For the past month or so, I have spent considerable time meditating on Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1. It has shown me how to keep my mind set on being “filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding”.[1] Through many mornings of prayer-journaling, and many prayer walks in the hills, I have process a lot of things in my life according to the way Paul prayed.
I have also been helped along by David’s prayer in Psalm 51 where David mentors us in how to pray in repentance and faith for the thorough cleansing of our sin and a wonderful return to joy in our salvation after we have sinned. It has been a very encouraging journey to see how confident David was in the realities of who God was, what he was like, and what he would do for a man who had sinned so terribly.
Now I return to my previous mining in the quarry of Ephesians 6, the “Whole Armor of God”.[2]
Today’s main thought is that, when we consider what we are told to do in relation to the whole armor of God, it revolves around the one body of Christ “taking up” the whole armor of God and “putting it on”. Since these are spiritual realities, we need to learn how to do them together in real life.
I need to clarify that us North American Christians often miss completely who Paul is talking to in relation to putting on the whole armor of God because we have such an individualistic view of salvation. For many of us, our understanding of salvation is that we are individuals who have no accountability to one another except to the extent we ourselves decide to do anything. We see the whole armor of God as covering each individual Christian rather than the local body of Christ.
However, in this letter, Paul has already presented the truth of the church as the “one new man” that is living for Christ together.[3] When we view taking up and putting on the whole armor of God as what we do as the whole body of Christ, it is wonderfully more glorious than the disappointing results when everyone is in their own corner of the ring thinking they have to battle the devil on their own.
The secondary thought in this passage is that, if the local church does take up and put on the whole armor of God together, it enables us to “be strong”, to “stand”, to “wrestle”, to “withstand”, and to “stand firm”. This is what the weaker believers in the church need; not a picture where they go-it-alone and do their best to put on this armor, but to see themselves as residing in Jesus’ church and fellowshipping with all kinds of members of the body of Christ who build each other up in faith, hope, and love. In that expression of Jesus’ church, they are strengthened by the group dynamic of the body of Christ where the independent individuality of North American Christianity would leave them feeling defeated and alone.
The imagery of the whole armor of God is a word-picture that was easily understood by Paul’s readers and is quite simple to explain to any hearers today. The quest is to know how to use such a fascinating picture as a constant reminder of what we do with each characteristic so that it enables a church to stand firm rather than fall apart. Here is a summary of what we are looking for:
- What do we do with “truth” in the church so it is like a belt around the whole body of Christ holding all our armor in place?
- What do we do with “righteousness” in the church so that it is like a breastplate guarding our vital organs (the fragile love relationships)?
- How do we put on the “readiness of the gospel” so that it is like our church is fitted with the best footwear to handle any enemy, terrain, or battlefield?
- How do we take up “faith” in real life situations so that our church is extinguishing the fiery arrows of the evil one?
- How do we fill our minds with the glorious realities of our “salvation” so that our group-mind is protected from the world’s enticements, the sark’s delusions, and the devil’s lies, and liberated to constantly rejoice in our redemption?
- How do we engage the whole body of Christ to take up the “word of God” in every situation we face with an active desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit as we let the words of Christ dwell in us richly so that we have the mind of Christ in the Scriptures?
- How do we unite the body of Christ to so maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace that our “praying” is “in the Spirit”, constantly seeking the Father’s name to be hallowed in all that we do, his kingdom to come and overtake everything we are doing, and his will to be done among us as it is done in heaven?
- And, how do we help the church “proclaim the good news” through both those who are gifted to do so, and every member being ready to give an answer to anyone who asks us the reason for the hope we have in Christ, so that the one voice the world hears from us is, “Fear not, for I bring you good news of great joy, for a Savior has come who is Christ, the Lord”[4]?
This is what I present to the Lord, and to his church, as questions that all must be answered with, “Father, not my will, but yours be done!” And, if we do that together, seeking to have the body of Christ we are in taking up and putting on the whole armor of God, we can be sure to see God answering Paul’s prayer that we “may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.”[5]
“Father in heaven, thank you for silencing my busy-minded thoughts so I can hear your voice above my own, and keep my mind set on these truths from above so that I can walk with Jesus today in delighting to do your will and accomplishing whatever you give me to do. I praise you for your gift of fellowship in your Spirit where this beloved child gets to enjoy you in the wonders of your great and awesome gift of redemption.”
© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
[1]
Colossians 1:9 (context is Colossians 1:9-14)
[2]
Ephesians 6:10-20
[3]
Specifically Ephesians 2:15, but in the context of Ephesians 2:11-22 where he
uses repeated images of the people of God being a single “dwelling place for
God by the Spirit” (vs 22).
[4]
Luke 2:10-11
[5]
Colossians 1:9-10 (in context of the whole beautiful prayer!)
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