Bible Chats: Armour of God

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to the YA podcast. Lean in as we dive into the practicals of life with Jesus as spirit filled young adults. [00:00:27] Speaker B: Welcome back to the YA podcast. Hello, I'm with Sam. It's Bible chats time. [00:00:33] Speaker A: Keen. [00:00:34] Speaker B: So happy to talk about the Bible. Last time we did a bit of a thematic study on the temple, it. [00:00:42] Speaker A: Was a big one. [00:00:43] Speaker B: Well, the tabernacle. Yeah, presence, the dwelling place for the presence. It was fun. I had a good time, challenged myself, hopefully challenged some other people. Yeah, hopefully you've done some study since then, Sam. [00:00:57] Speaker A: I've been reading it avidly. [00:00:59] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is the bronze altar in the New Testament anyway? Hopefully go back and listen to that. It's good to do, but we're obviously talking about the body of Christ and the corporate, the church, all of these sorts of things. The bride. Today we're going to dive in a bit deeper into a specific scripture, and we're going to do a full on exegesis, hopefully a live exegesis of it. So follow along, grab your Bible so you can read, and hopefully this not only helps you topically within the context of what we're talking about in this season, but I hope it also helps you with some skills so that you can take this and apply into whatever scripture you're studying. How do I approach scriptures and epistles in order to understand them and glean the most possible transformation from them? [00:01:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:58] Speaker B: So I hope that is a reality after this. [00:02:00] Speaker A: It's gonna be good. [00:02:00] Speaker B: It's a big mission. Let's jump into it. Ephesians, chapter six, verse ten to 20. Sam, do you want to give it a read for us? [00:02:10] Speaker A: Yes, let's go. So it says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand firm, stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. [00:03:33] Speaker B: You read so well. [00:03:35] Speaker A: I'm glad. I was trying really hard, making sure that I didn't mess anything up. [00:03:39] Speaker B: No, it's good. It's really good. Let's do what we should all do when we read scripture, and let's zoom out to Ephesians. Firstly, let's talk about Ephesians without bringing any external knowledge. Okay, so what can we know about the letter to the Ephesians purely from reading the letter to Ephesians? Let's start there. So where. Why might Paul be writing this? It's probably some clues. [00:04:12] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it seems like there's a lot of referring to that. [00:04:16] Speaker B: Actually. I should ask a better question. [00:04:17] Speaker A: Yes. [00:04:18] Speaker B: Who's writing the letters of Ephesians? [00:04:19] Speaker A: Oh, I wonder who it is. I think it was Paul. Yeah. [00:04:22] Speaker B: First word of. [00:04:24] Speaker A: Sorry. Yeah. Verse one, it says, paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus. [00:04:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Why? Why is he writing? Do we have any clues? [00:04:35] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you can see through the entirety of Ephesians that there's a lot of referral to. Like, you were once far, but no, you mean real close. You were aliens. And now. So it seems like it's a community that was, from what we can read in scripture. [00:04:48] Speaker B: Not. [00:04:48] Speaker A: Probably. Not like Israelites. [00:04:52] Speaker B: No. Doesn't seem like it is definitely a gentile audience. Yes. And there perhaps was some Jews in the congregation, which would have been helpful anyway, within this book, but. So, yeah, we know that it's a gentile audience. So people that weren't jewish. What else can we learn? He's probably in jail. [00:05:15] Speaker A: Hmm. Yeah. [00:05:17] Speaker B: Ambassador in chains. [00:05:19] Speaker A: Yeah. In verse 20. Yeah. [00:05:22] Speaker B: So we can't get to them, but he is writing to them. What are maybe some themes, some key themes for the entirety of the letter. [00:05:32] Speaker A: Yeah. It starts off a lot about what Christ has done for us in bringing us to him, close to him, but also bringing us together in unity as well. And so then it moves on to a lot of. About the unity amongst the believers as well. [00:05:50] Speaker B: Yeah. How to outwork that unity that the gospel gives us. [00:05:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And. Yeah. Talking about the mystery of the gospel, the fact that those who are, once afar, can be brought close, all that kind of stuff as well. And then. Yeah, the practicals of the unity as well. Moving into that later on. [00:06:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Talking about, you know, children, their parents, wives and husbands, bonds, bondservants and masters, all that sort of stuff. So very practical implications, even the unity of the body, you know, talking about the fivefold the gifts of those ministers give us in order to mature the body into unity, all of these sorts of things. Cool. What are some things