I’ve spoken much on the importance of the local church, but I’ll keep harping on the topic. In this article and a few more to come, I want to focus on the armor of God. Specifically for this article, I’ll be focusing on the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit. Ephesians 6:16-17 reads: “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.”
When Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians he was under house arrest and under guard, most likely looking at a Roman soldier, so he had an example in front of his eyes when he wrote about the armor of God. The reason this is important is to understand how Romans fought. We cannot compare it even to medieval knight armor, but the importance specifically of Roman armor and weaponry.
Romans often fought in a phalanx formation. This means each soldier would overlap their shields with the shields of those next to them. If an enemy was to come up and press against them, they’d have the strength of the person next to them, together making a nearly impenetrable wall. Based on this, you might be able to see where I’m going with the local church in comparison to the Roman phalanx. The people we go to church with and live in community with are our fellow soldiers. When we have our faith overlapping with the faith of others, we have a stronger wall to defend ourselves with. That way when Satan comes up against us, we are able to stand more firmly, relying on our fellow soldiers in Christ.
However, like most soldiers in wartime, we cannot rely purely on defensive tactics. We must know offense as well. This is where training with the sword comes in. In order to be a good combatant, we must not only study the sword, but practice with it regularly. Nobody has ever become a master by only practicing once a week. When we learn our sword, or the Bible, we are not only about to defend ourselves against Satan’s attacks, but even able to counter back.
We see this same tactic applied with Jesus’ fast in the wilderness. Satan came against him, and he responded with Scripture. So, in order to deploy this tactic, we must not only be studying the Word, but memorizing it as well.
We can see from these descriptions that the sword and shield must be used in conjunction with each other, not separately. It is not sword or shield, but sword and shield. Similarly, it’s not just staying home and reading your Bible or just going to church, but studying your Bible and fellowshipping with the church at the same time. So be a good soldier of Christ, strengthening your faith and training regularly with your sword.
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