January 22, 2023
Ephesians 6:13-17
TOOLS of WAR Week 2
“Foundations of Protection”
Service Overview: The best armor is one that stays on and helps prevent damage to vital organs. Truth and righteousness do just that. While truth firmly holds the Christian faith together like a belt, righteousness protects our vital organs like the breastplate. Both are vital to be ready for battle.
Memory Verse for the Week:
“Blessed are those who act justly, who always do what is right.” Psalm 106:3 (NIV)
Background Insights:
- The breastplate covered the greatest area on the warrior, protecting his most vital organs from harm. Its appearance helped to suggest the strength of the soldier and his army. Enveloped in this protection the soldier was enabled to stand against the weapons that would otherwise mortally wound him. (Mark A. Holmes, Ephesians, Kindle Location 3525)
- A breastplate was a large leather, bronze, or chain-mail piece that protected the body from the neck to the thighs. In Isaiah 59:17, God “put on righteousness as his breastplate.” Protecting the vital organs, the breastplate was a vital piece in the soldier’s armor. No soldier would go into battle without his breastplate. (Bruce Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Ephesians, 132)
- 6:13. The “evil day” could refer generically to any time of judgment or testing (e.g., Amos 6:3), but some scholars think it applies specifically to the period of intense tribulation Jewish people expected prior to the end of the age (cf. Dan 12:1), which Paul elsewhere may have regarded as present (cf. Rom 8:22-23). (Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, 296)
- When a soldier tightened his belt he was ready for combat, because in the process of tightening he drew up his tunic and cinched it so it could not impede him as he charged into battle. It also firmly fixed his sword in place. To get the feel here, we might think of a football player clenching his mouthpiece in his teeth, adjusting his pads, and hitching up his waist to get ready for the next play. But what the soldier did was even more crucial. His belt held everything in place. Without it, he would be powerless in battle. (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Ephesians, 251)
- The Old Testament images Paul had in mind likely came from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 11:5 mentions the Messiah coming with a belt of righteousness and faithfulness. Isaiah 59:17 refers to the Lord donning “righteousness like a breastplate” and putting “a helmet of salvation on His head.” And Isaiah 52:7 describes the beauty of the feet of those who pronounce good news of happiness, salvation, and the kingdom of God. (Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Living Insights: Galatians & Ephesians, 367)
How is truth a fundamental part of one’s spiritual armor?
1. Because it affirms and upholds reality as God has established it.
(Ps. 119:160; 145:18; Prov. 30:5; John 14:6; 17:17; Rom. 1:20; 1 Cor. 2:14; Heb. 4:12)
let every good and true Christian understand that wherever truth may be found, it belongs to his Master. (Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Book 2, ch.18)
You and I can discover truth, but we cannot create it. What’s true is true and what’s not is not – for all of us, all the time. Our culture views truth as something inside us, subject to revision according to our growth and enlightenment. Scripture views truth as something outside us, which we can believe or not but can never sway. (Randy Alcorn, The Grace and Truth Paradox, 39)
- It readies the mind to discern truth from error, good from evil.
(Prov. 12:22; 30:5; John 8:31-32; 16:13; Rom. 12:2; Phil. 1:9-10 ; 1 Thes. 5:21; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Heb. 5:14; 1 Pe. 3:12; 1 John 4:1; 4:6)
Heresy is truth out of proportion, and twisting the truth is [Satan’s] specialty. (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Ephesians, 244)
Satan is a liar (John 8:44), but the believer whose life is controlled by truth will defeat him. The girdle held the other parts of the armor together, and truth is the integrating force in the life of the victorious Christian. A man of integrity, with a clear conscience, can face the enemy without fear. The girdle also held the sword. Unless we practice the truth, we cannot use the Word of truth. Once a lie gets into the life of a believer, everything begins to fall apart. (Wiersbe, Ephesians, 151)
How does righteousness function as part of one’s spiritual armor?
- It protects one’s life from needless sin and suffering.
(Ps. 15:1-2; 34:13; Proverbs; Is. 33:15-17; Rom. 1:18; 6:23; Eph. 4:15; Ja. 4:17; 1 John 3:7)
Since our armor reflects our Enemy’s nature, the presence of a breastplate of righteousness reveals the Enemy’s propensity to use unrighteousness to destroy God’s people. (Mark A. Holmes, Ephesians, Kindle Location 3525)
“Righteousness” provides a significant defense; it gives the evidence that we have been made right with God and that this righteousness has been given us by the Holy Spirit. Believers have been made righteous through the blood of Christ. The believers then want to live in uprightness and integrity, desiring to please the One who saved them. (Bruce Barton, Ephesians, 132)
- It protects one’s character from credible accusation.
(1 Sam. 16:7; Ps. 15:2-3; 106:3; Prov. 10:9; 12:19; 30:5; Mat. 5:6; Rom. 1:24-25; 1 Cor. 15:33; 1 John 2:29)
When a man is clothed in righteousness, he is impregnable. Words are no defense against accusation, but a good life is. (Willard Barclay, Galatians-Ephesians, 217)
The life we live either fortifies us against Satan’s attacks or makes it easier for him to defeat us (2 Cor. 6:1–10). When Satan accuses the Christian, it is the righteousness of Christ that assures the believer of his salvation. But our positional righteousness in Christ, without practical righteousness in the daily life, only gives Satan opportunity to attack us. (Warren Wiersbe, Be Rich: Ephesians, 152)
Conclusion… How can we be active in putting these tools of war on today?
