FULL ARMOR OF GOD-GOSPEL
OF PEACE
Ephesians 6:10-18
is the basis of our discussion. “Finally,
be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your
stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore
put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground,
and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around
your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with
the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of
faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit
on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the
saints.”
In our last Blog, we discussed the second piece of equipment, the Breastplate of Righteousness.
We first learned what righteousness was: holy and upright living, in accordance with God’s
standard. We are made righteous because our Lord and Savior Jesus is righteous. Therefore,
we must live our life everyday in accordance with His will.
The third piece of equipment is having our feet fitted with the readiness
that comes from the Gospel of Peace. (You’re probably wondering, “What in the world
does that mean?”) Well, I’ll tell you. Think of footwear!
We live in a world
where we have a shoe for every occasion. (Dress shoes, work shoes, casual shoes, track shoes, high heels,
sandals, etc.) However, a Roman soldier’s shoes were extremely important! His
life depended on having the proper foot attire. Roman soldiers usually had to march over rough, hot roads
and over jagged rocks. Sometimes they even had to wade in the water or trample upon thorns.
If their feet weren’t protected, they paid a heavy price. Think about it: if
that soldier’s feet were bloodied, had blisters, corns or cuts, he would be putting his life in danger and probably
the lives of his fellow soldiers. (We all have experienced having trouble with our feet because of our
shoes.) A solider whose feet were messed up, could not advanced or retreat. They wouldn’t
be able to properly use their shield or sword. They would be rendered useless!!!
For the Christian solider,
it is no different. God’s Word describes the Christian life as a battleground, a fight, warfare,
not a playground, and God warns us that we face an enemy who is much stronger than we are -- apart from the Lord’s help!
We must have on the proper footwear and always BE READY!
Let’s
specifically look at what the Scripture said: “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” If our feet aren’t ready for the battle,
we may halt when we should march, turn back when we should go forward. In other words…Preparation.
We want to have footwear that has been properly fitted and adjusted to our feet. But, you’re
probably wondering what does war have to do with peace?
The Gospel of Peace is being
right with God and being contented in troubled times. Jesus said peacemakers were blessed.
We should always remember the battle that we are engaged in is three-fold. The world, flesh,
and the devil.
1. “world”
= the system around us that is opposed to God – that caters to what John said in 1 John 2:15 “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”
It is “Society
apart from God.” But we can thank God for the words of our Savior, “Be of good courage, I have overcome the world.”(John 16:33)
2.
“flesh”
= is the old nature that we inherited from Adam – a nature opposed to God and it can do nothing spiritual to please
God
But we can thank God for the life of Jesus Christ who the writer of Hebrews 4:15 says,
“was tempted in all point like
as we are, yet without sin.”
This means that every temptation
we face in the flesh, the Son of Man (Jesus) has faced it and won the victory! (Matthew 4) We have an example
to follow – if we will make the choices Jesus made then we will know the spiritual success in our lives to the degree
that God intended!
3.
“devil”
= our adversary 1 Peter 5:7 “be watchful because your adversary the devil walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he
may devour.” But
we can thank God that “greater is He
that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
(1 John 4:4)
“As believers, we do not fight for victory
--- we fight from victory!” Wiersbe
The Spirit
of God enables us, by faith, to appropriate Christ’s victory for ourselves. Again, what does war
have to do with peace? Satan is the DESTROYER OF PEACE between man and God and he is the instigator
of strife and division between men. While Jesus is known as the PRINCE OF PEACE . . .Satan seeks
to rob the believer of the peace of God through all kinds of inward distress of the mind and heart. His
goal is to hinder us from being the messengers of PEACE. Paul said in Ephesians 2:14 “For He (Jesus) is our peace.”
There are
three principles that help us to understand the importance and value of making sure we have our “feet fitted with
the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”
1. We
are confident of God’s love for us. The greatest demonstration of love is CALVARY, where God gave His Son for .
. . NOT THE RIGHTEOUS, but the SINNERS. The GOSPEL OF PEACE is all about RECONCILIATION.
(i.e. reconciling the SINNER with a HOLY GOD)
We are FREE to obey God – We don’t
have to sin; We chose to sin (Romans 6:11-13)
2. We are confident of God’s
union with us.
-
i.e. we are part of God’s
family
That means our heavenly Father offers us His FULL RESOURCES!
Ephesians
6:10 “Be strong in the Lord and in the
power of His might.”
As a member of God’s family, you don’t have that problem of inadequate resources! The
Gospel of peace means that because of salvation, we are in God’s family, and because we are in God’ family,
we have ABUNDANT, SUFFICIENT, and AVAILABLE resources to help us with any situation we are facing.
3. We are confident of God’s
commitment to us to fight for us.
“greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4)
“if God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
God doesn’t
just save us and leave us to ourselves, He fights FOR us and WITH us. We have the PRINCE OF PEACE
at our side – in the person of the HOLY SPIRIT. We must remember that we are never ALONE in the battle!
Hebrews 13:5 “I
will never (ever) leave you, nor (no not ever, ever) forsake you.” Hebrews 4:15:
“ For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”
Peace does not come passively, and the idea that we need some sort of footwear to run after peace seems clear when the psalmist
sings, “Seek peace and pursue [chase] it”
(Psalm 34:14). Passiveness is not peace. When it comes to seeking peace—finding
common ground on which we can agree with the enemy we hope to reconcile—we should not be overly insistent upon our own
rights. Insisting upon our rights and seeking peace are really contradictory. Seeking peace means humbling ourselves
and not seeking our wills or our preferences except where matters of principle are involved.
What is our blessing as we keep these
sandals of peace fitted with readiness, along with the rest of the armor? It is peace with
God through Jesus Christ (Acts 10:36; Romans 5:1). And we are admonished, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:15,16).
The peace of God is not the peace of the flesh, but peace of the heart. This peace should
have such control of us that a holy influence would go with us through all of our experiences. This peace can only
come to us if we have given ourselves unreservedly to God and “chase” peace upon His paths with feet fitted
with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. This peace is the direct result of
a close personal relationship between ourselves and God. This peace can look up through its tears with joyful expectancy
for the glorious realization of our hopes. We are at a loss to even properly express to others except our brethren the effects
that wearing sandals of peace will have in our lives: “And
the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).
We know this is sure, for our master and the captain of our salvation
in this warfare has promised: “My peace I give unto
you!” (John 14:27).
