“Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.”

There is within those who newly put on their harness a tendency to boast. They are more apt to be proud and to think of their intentions as accomplishments. Human nature is both poor and proud. It is so poor that it is naked and miserable, and yet it is so proud that it will claim to be rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. The Pharisee, while he gorges on what he has robbed from widows, opens his mouth and cries, “God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men.” Let not any who gird on thewhole armour of God be so proud as to boast of anything. Let us remember that we are what we are by the grace of God and we have nothing, including this harness, that we did not receive.

Those who put on the harness have good reason to refrain from boasting. The very reason that we have been issued a harness should prevent any boasting. Without the helmet of salvation, how easily the fatal blow would be struck. Remove our breastplate of righteousness; our poor hearts would be wounded with mortal sins. If we weren’t properly shod, just one thorn would render us lame. Consider each piece of the armour, though it glistens like burnished silver, it affords no grounds for boasting, for it reminds us of how frail and weak we are. Let us therefore put on the whole armour of God, but let us wear it in the utmost humility.

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APRIL 11, 2024

 “And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” (Mark 12:34)

This was Jesus’ answer to a certain scribe who was the last in a string of scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees who were intent upon catching Him in His words, in an all-out effort to expose Him as a fraud. Jesus had just spoken to them a parable in which a householder had let his vineyard out to some evil husbandmen who plotted the death of his son in order that they might have the vineyard for themselves. The Jewish religious leaders correctly perceived that our Lord was talking about them. After word reached them that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:43-46), they called a meeting and concluded that if they did not get rid of Him, they would end up losing their place and nation. (John 11:47, 48) The parable of the wicked husbandmen made clear that He knew exactly what they were up to. They would have laid hold on Him then and there, but they feared the people. (Mark 12:12)

The only thing they felt they could do was to try to entangle Him in His talk, and thus, discredit Him in the eyes of the people. First, they sent a group made up of Pharisees and Herodians with a question about paying tribute to Caesar – whether it was lawful to do so. This He easily answered, and they marveled at Him. (Verses 13-17)

Next came some representatives of the sect of the Sadducees. They did not believe in the resurrection, so they took an example from the writings of Moses regarding a brother’s responsibility to marry a deceased brother’s wife to raise up seed to his brother. And what if the same scenario was repeated until seven brothers had taken the same woman to wife? Whose wife would she be in the resurrection? How embarrassing for the Sadducees to see how easily He solved the problem, while at the same time, exposing their ignorance of the Scriptures and the power of God. (Verses 24, 25) As a bonus, Jesus proved from Exodus 3:6 the absolute, undeniable truth of the resurrection. (Verses 26, 27) This is noteworthy because the Sadducees, who rejected much Old Testament Scripture as uninspired, did believe the Book of Moses to be God’s Word.

Finally, a scribe came with his question. But, having heard the former exchange between Christ and his interrogators, he “perceived that He had answered well.” He asked a good question, inquiring as to which commandment was the greatest of all. (Vs. 28) Jesus felt that the question was good and sincere, and He answered it in truth: “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength…And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Verses 29-31) The scribe said to our Lord, and before all his fellow religious leaders who sent him to try and catch Jesus in His words, “Well, Master, thou hast said the truth.” They must have been furious! What a traitor! They sent him to expose Jesus as a fraud, and what does he do but affirm that Jesus spoke the truth. This reminds us of the band of soldiers in John chapter seven who were sent by this same bunch to arrest Jesus. When they returned empty-handed, and the angry council demanded an account, they simply answered “Never man spoke as this man.”

Clearly, the scribe was moved by what he heard and by the One who spoke. As the man expressed his agreement, Jesus saw in him a spirit of true understanding, noting that he had answered discretely (with understanding). “Thou,” said Jesus, “art not far from the Kingdom of God.”

What did he lack? What must one who is so near to the Kingdom do? He must “press into it.” Luke says, “The Kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.” He would surely meet with opposition, so press, he must!

“I am resolved to enter the Kingdom.

Leaving the paths of sin,

Friends may oppose me, foes may beset me,

Still will I enter in.”

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APRIL 9, 2024

 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” (Romans 15:4)

Paul seems to deviate slightly from his main point with these words. In the previous verse, he quoted Psalm 69 to support the idea that because Christ did not please Himself in this life, self-gratification should not be the main priority of Christ-followers.

Now Paul, as he so often does, goes to the Scriptures to support his teaching about Christ. Of course, the Scriptures of which we speak are the Old Testament Scriptures. While it is true that, as Christians, we are not under the Old Covenant, that does not mean that the Old Testament is a dead book to us. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…” (II Tim. 3:16) While “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified,” that does not mean that we are released from any obligation to obey the righteous precepts of the Moral Law. In addition to the Moral Law itself, the Holy Spirit has through the inspired Scriptures set forth numerous righteous principles, all of which reveal the mind of God and answer to a good conscience.

Paul insists that those older Scriptures were written to teach all of God’s people, not just those who read them at the time. Those Scriptures are meant to bring encouragement and hope to God’s people in every generation. They help us to endure, even in and through suffering.

This verse answers modern Christians who ask why they should bother to read the Old Testament. Regardless of age, those writings remain the revelation of God’s heart. Though we have been freed in Christ from the Law, those 39 books are nonetheless the Word of God, full of truth, wisdom, history, and great encouragement for believers. Paul insists that we value those Scriptures; seeking encouragement and hope from them.

Paul’s simple point in this verse is that the Old Testament was admirably written and divinely inspired to express Christian duties and doctrine. Paul, therefore, turned aside from his direct argument to express this sentiment. These writings are for our teaching and instruction, that all the Old Testament might be applicable now in illustrating and enforcing the doctrines and duties of believers toward God and man.

By the example of the saints of old, who expressed their confidence in God and showed patience, we may learn to suffer and not only be instructed but also find comfort in our trials.

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