that we know just historically about Ephesians, then? [00:06:39] Speaker A: So treasure of Ephesus, Greek. [00:06:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:44] Speaker A: And. Yeah, so I believe there was the one with the temple of Artemis and everything. So, yeah, so obviously a lot of, like, worship of other, like, deities and stuff. [00:06:59] Speaker B: Yeah, big time. [00:07:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:07:04] Speaker B: I mean, we've also got. Obviously, we know that Timothy. Timothy was in Ephesians. In Ephesus, sorry, Timothy one and two. So we've got a fair number of just biblical texts around Ephesians. We know that this would have been a very large church, the first mega church would have, you know, some estimates around 20,000 people sometime. [00:07:25] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:07:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, big time. So, yeah. So unity is probably an issue. The more people you gather, the bigger the problem. [00:07:34] Speaker A: Seemed. There'd be a lot of issues. [00:07:36] Speaker B: Now we understand why he's writing this. Yeah. So that's some things that we know about ephesians also. Things like, they were pretty, like, around magic. There's documentation of them, like, burning, like, millions and millions of dollars worth of magic books, which made people mad because, you know, it was a. An economic. It was an economy for that. Like, it was a money earning thing as well. [00:08:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:08] Speaker B: In this place and temple of Artemis, they had obviously, people started losing money in that industry, all this sort of stuff. So it's a pretty hectic place. Um, lots going on, but lots of great things, um, when it comes to the kingdom of God, and that's where we find ourselves. [00:08:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:28] Speaker B: Um, cool. So unity is obviously that big topic for. For that. So when we start to read about, uh, the armor of God, let's keep that in mind. [00:08:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:41] Speaker B: Because it's obviously a bit more, uh, broader than. Than what we normally read. So our first thing is to understand what the scripture would have meant to the recipients, which we just discussed were the Ephesians. So our first attempt is not to understand what it means to us. So when we're saying things like, what does this mean? What does that mean? Our first level of interpretation is what it means to the recipient. [00:09:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:11] Speaker B: Which is hard. That's why context is important. [00:09:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:14] Speaker B: When we chatted about that in season one. So go listen to context. Context, context. It's a good time. Some. Where do we start, Sam? [00:09:25] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, there's a lot. [00:09:28] Speaker B: Let's just jump in with a couple of repetitive words. Something I like to do when I read scriptures and I notice a word repeating constantly. I highlight it and then I kind of go, okay, maybe there's something actually in this. So in this scripture, the start, verse eleven, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand. Okay, stand against what? Stand against the schemes of the devil. Okay. Then in verse 13, again, take on the whole armor of goddess that you may be able to withstand. Stand again in the evil day, having done all to stand firm. Verse 14, stand therefore. And then it goes into talking about the rest of the armor. So this is obviously this connection between standing against or standing firm or withstanding and the armor of God. [00:10:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:28] Speaker B: So that's. Okay. So the armor of God is something that is helpful to stand against the enemy. So we're talking spiritual warfare. [00:10:40] Speaker A: Absolutely, yeah. [00:10:41] Speaker B: Do you have anything to add on that? [00:10:45] Speaker A: No, not at the moment, but I think it's like. I think just a side thought, I suppose. Like if you're. If we know that we're in spiritual warfare. [00:10:57] Speaker B: Right. [00:10:57] Speaker A: And you know, you're in a battle, like, think of it in a very literal sense. You're in a battle. Right. You wouldn't go into battle without any kind of armor, without any type of protection like that. So this is very much an equipping thing to. For us to be ready. Otherwise we're not ready to go into warfare. [00:11:14] Speaker B: It's interesting that we're talking about this within the context of a book that's majoring on unity of the body, unity of a church kind of thing. [00:11:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:21] Speaker B: I think one of the great, one of the biggest things that the enemy tries to do is sow disunity. [00:11:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:11:29] Speaker B: Because in disunity, he can do whatever he wants. Right. And I think that's the, that's our. Almost our first corporate application point, is that we need unity in order to stand firm, and we need to be aware of this. And we need to put on the whole armor of God in order to engage in spiritual warfare adequately. [00:11:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:57] Speaker B: And not fall over. Do you have anything to add, Sam? [00:12:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I think another really cool thing, zooming out to a bit earlier in Ephesians in chapter one, verses 19 to 23. So you see a lot of similar language used to the beginning of the chapter where we're reading chapter six, verses ten to 20. So we see here in, I think, verse twelve, it talks about like, you know, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, cosmic powers. We see that again here in verse 20 of chapter one where it says 21. 