Battle-ready

A new Monday. A new week. Daylight savings time has come and gone. So now the sun will be setting on me at 16:30 or so this week. What fun.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. Oh no. Today I'm going to ramble a bit on the armour of God (as I had planned for Friday but was unable to do because of more urgent things). Hopefully we all know the armour of God; the helm of salvation, the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God), the belt of truth, and the sandals of the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. (Paraphrased from Eph. 6:14-17).

In this analogy Paul makes it pretty clear that we are involved in spiritual warfare here. In the time of this being written the armour of a Roman soldier was pretty well known in much of the European world, which was to which Paul was writing. Thus, to say that we should be like soldiers in that we must wear spiritual armour was to drive home the fact that we, as Christians, are actually fighting and that if we do not take full advantage of the tools provided us we will fall.

One thing we should realize is that Paul is not just assigning various parts of the Christian faith to a soldier's gear arbitrarily. Rather, each part fits in perfectly, forming great individual analogies. Let's start with the helmet.

The helmet for a Roman soldier was far more than simply head protection, although it certainly is vital to their armour in general. In a Roman army, the soldier ranks were signified by the type of helmet worn. The ordinary soldiers basically wore ergonomically shaped metal bowls. However, a centurion's helmet had a certain type of decorative trim, and so on through the ranks (I'm ashamed to admit I don't actually remember the rest). However, the point is that the helmet was used for identification. If our salvation isn't our identification there's a problem somewhere. Obviously, like I said, it is key for protection but not as key as other items as we will see.

Moving down the body we come to the breastplate of righteousness. This is basically a protection item against the enemy's blows and arrows (horrible pun, I know...sorry). It makes sense; if one is righteous, that provides an almost generic form of protection against the enemy. It is interesting to note, however, that the breastplate was only that; a breastplate. Not a backplate. If one runs from battle it is akin to a dragon showing it's belly. Stupid, vulnerable, and pretty darn predictable. I feel as though I should be saying more on this topic, but I'm drawing a blank.

Moving to the side (right or left, depending on what your primary hand is) we have the shield of faith. To me, this is the more important item in soldier's armour, simply because it is a mobile, well, shield. Given the choice between the two it would be a pretty easy choice to make. For example, I used to play a lot of catcher in baseball. You should know that as a catcher you are wearing more padding than a football player. One of the pieces is a giant chest pad which covers the entire upper body. However, in all my time playing catcher that only was needed once or twice a season, and the same goes for other catchers I watched. The glove, or shield, is what absorbs most of the incoming objects. This is what our faith is like; it is our primary form of defence. If ever our faith misses, however, we should have our righteousness to back it up. In this scenario I would liken righteousness to good habits, or things that we do instinctively in an “emergency” situation.

Moving to the other side of the body we have the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. This is a very obvious analogy. The Word of God is likened to a double-edged sword several times in the Bible. Unfortunately due to time constraints on my writing this I can't look them up at this moment. However, any Christian should know this, and this particular entry more or less is written to speak to said demographic. The word of God is out offence, it is our method of attack. Without it, we can weather an attack with the rest of our armour but we will never be able to defeat, if only temporarily, the enemy. He will always be there to plague us until we use the Word against him.

We then come to the belt of truth. The belt in a soldier's gear basically was to hold it all together. I may be wrong but I believe the breastplate was tucked into or held down by the belt. Falling into the same category of certainty, I think the belt as was used as a harness of sorts to carry other pouches of supplies and gear. Finally, and most obviously, the belt was home to the scabbard of a sword. It is where the Word belongs. It all fits into the belt.

Finally, there are the sandals of readiness. This part is often not fully credited for what it is; after all, sandals are just sandals. But really, having a good pair of sandals would have been vital for a Roman soldier; they must be durable and comfortable so they can walk long distances without blistering feet. Anyone who has had a blister on their foot knows exactly what I'm talking about. One can think of this part in a more modern sense; how well would a sprinter do in the Olympics if he was not wearing an appropriate pair of shoes? Or what would happen to the young university graduate applying for a job if he wore, say sneakers to his interview? Wearing an appropriate pair of shoes, or sandals, is actually quite important in this day and age, much like it was then. Without the right footwear we won't be properly ready to do what God wants us to do, to go where He wills us to go. We must be ready to go at all times. Remember during the Passover when the Israelites escaped Egypt they were specifically instructed to eat their meal with their shoes on so they would be ready to go when the time came. Once again, it's simply an question of preparedness.

Well, that concludes this ramble. I hope it was able to give you some food for thought. Just a quick disclaimer: remember this is all opinion and thought. Don't take this as automatically correct. Anyone who knows me should know that by now.