Spiritual Warfare Armor, Pt. 1 – Sunday School Outline
Last week we talked about Spiritual Warfare.
We have an enemy who is like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8)
He hates us because he hates Christ and wants to destroy us.
Thankfully, Christ beat him once and for all at Calvary with His death, burial, and resurrection.
He’s a defeated foe.
As Christians we’ve been given weapons of warfare to fight against the enemy and his schemes.
These weapons are called the armor of God.
So, today we’re going to look at some of the pieces of that armor.
We are still in the book of Ephesians, chapter 6.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around our waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place – NIV
Let’s look first at the belt of truth –
Or, as the KJV calls it – having your loins girt about with truth
I went to BlueLetterBible.org and looked this word up in the original Greek.
It had 3 definitions –
What is true in any matter under consideration; in reality; in fact; certainty.
So, this would mean whatever is true of a situation; what’s really going on.
The literal truth of it.
The second definition was:
What is true concerning God and the duties of man; moral and religious truth.
This would be what God thinks about a situation.
What He says is right about it; what He expects of us.
It is what is contained in Scripture concerning what God says is right.
Then there’s the third definition –
Truth as a personal excellence – candor (or open, honest expression) of mind which is free from affection, pretense, simulation, falsehood, or deceit.
This is us choosing to live in truth and refusing to believe lies, be deceitful, or tell lies.
It’s being focused solely on thinking and living in truth.
This reminds me of a couple of verses we looked at in Sunday School a while back.
The first one is Philippians 4:8 –
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (NIV)
We need to make sure we are only thinking on good things.
Things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable things.
The other verse we studied, references this passage of verses.
1 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
When we are focused on having a mind of truth, we submit our thoughts to Christ, making sure they are obedient to Him (and if not we change/adjust/get rid of them).
We filter our thoughts and beliefs through Scripture – comparing what we think with what His Word – the Word of Truth – says.
When there’s a discrepancy we go with His word, not ours.
In other words – we choose truth.
Then we make a point of only thinking about the true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable things.
In other words – we focus on truth.
So, we choose truth and then we focus on that truth.
We make a decision and live by the principle of only keeping and having truth in our mind.
Notice verse 4 says we use these weapons (meaning the armor weapons) to demolish strongholds; arguments and pretensions – anything that tries to set itself up against God.
This could be lies and half-truths about people, situations, and circumstances.
It could be our pride trying to tell us or make us believe we are something we aren’t, or aren’t something we are.
Anytime I hear something and my first thought is, “well, I’m not like that!” I immediately make a point of stopping and asking myself, “or am I?” because sometimes my pride and/or flesh will try to protect me from the truth of what I’m really like and sometimes the enemy will try to hide it from me with a lie about who I am or am not.
So, whenever I have the thought of “well, I’m not like that!” I assume I probably am but don’t want to admit it.
Anything that tries to set itself up in our hearts and minds as being true but goes against what Scripture says, against what is really going on in the situation, or against who we really are is a stronghold, argument, or pretension (pretense).
We use these spiritual weapons to fight against these things.
We do it by standing on the truth.
Truth is always the right answer.
So – for the belt of truth (or loins girded with truth) – we see that it is:
1 – what is the truth of the reality of a situation;
2 – what God says is true about it. what His word tells us is the right thing;
3 – us living with the standard of truth being the only acceptable answer.
So when we take on the belt of truth. we are choosing to stand only on truth and to wrap it around us.
The other half of this verse mentions the breastplate of righteousness.
The breastplate covers your chest to protect your vital organs, particularly your heart, which is where your motive, attitude, and emotions are.
This way they are protected from jabs and stabs by the enemy.
The righteousness of Christ is ours by virtue of salvation.
None of us is, nor can be, righteous on our own.
Romans 3:10-12 quotes both Psalm 14:1-3 and Psalm 53:1-3 when it says,
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
None of us is righteous on our own.
None of us have the natural inclination to be and do right on our own.
We’re all sinful and clothed in filthy rags because of our sin.
When we become Christians we take on Christ’s righteousness.
He gives us His righteousness, which makes us acceptable to God.
Knowing we have His righteousness, which is right standing with, and being acceptable to God, we can stand in integrity, virtue, and purity of life as we fight, using this righteousness to protect us.
When the fight comes, we can remember and know that because we have Christ’s righteousness, we are now righteous and belong to God.
We are His.
Because this righteousness displaces God’s wrath – we are now reconciled to Him, -it can also protect us from the wrath of the enemy.
It protects us from the attacks and from the barbs, insults, and accusations hurled at us by the enemy.
We don’t have to listen to his garbage because we are now safely shielded and protected behind that righteousness.
We belong to God and are hidden in Him.
We aren’t out in the world naked and unprotected like we were before we came to Christ.
Our hearts are protected and hidden safely away – free from any attacks or accusations the enemy might try to hurl at us.
So that righteousness covers our hearts, motives, attitudes, and emotions and protects us from the barbs, jabs, and stabs of the enemy.
The next verse says:
15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. (NIV)
But I like it better from the KJV which says,
And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace:
We wear shoes to protect us from stepping on barbs or tripping over things.
When we are wearing shoes we can walk in hard and stony places.
They protect our steps as we walk.
When we are wearing our shoes we can go anywhere we need to, whenever we need to.
When kids start martial arts classes one of the first things they learn is to anchor their feet.
They need firm footing before they can start their fight.
They need a solid foundation.
It’s the same with us.
We need firm footing – a solid foundation to stand on.
That foundation is the Gospel.
It’s standing on and knowing what Jesus has done for us personally.
Knowing we belong to Him.
We’re His.
He died for us, to ransom us and to save us from God’s wrath.
So, we fight from a position of knowing we belong to Jesus no matter what.
It’s a firm foundation we can stand on in confidence.
It’s also knowing what Jesus has done for all mankind.
He died for every single man, woman, and child ever born – ever.
No matter who they are or what they’ve done, Jesus died for them, too.
Having our feet shod with the Gospel is being ready, willing, and able to take the Gospel with us into our daily lives.
It’s walking in it as we set an example to the world.
It’s also being willing to share the Gospel with others and to use it to fight for them and for the victory of their salvation.
Sharing the Gospel with others is what we do to lead them to Christ.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17
Our sharing the Gospel with them points them to Christ.
The Holy Spirit speaks to their hearts, and the truth of the Gospel and who Jesus is gives words to it.
When we share Christ with others we are introducing and pointing them to the only one who can rescue them from God’s wrath.
When we share the Gospel with someone, we are fighting for them.
When we are walking out our faith in our day to day life, are prepared to share the gospel, and are watching in our daily lives for an opportunity to share it with someone, we are having our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Christ.
So, a good summary for this piece of armor is:
It’s being ready to go where you need to go with it, to take it where you need to take it while also being ready to stand firm on it and know it’s true, both for you and for those you are fighting for.
That’s all the time we have today but next week we will go over the other pieces of armor.
I want to encourage you to read these verses this week and spend time thinking about the pieces of armor we talked about today.
This week’s homework:
Ask yourself –
Are you using these pieces of armor?
Do you need to adjust what you are doing or how you are doing it?
Where can you improve your walk or trust God more as you learn to use your armor?
Links to the other lessons in this series: Intro to Spiritual Warfare, Spiritual Warfare Armor, Pt. 2, Spiritual Warfare Pt. 3
A list of all available lessons can be found on my Lessons Outlines page
Free Downloadable/Printable PDF of this Lesson Spiritual Warfare Pt 1 Lesson Outline