20. Sorry, 21. Yeah. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, all that kind of stuff. And then it's interesting to see that the end of that section in chapter one, it culminates in verse 22 to 23 where it says, and he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him, who fills all in all. And so the combination, all of that was Jesus being given to the church. And then we see like, yeah, it's clear. There's a clear link between those scriptures as well. And so you can see that. That obviously that chapter one area is a corporate, church wide kind of like message. Right. [00:13:14] Speaker B: Yeah. That linking to the, to the victory of Christ for the corporate body. [00:13:19] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:13:20] Speaker B: And then coming into talking about the armor of God again, it's emphasizing, hey, we're in a spiritual battle. Remember in verse one when I said we've won the spiritual battle? We're still in that spiritual battle, though. [00:13:35] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. [00:13:36] Speaker B: Linking those two, that's good. [00:13:38] Speaker A: And this is what is needed now to fight those principalities, those powers. [00:13:42] Speaker B: Yeah, which is interesting. It's like, hey, Jesus won the spiritual battle, but now I'm going to tell you how to be in the battle as well. We know there's victory. We know we've already got victory, but we're still fighting that battle. And so knowing from the place of chapter one, you've got victory now is here how you, the church can participate in the very battle that you've already got victory in the. [00:14:05] Speaker A: Yeah. A question hopefully we don't go off on too much of a tangent here. [00:14:09] Speaker B: We'll see. [00:14:10] Speaker A: But for people who might struggle to reconcile those two things together, the fact that we are already victorious, but we're still fighting. [00:14:18] Speaker B: I love that. The struggle of a christian walk. Yeah, yeah. I'll put some things out there and maybe some people can go and do their own reading and read some scriptures for themselves. It's this concept of the now, but not yet. We are saved and we're being saved. We are victorious and we're becoming victorious. We are holy and we're becoming holy through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. Absolutely. And that is constant throughout scripture, especially in the New Testament. And that's God can say from outside of time, something has happened. [00:15:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:03] Speaker B: Because to him it has. But we are still living in the outworking of it. [00:15:09] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:15:10] Speaker B: And there's. And also things can happen in different realms, but also in then in different places. What do I mean by that? Your spirit has been saved. [00:15:22] Speaker A: Yes. [00:15:23] Speaker B: But your soul and body are going through the work of sanctification, which is a saving work. You have been transformed. You're no longer. And the old is gone, the new has come. You are a new creation. In Christ Jesus, all of this is true, but there's still a reality of the work being done in the present on those things that are not of spiritual nature. [00:15:45] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:15:46] Speaker B: So, yeah, to summarize briefly, the now but not yet. [00:15:50] Speaker A: Yep. That makes sense. [00:15:52] Speaker B: That's how Jesus Christ has won the victory and is continuing to win the victory through his church today. [00:15:59] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. Which just, like, makes it even more necessary knowing that, that we need to be prepared for the circumstances of the flesh, you know, and the realities of this world that we live in. Right. As well. Cause another thing is that we're talking about here, the church being the housing the presence of the Lord as well. So it's not yet filled. All creation, like we talked about in the last episode, where everything is filled with the risen God. There's still people outside of the church right now. So we're hoping will come into the fold of the church as well. But, yeah, so, yeah, it's not yet filled, everything. So there's still going to be, obviously, powers coming against the church, as well as the work of salvation and the gospels being spread and trying to resist. [00:16:50] Speaker B: Yeah, there's still a battle