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Monday, August 25, 2014

Pastoral Pings ~ The Whole Armor for the Whole Church

          When I consider “the whole armor of God” as an amazing metaphor of our spiritual protection in Jesus Christ, two main thoughts settle into my heart.[1] First is that the whole armor of God is just that, all the armor we need to stand firm in our Lord Jesus Christ, even in “the evil day” that comes far more often than we wish. Second is that there is one suit of armor for the one body of Christ.
          Both of these must go together. We must look at the symbolic description of the armor of God as the “whole” picture, a comprehensive and complete provision so that the church is fully surrounded with all that we need to go out “conquering, and to conquer.”[2] The whole suit of armor is a necessary part of our faith that “we (the one body of Christ) are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”[3]
          In spiritual terms, the whole armor of God means to surround ourselves with truth, to cover our hearts with righteousness, to immerse all our actions in the gospel of peace, to respond to every situation by faith, to guard our minds with the experience of our salvation, to tackle everything we face with the word of God, and hold everything together with praying in the Spirit.
          While there is obviously much more that could be said about this, my aim is to leave us confident enough in the gift of this whole armor of God that we will trust it to be our best provision for standing our ground in Jesus Christ. As we take steps of faith to put this into practice, we will become increasingly proficient at the whole-armor-of-God way of life.
          However, just as the imagery of the whole armor of God leads us to picture how to experience each of the characteristics described, we must also keep this in the context of how Paul has presented the Church previous to this exhortation. This comprehensive description of the armor of God comes at the end of the letter in which Paul has also described the church as “one new man.”[4]
          It is this “one new man” that is to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”[5]This includes being, “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,”[6] because there is, “one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”[7]
          Paul goes on to explain how Jesus has given leaders to the church “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,”[8] and clarifies that this is so that “we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”[9]
          When we keep everything in this context, that Paul is talking about this “one new man” growing up “to mature manhood,” we are on our way to understanding how there is one set of the whole armor of God to go around the one body of Christ.
          When we understand that our contribution to the spiritual gifts of the church is so that “we (as one body) are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,”[10] resulting in, “the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love,”[11] we can then add the whole armor of God to this “one new man… whole body” experience of victory in Jesus Christ.
          Viewing the whole armor of God as one suit of protection that covers the one body of Christ may demand a lot more consideration of how we do this together. However, the unity of the church that builds itself up in love, while surrounding itself with truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the word of God, and prayer-without-ceasing in the Spirit, is going to be a strong church that is a refuge to the weakest of its members.[12] I suspect that many of us face times when we need such a church. This is encouragement for us to be the church we need.

© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)




[1] Paul records his description of the whole armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-20.
[2] Revelation 6:1-2
[3] Romans 8:37
[4] Ephesians 2:15
[5] Ephesians 4:1
[6] Ephesians 4:3
[7] Ephesians 4:4-6
[8] Ephesians 4:11-12
[9] Ephesians 4:13
[10] Ephesians 4:15
[11] Ephesians 4:16 (notice that the “it” is this one new man, and the “itself” refers to all the believers working together the way Paul describes)
[12] By “members” I mean as parts of the body, not as names on a membership list.

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