God in the Spiritual Armor

In one of my earlier posts i had mentioned the trinity (Father, Son, & Holy Spirit) of God showing up in unexpected places. I wasn't expecting to come back to it so soon, but something i was thinking about while helping to get the house cleaned up yesterday really brought it to the forefront of my mind. I processed it with my wife, but i wanted to post it here as well. However, it may not all fit in one post, so we will see...

Ephesians 6 talks about how our we do not wage war with other people, but that battles are with principalities & powers, spiritual wickedness in high places. As a result we need to have armor, not in the physical armor, but spiritual armor. Paul then goes on to write about that armor and goes on to list four actual pieces of armor a shield and a sword. Of those 4 pieces of armor, 3 are primarily for protecting the body itself. As a result that's where i want to focus.

Vs. 14 gird your loins with truth. In different version this is also called the Belt of Truth. This belt is not what we would consider a belt nowadays. It's not just a strip of leather that holds your pants. It is a piece of armor that could better be described as a girdle. It covers the lower private areas like a skirt would as well as the stomach area. It is meant to cover the softest and most vulnerable areas of your body. Next in vs. 14 it talks about the Breastplate of Righteousness. This Breastplate of Righteousness obviously covers a person's chest. It covers the heart & lungs which if pierced mean death. Next is the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. I am skipping over this as it is not what i would consider as life threatening in nature as the others. The final piece of actual body armor is the Helmet of Salvation that is covering the head & brain.

Piecing together this connection really began a while back when i was looking at Isaiah 64 where it talks about our righteousness is as filthy rags. Filthy rags don't really make very good armor, and certainly don't protect against an attack. They could hardly protect against the wind. Righteousness however, is continually associated with Christ. (At least 5 times in Romans, as well as in I Corinthians, Galatians, I Peter, & twice in Philippians). This came to mind as i was studying the spiritual armor but i didn't piece the rest of it together until later. In my previous study i really struggled with the belt of truth aspect because as is the question in today's society; what is truth? It wasn't until much later as i was reading John that i kept coming across a statement that i found to be interesting. Christ kept calling the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth and since i had really been struggling trying to understand what truth is/= and how to distinguish truth from anything less, it really stuck out to me. Finally the connection clicked and i saw those two aspects together in the armor. The righteousness of Christ & the Spirit of Truth. At that point it was just a matter of looking... and sure enough. Now that i was looking for it, it was as plain as day! The helmet of salvation. Salvation from our sins to bring us back through repentance to a right relationship with God.

There it is, plain as day if you know what to look for. The trinity in the spiritual armor. The Holy Spirit is/= our Girdle of Truth. The righteousness of Christ =/is the Breastplate of Righteousness. The Helmet of Salvation is/= our re-formed relationship to God.

So what? What does this mean, and what does it have to do with anything? That's a great question and i'm glad you asked. More on that next time.