going on in the world that we live in. Right. There's still spiritual dynamics, and that's why it's saying, hey, hey, hey, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. This is also interesting, whole, you know, Ephesians, we're saying unity is the focus. It's like he's just spoken about unity theologically and then applied it through a couple of different examples. And then he gets to the end and he's like, just so you realize, when there's disunity in the body, do not think that you are fighting someone. [00:17:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:19] Speaker B: It's like I've been talking about unity this whole time. But when you see disunity, I want you to realize that it is not about the person in front of you. You're not wrestling with them. You're not wrestling with flesh and blood. Oh, this is good, Sam, but you're wrestling I'm like. I'm like, getting holy spirit shivers. Let's go. But you're wrestling against principalities and powers. [00:17:42] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. [00:17:43] Speaker B: It's a spiritual battle. Disunity in the body of Christ is a spiritual battle. And this is why he says in Ephesians chapter two, hey. Jesus has broken down the dividing wall of hostility between man and woman, Gentile and Jews, slave and free. And he's already done the spiritual work necessary, so don't try and fight someone like, let's bring that into today's contest. Jesus has broken down the division between whether you agree or disagree. [00:18:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:12] Speaker B: He's broken down the division between your race and ethnicity. He's broken down the division between disagreements of opinion. He's broken down the disunity between someone who bad mouthed you and told your most embarrassing story. He's broken it all down. [00:18:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:28] Speaker B: So you don't wrestle against flesh and blood now. You wrestle against principalities and powers, and this is how you do that. [00:18:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's really cool, because, like, obviously, when there is disunion, there's issues between people as well. The reason why it can become such a huge, colossal, disunifying thing is because we are so focused on the other person and what they have done and all that kind of stuff. But if we can take our perspective off of that person and realize that the enemy is trying to come against the church by creating division. [00:18:57] Speaker B: Totally. [00:18:58] Speaker A: Right. We instantly become unified together in facing the enemy. [00:19:02] Speaker B: And, I mean, a good application for this is like, in a marriage. Like Kelsey and I, if we're getting into an argument, it's that reminder of, whoa, whoa, whoa. We are not against each other. We are both actually fighting for the same thing. So if we're arguing, if we're in a disagreement, that's fine. But we need to always realize in disagreement that we are fighting for the same thing. [00:19:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:27] Speaker B: And we're not fighting against each other. Same as the church. [00:19:31] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:19:31] Speaker B: In disagreement. We're not fighting each other. We're fighting for the same thing even when we disagree. [00:19:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:38] Speaker B: Shall we jump into the metaphor then? Let's do it. We're finally getting there. So I think just one thing. Often we major on the metaphor. We're going to try and make the metaphor very applicable and make sure that know how to apply the armor of God into the everyday. So let's jump in. So the first thing, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. Having done all to stand firm. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth. What's the belt of truth? [00:20:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it's the. It's like God's the truth from God, not our own truth, but like the reality that is of God. [00:20:26] Speaker B: Yeah. The divine reality. [00:20:27] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. Not what we've created. But there is. There is, especially in a world where we always talk about this, where there's. It's your truth, mind truth, that kind of thing, that there is actually definable truth. [00:20:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:38] Speaker A: And that is the divine perspective. [00:20:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I think this even makes it broader than just the word of God. Cause the word of God is the truth. But obviously it's only to some extent the partial revelation of God. [00:20:51] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. [00:20:52] Speaker B: So it's that wholeness of the divine reality through God's perspective. The idea of the belt. I'll just jump into this. It's like the picture that you want to have in your mind about fastening this belt is. Imagine a warrior in a tunica. If we don't know what a tunic is, this is your time to google it. Pulling their tunic up and fastening it. It's this girding your loins. That phrase, gird your