A. Seek, immerse yourself in, and hold tightly to the truth at all cost.
(Psalm 119:160; John 14:17; 17:17; 1 Cor. 5:8; 13:4-6; Phil. 4:8; James 1:18; 1 John 3:18)
Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it. (Blaise Pascal, Thoughts, Letters, and Minor Works, Vol. 48, 307)
Christ’s people must have bold, unflinching lion-like hearts, loving Christ first, and His truth next, and Christ and His truth beyond all the world. (C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, Morning April 5)
Truth is what God thinks; it is what God does; it is what God is; it is what God has revealed of Himself in the Bible. Truth is found in its fullest form in God, for He is truth; He is the very source and origin of all truth. (Tim Challies, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, 94)
B. Live and trust accordingly.
(Ps. 86:11; Prov. 30:5; Jer. 6:16; Matthew 5:6; 6:33; John 8:36; Romans 1:17; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:15; Hebrews 6:18; 1 Peter 2:24)
In conscious dependence we must cultivate truth through reading his Word and truthing life in love. In conscious dependence, we must revel in the breastplate of his righteousness and allow what clothes us to fill our souls, so that we become instruments of wonderful spiritual aggression. (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Ephesians, 256)
The end [purpose] of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may. (Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love, 162)
Gospel Application…
In Jesus, we are not only given his righteousness, but called to then walk in it as light in the Lord.
(Proverbs 16:6; 21:3; John 1:1-51; 1:14; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 5:8; Philippians 3:9; 2 Timothy 2:22; James 1:18; 1 John 5:20)
As the belt formed the foundation of the soldier’s armor, the truth is the foundation of the Christian life. This “truth” refers to the believer’s character as a person who can be relied on for the truth. It certainly also refers to the truth of God’s Word and his message in the gospel. If we could not be absolutely sure of our faith, if we were not sure that Jesus is “the truth” (John 14:6), then there would be little use for the armor or in attempting to fight any battle. God’s truth, as revealed to us through Jesus Christ, forms the foundation of victorious Christian living. (Bruce Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Ephesians, 131)
Spiritual Challenge Questions…
Reflect on these questions in your time with the Lord this week, or discuss with a Christian family member or Life Group.
- How have you seen truth on the chopping block of our culture? In what ways is it attacked? What have been the results of those attacks? How can we be faithful in holding onto truth in a culture that increasingly rejects it?
- How might “living one’s own truth” lead to disaster?
- How can you “put on truth” daily to be ready for battle?
- What habits do you need to develop to sharpen your ability to discern truth from error?
- In what ways does living rightly protect one’s life?
- Who do you think of or who is an example of someone whose right-living has helped them in some way?
Quotes to note…
If we think it is unfair for us to be represented by Adam, then we should also think it is unfair for us to be represented by Christ and to have His righteousness imputed to us by God. (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 495)
Christians are persecuted for the sake of righteousness because of their loyalty to Christ. Real loyalty to Him creates friction in the hearts of those who pay Him only lip service. Loyalty arouses their consciences, and leaves them with only two alternatives: follow Christ, or silence Him. Often their only way of silencing Christ is by silencing His servants. Persecution, in subtle or less subtle forms, is the result. (Sinclair Ferguson, The Sermon on the Mount, 41)
I fear many of us have become numb to the poison we are drinking. When it comes to sexual immorality, sin looks normal, righteousness looks very strange, and [Christians] look a lot like everybody else. (Kevin DeYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness, 120)
Worldliness is whatever makes sin look normal and righteousness look strange. (Kevin DeYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness, 37)
Indeed this is one of the greatest mysteries in the world – namely, that a righteousness that resides with a Person in heaven should justify me, a sinner on earth. (John Bunyan, A Puritan Golden Treasury, 121)
Because we are united by faith to [Jesus Christ] who is perfectly righteous, God accepts us as perfectly righteous. God does not resort to some kind of legal fiction, calling something righteous that is not. Rather, He declares us righteous on the basis of the real accomplished righteousness of Christ, imputed to us because of our union with Him. (Jerry Bridges, The Gospel for Real Life, 103)
Behavior modification that’s not empowered by God’s heart-changing grace is self-righteousness, as repugnant to God as the worst sins people gossip about. (Randy Alcorn, The Grace and Truth Paradox, 37)
Although people are allowed to hold their own opinions, they cannot make up their own truth. This cannot be done with religion any more than it can be done with mathematics. To insist that all religions are equally true is another way of saying that all religions are equally false… If every religion is compatible with its opposite, why bother with religion at all? (Philip Graham Ryken, Is Jesus the Only Way?, 34-35)
If I speak what is false, I must answer for it; if truth, it will answer for me. (Thomas Fuller, A Puritan Golden Treasury, 300)
Truth is never to be abandoned in the name of love. But love is not to be deposed in the name of truth… Truth without love has no decency; it’s just brutality. On the other hand, love without truth has no character; it’s just hypocrisy. (John MacArthur, Twelve Ordinary Men, 106)