THE CHRISTIAN’S ARMOUR-EPHESIANS 6:11-18.
Vs. 16 “In addition, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one,” PART 1.
So far, we have protected all the vital parts of the body by girding our loins with truth, donning our breastplate of righteousness, and wearing the shoes of the gospel of peace; but there is still another item of protection for our main body. The shield of faith.
Our faith is such an important part of our salvation that we need to spend some time in considering our spiritual shield. Some translations of vs.16 begin “In addition,” but it could be translated “Above all,” and I think this is a better rendering when we consider the importance of a shield in battle and of how without it a warrior is very vulnerable. In our own spiritual battles where would we be without faith?
Here the Apostle Paul is commending a faith which can quench (extinguish), all the fiery (flaming) darts (arrows) of the wicked (evil) one; that is, the devil.” Unless we have the right kind of faith the devil will always wound or defeat us.
Historic faith is of no use against Satan’s fiery arrows. Even the devil and his wicked spirits have this sort of faith. “You believe that God is One. You do well; the demons also believe and shudder (tremble),” James 2:19.
Temporary faith is of no use either. There are those who make a show of receiving the Word of God, but sometime later act and talk as if they had experienced no real change in their life, which, of course, they hadn’t. “The one on whom the seed was sown on rocky places, this is the man who hears the Word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporarily, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the Word, immediately he falls away,” Matthew 13:20-21. After any evangelistic rally there are usually a few of these people.
Miraculous faith- there is a miraculous faith which is not of God and which cannot extinguish the fiery arrows of the devil. When Moses, through God, brought flies over all of Egypt, “the magicians tried with their secret arts to bring forth flies, they could not……..then the magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘this is the finger of God.’ “ Exodus 8:18-19. Up until this time Egypt’s magicians had copied all of God’s miracles. Only in Moses was there true miraculous faith.
Judas too, had a miraculous faith which he used alongside the Apostles, but it did not prevent him from falling under the sins of covetousness, hypocrisy, and treason and finally hanging himself. How we need the spiritual gift of Discerning of Spirits in the Church so that we can discern as to whether the source of a miraculous manifestation is of God or Satan.
There is only one kind of faith which will extinguish the flaming arrows of Satan’s onslaught, and that is Justifying faith. “I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one,” 1 John 2:14. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith,” 1 John 5:4.
Justifying faith is not just a simple assent to the truths of the Gospel. If we might once again take Judas as our example; Judas knew the Scriptures and no doubt assented to the truth of them, but he never had an ounce of justifying faith in his soul. The Lord Jesus knew this, when He said, “But there are some of you who do not believe,” ‘For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray Him,’ John 6:64. How many people, I wonder, in Churches up and down this country, who enjoy the services, give credence to God’s Word, and even enjoy the preaching but never practice their faith in the home or workplace.
Real justifying faith must do two things. There must be an assent, or agreement in the mind as to God’s truth and an act of the will to embrace it. Or, in other words, it must also become part of the woof and weft of our lives, deeply affecting our character in all we say and do. Paul says it in this way, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation,” Romans 10:9-10. This is the type of faith which we need to enable us to extinguish all the fiery arrows of the devil.
We may ask ourselves, “Why does Paul compare faith to a shield?” The first answer is, that the shield is not for the defence of any one part of the body, as is the breastplate or helmet. In fact, the Roman shield could protect the whole of the body. “For it is you who blesses the righteous man O Lord, You surround Him with favour as with a shield,” Psalm 5:12.
Sometimes Satan attacks our reasoning through our head. If he can, he will cause us to question God’s truth; perhaps His Deity, or some other profound truth in order to cause us to doubt Him. But faith will come between us and this arrow as we take hold of God’s Word, (as Jesus did in the wilderness), and repel Satan’s fiery dart.
Satan will often tempt us to act by reasoning alone. Abraham was hit very hard when God told him that he would have a son by Sarah in their old age. If he had acted only on his reasoning, who knows what would have happened. But he didn’t, as the Scriptures tell us, “Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about one hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God,” Romans 4:19-20. Faith brought Abraham through. Let us also trust the Word of God and not blind reason.
Satan often tries to also send his fiery darts into our conscience. How many of us, having been saved and forgiven for all our past life’s sins and stupidities, but yet are brought low by Satan stirring up the muddy waters that we know in our hearts are under the blood of Jesus at the Cross? When King David was beset by adversity, false witnesses and violent men in Psalm 27:13, said, “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord.” When Satan storms our conscience, we raise our shield of faith and say, “My past has been dealt with at the Cross. My present conscience is clear for I have committed it into God’s hands, so be gone, in the name of Jesus!!”
Another area of attack in which Christians suffer is in the realm of the will. The contest is between God’s will and our will, with Satan trying to convince us that following God’s will in place of our own will rob us of enjoying our life. “What,” says Satan, “Will you serve a God who thwarts you in everything?” “Why does it appear that God always asks you to give up what you love the most?” Our shield of faith can even quench this fiery arrow if we are to trust and believe that our path with God is better than the road of our own will.
The second answer to the question, “Why does Paul compare faith to a shield?” is this. Not only does the shield defend the whole body, but it defend the soldier’s other armour too. It keeps the arrows from the helmet as well as from the head, from both breast and breastplate alike. Thus faith is armour upon armour, a grace that preserves all other graces.
May our faith always be strong and our shield held close and high.
God bless you
John