loins, was to pull your tunic up and fasten it so that you didn't trip over when you started to run. So fastening on truth has nothing to do with mentally putting on a belt every morning or trying to strap the Bible to yourself, although that would be funny. But it's about God's truth, enabling us to run unhindered that when we live in the truth of God and live from his divine reality to earth rather than from earth to his divine reality, we shouldn't trip. [00:22:01] Speaker A: Yeah, we shouldn't fall. [00:22:03] Speaker B: We should be able to run freely. That's the image that belt of truth is coming for. [00:22:08] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's cool. Yeah. Cause like, if we're running forward on our own truth and everything like that, obviously there's gonna be flaws with this, fallacies, all that kind of stuff. We will eventually stumble and fall because we can't rely on our truth. It always fails us. [00:22:23] Speaker B: Let's make it corporate, obviously, in the body, I mean, that's easy to apply individually, so we don't really need to go there. But, um, making it corporately, if we are thinking about an army, if the person standing in front of me has not fastened their belt of truth and they trip. Yeah, it's going to trip up me because I'm standing behind them. It's going to trip up the person behind me because I fall over and they're like, it starts to become a body issue if we all don't agree on truth. [00:22:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:57] Speaker B: When we all start to finding our own truth, you start to trip people up. And not just yourself, a whole bunch of people. [00:23:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Because everyone's individual truth will contradict each other and everything. So that's creating in itself disunity. Like, if my truth doesn't align with yours, we instantly can't. Especially in our day and age, we can't agree. [00:23:19] Speaker B: See you later. [00:23:20] Speaker A: Can't interact. [00:23:21] Speaker B: I don't want. [00:23:22] Speaker A: It ends up being, you know, kind of generation. [00:23:24] Speaker B: I disagree with you. Bye. [00:23:26] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Cancelled. [00:23:28] Speaker B: So still a thing. [00:23:29] Speaker A: I haven't heard that word in kind of is. It's kind of. Yeah. [00:23:32] Speaker B: Anyway, still around in practice. [00:23:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:35] Speaker B: Let's move on. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Breastplate. Obviously, if we're. If we're facing our enemies, which in roman warfare you always did, it's your main defensive, your largest offensive strategy against harm. Righteousness is our largest offensive strategy against the enemy. And obviously, I mean, there's that theological truth of we are the righteousness of Christ. That is true. But here Paul is actually majoring on the practicalities of life. And so more about righteous living specifically is our largest offensive strategy against the enemy. Live righteously, you have less issues. [00:24:27] Speaker A: It's very true. [00:24:28] Speaker B: Live righteously and you have less spiritual warfare. [00:24:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:31] Speaker B: Because you're not opening opportunities for the enemy to create disunity. [00:24:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think as well, even thinking of. Yeah, the whole aspect of righteousness and unity and all that kind of stuff as well. A righteous person will love everyone around them and love their neighbor and all that kind of stuff as well. God is a God of love and he's holy and he is righteous. He's perfect. All these things as well. So, yeah, I think all of that as well just adds to the fact that, yeah, righteous living does create more unity between us as well. [00:25:03] Speaker B: Yeah. It becomes a corporate thing. Right. The more I can live righteously, the easier it is to live amongst other people. [00:25:11] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:25:13] Speaker B: I think that one's good. And as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. Have you got your gospel shoes on, Sam? [00:25:23] Speaker A: I hope so. [00:25:27] Speaker B: What's this about? [00:25:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I think the easy one is obviously the fact that shoes representing you're going somewhere, you put shoes on to. [00:25:37] Speaker B: Go, how beautiful are the feet of those that spread the good news. [00:25:39] Speaker A: The good news. Yeah, exactly. [00:25:40] Speaker B: There's a bit of that imagery here. [00:25:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:43] Speaker B: And I was just going to jump into the roman armor imagery specifically because that's, all of this is bringing up the imagery in Ephesus of the roman centurion in a group of. In an army and the roman armory. They would actually have, you know, everyone wore sandals back then. That's what we're talking about when we talk about shoes. They would hammer nails into their sandals so that they had grip if it was muddy or they were on grass, so that when they went into battle, they were able to actually stand firm. [00:26:21] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:26:23] Speaker B: Language from the beginning of the scripture that we're talking about. They're able to stand firm because of these shoes. We, as the church are able to stand firm because of the gospel of peace. [00:26:37] Speaker A: Absolutely. Correct me if I'm wrong here, if I'm taking liberties with the imagery here. [00:26:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:43] Speaker A: But, like, standing firm, obviously, as well. But I can also see advancement as well with that as well, because stability as well in there. And obviously that makes sense in the context of a gospel priest of peace. Sorry, that needs to be spread to the. [00:26:57] Speaker B: That's the advancement in the kingdom. Right. Is the gospel. [00:27:00] Speaker A: So, yeah, we're seeing standing firm, the church being solid in its foundations, but also being able to advance forward on firm footing. [00:27:07] Speaker B: Yeah. And even, um, I will make this individual for a moment, but if you don't have the gospel of peace as a central point to your life, you're not just not able to stand firm, but you're going to slip and fall backwards. [00:27:20] Speaker A: Mm. [00:27:21] Speaker B: The gospel keeps us just as truth does. Right. Yeah. So corporately, we need to be holding our ground together. We need to all be gospel centric. We need to all be preaching the gospel. Having that as the thing that. The link that's being made here is that the gospel is actually our way of standing firm against spiritual warfare. [00:27:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:46] Speaker B: We don't think that. We're like, oh, man, spiritual warfare. Let's start to pray in tongues. Let's start to, you know, in. To see, let's like, deliverance, all that sort of stuff. But it's like, no, no. What it's saying here is part of spiritual warfare is actually the gospel. Part of the greatest spiritual warfare that we can do is preach the gospel. [00:28:06] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. That's like. Cause it's not also always about being in defensive position. [00:28:15] Speaker B: Good. [00:28:15] Speaker A: But also being on the offensive is. [00:28:18] Speaker B: We're talking about the offensive when it comes to shoes. [00:28:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:21] Speaker B: Like it. We would read this and not even think about that. No, the con. The roman context. [00:28:26] Speaker A: Mmm. [00:28:26] Speaker B: It becomes offensive. [00:28:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:28:29] Speaker B: Not offensive. Offensive, yeah. [00:28:30] Speaker A: As in, like, if we're talking about, like, you know, defensive versus offensive, that, you know. Yeah. [00:28:36] Speaker B: Yeah. That's good. All right. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one. [00:28:55] Speaker A: Great, that's cool, because we were talking about this as well, that this is the one that doesn't. Is the hardest to make sense of as an individual. [00:29:05] Speaker B: It. Once you actually understand roman armor, it doesn't make sense individually. [00:29:10] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. [00:29:11] Speaker B: Like, good luck applying this individually. Yeah. [00:29:15] Speaker A: Because you have, like, I'm not sure if everyone's listening to seen this before as well, but if you have, like, a row of people in the front lines of battle and stuff like that, and they have all their shields up and they interlock with one another to form a impregnable. [00:29:28] Speaker B: Like a wall. Yeah. [00:29:29] Speaker A: Like barrier as well. A wall. And then there's also the ones behind them who go over the top. Top of them as well. So it's like they're fully protected because of the interlocking of all of their shields. [00:29:39] Speaker B: Faith. [00:29:40] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's a. It's a. It's a definite corporate application of. Of the shields of your brothers and sisters as well, coming together to be a defensive thing again. [00:29:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Faith is meant to be exercised as a body, not just individually. [00:29:56] Speaker A: Mmm. [00:29:57] Speaker B: That there's actually a need for the corporate body to exercise faith, which also is great, because if, hey, you left your shield at home one day, you just don't have any faith today. But it's all right because the rest of the body has faith for you today. We'll shield you from the flaming darts today. [00:30:14] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:30:15] Speaker B: I'm like, that's. That's such good news. [00:30:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:18] Speaker B: It's so good. You can be in the middle of the. Of the. Of the army and be shielded by everyone else's faith if that's what you need today. [00:30:27] Speaker A: And it's like, it's just so cool to see all of this imagery now thinking of it from a more corporate perspective as well, because, like, it's not. [00:30:35] Speaker B: Just you out there in the middle. [00:30:38] Speaker A: Thinking about all this armor imagery. Like, no soldier gets sent into the battlefield on their own. [00:30:43] Speaker B: No, no, no. Good luck. [00:30:45] Speaker A: They're gonna, they're gonna. I was about to see. They're gonna get wasted. [00:30:50] Speaker B: They're gonna. [00:30:51] Speaker A: They're gonna. They're gonna fail pretty quickly. Yeah. Yeah. So it's required. [00:30:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one important to note, roman shield was wooden. [00:31:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:04] Speaker B: Doesn't work with flaming darts, but they would soak leather and cover their wooden shields so that it was lighter than, like, a steel shield or something with leather. To actually extinguish these flaming darts soaked leather, our faith needs to be water is often a symbolism of holy spirit of life. The water of life talks about in John, linking it to Holy Spirit. So our faith should actually have a dynamic relationship to holy spirit. Yeah, yeah. Anything else to add before we move on? [00:31:38] Speaker A: No. [00:31:39] Speaker B: Great helmet of salvation. Do not think of a helmet that they're wearing into battle. They're not wearing this thing into battle. If you think of, like, the roman soldiers helmet that has, like, the red feathers down the top. [00:31:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:56] Speaker B: They ain't wearing that thing into battle. [00:31:58] Speaker A: It's impractical. [00:31:59] Speaker B: Yeah. If you think that they ever wore that thing into battle, like, it's not happening. That is a victory helmet. They put that on once they've won the battle, which we were talking about before, how Jesus has won the battle, we get to wear the victory helmet. [00:32:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:15] Speaker B: So helmet of salvation is that victory helmet that the roman soldiers are wearing after the battle. They're putting it on to say their victory. And this is that Jesus victory that he's won for us. We were right. As a constant reminder, this is that spiritual warfare element, our salvation is a weapon of warfare when it comes to spiritual warfare, it's a constant reminder to the enemy that we have already won. [00:32:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Because I, I guess the enemy as well will obviously want to attack our assurance of our salvation. [00:32:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Whereas, like, that helmet of salvation is. No, no. It's your assurance. It's your assurance of victory. We've already won this. We are just out working this victory. [00:33:01] Speaker A: Because if we're fighting from a place of, oh, am I quite victorious or am I still a little bit too sinful and stuff like that? We're instantly gonna go into a battle and fail. [00:33:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally. Sword of the spirit. What's the sword of the spirit, Sam? [00:33:16] Speaker A: The word of God. [00:33:17] Speaker B: The word of God. Yeah, yeah. Hebrews 412. The word of God is sharper than any two rigid sword, piercing to the division of bone and marrow, discerning the thoughts and every attention of the heart. It's that it's the linking of the sword, rightly dividing what is of God and what is not of goddess. This is our major offensive weapon. If you don't know the Bible, good luck. [00:33:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And you see the practical application of that when Jesus was being, was in the wilderness. [00:33:53] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Matthew four. [00:33:54] Speaker A: And every time the devil would come against him, he would quote scripture back to him. [00:33:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Spiritual warfare was just a, like, back and forth of scripture. [00:34:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:05] Speaker B: And I remember hearing someone talk about, like, how, you know, we think spiritual warfare is going to be, like, out, like, oh, just start worshiping harder. And, like, the eddaby is just like, oh, that's a nice. That's a nice song. Like, jesus didn't worship. He quoted scripture. [00:34:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:25] Speaker B: And I think it's fine if our worship songs are, you know, full of scripture. Fantastic. But if it's your favorite worship song that has no scripture in it, and, like, the enemy comes. The enemy comes against the church, and the church is singing a song that has no scripture, and we're thinking, that's going to be our spiritual warfare. So. [00:34:43] Speaker A: Whoo. [00:34:43] Speaker B: Good luck. [00:34:45] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:34:45] Speaker B: You've left your sword at home. [00:34:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:48] Speaker B: And it's not sharp. [00:34:52] Speaker A: Savage. [00:34:53] Speaker B: Sorry. I'm big on the word, as we should be. Cool. That's all the army imagery. So we see how this metaphor is actually very applicable. Like, we can apply it very easily, and we've spoken about how to apply it corporately. The scripture then finishes off as we wrap up. Praying at all times in the spirit. Try and interpret that one without praying in tongues. With all prayer and supplication. To the end. To that end. Keep alert. We need to keep alert with all perseverance. Keeping alert corporately. Remember, this is that corporate application. When there's disunity in the body, we all need to be alert, and we need to reconcile quickly when there's disunity and we need to own what we need to own and be humble. When we need to be humble, that's that. Keeping alert of what's where is a foothold that the enemy can, can jump onto. Let's not allow that. [00:35:57] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I think another thing, it's a bit of a stretch to think of that far back, but I think of that image of the Israelites when they first got back to Israel from exile and everything, and they were building the walls, and they had, like, a weapon in one hand and they were building the other hand. [00:36:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Nehemiah and Ezra. [00:36:20] Speaker A: I think it's a cool image as well to remember here as well, that we're collectively building up the church as well. Yeah. In God and still ready and alert, as the scripture says. Ready to fight the enemy when he comes close. [00:36:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Making supplication for all the saints. Let's pray for each other again. It's linking to unity. So a great way to be unified is that we pray for each other. [00:36:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:45] Speaker B: When was the last time that we prayed for our brothers and sisters in Christ? [00:36:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:49] Speaker B: And I keep coming back to this, but it's something that I just want to keep keeping on the forefront of our discussion. When I say, when was the last time you prayed for your brothers and sisters in Christ, I'm not saying when was the last time you prayed for someone that's in your life group. That's good. And I'm not saying when was the last time you prayed for someone at church on Sunday at Numa. That's great. But I'm also saying when was the last time you prayed for someone in the body of Christ that you've never met? [00:37:17] Speaker A: And even, as well, when was the last time you prayed for the body of Christ? [00:37:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:22] Speaker B: That was actually a cool thing. We were in Italy for Christmas last year. Must have been nice. Hey, it was really good, but went to midnight mass in with the town we were staying at. We went to the cathedral, the catholic cathedral, for midnight mass. It was so good. I appreciate it so much. And something that stood out to me was the fact that they, in the middle of their service, they took time to pray for the body, and specifically, they prayed for those not of the catholic church. [00:37:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:58] Speaker B: I was like, mandy, when was the last time we did that? [00:38:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:38:04] Speaker B: And on Christmas, too. Yeah. I think that's a good reminder when we're talking about making supplication for all the saints. [00:38:13] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. [00:38:15] Speaker B: And also for me in verse 19, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in change, that I may declare it boldly, as I oughta to speak. [00:38:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that's cool as well, seeing the prayers of the church bolstering him in his own ministry as well. [00:38:36] Speaker B: Yeah, totally. [00:38:37] Speaker A: Of the church unifying to advance the gospel and advance the gospel and all that stuff. [00:38:43] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Wow, that was a lot. Yeah, I loved it. [00:38:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:50] Speaker B: I hope everyone else did. I hope you've enjoyed us going through scripture. Let's just some quick takeaways. Ephesians is about the unity of the body of Christ, the unity of the church, and it then gives some examples, some specific examples of how to be unified in relationship. And then it wraps up with talking about spiritual warfare and making that connection between disunity actually being a spiritual warfare issue, and then allow using the metaphor of the armor to give us applications and truths for our lives. Of how to fight together against disunity and against the enemy and how to stand firm. [00:39:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:40] Speaker B: Is that a good summary? [00:39:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that's great summary. I love it. [00:39:42] Speaker B: Great. Anything else to add before we sign off? [00:39:45] Speaker A: No, nothing. [00:39:46] Speaker B: Well, great. Right. We love you. And if you've got any questions, send them through, because we are going to do a q and a. But we love opening scripture with you. And I hope that you have not only learned some things about Ephesians, but learnt some ways that we can glean more from the Bible and be transformed greater and greater into the image of Christ. We'll see you soon.