Category Archives: Whole Armor of God

A Straight Path

25 Monday Sep 2023

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman!

I am continuing my study on the Whole Armor of God and the passage of scripture I am using is Ephesians 6:10-18a.  We are to put on and take up the Whole Armor of God so that we might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil and withstand in the evil day.  I want to spend some time studying “the wiles of the devil” and “the evil day” but, first, am going to look at the Armor piece by piece.  While “girding your waist with truth” is mentioned first, I have not been able to draw my attention away from the Breastplate of Righteousness.  The word ‘righteousness’ has been echoing in my mind for weeks now.  It is a fascinating word and is the subject of this week’s post.

What do we mean when we use the word ‘righteousness’?  An online search resulted in this definition for righteous: “1. (of a person or conduct) morally right or justifiable; virtuous; 2. very good, excellent.”  My New World Dictionary agrees, defining righteous as: “1. Acting in a just, upright manner; doing what is right; virtuous [a righteous man] 2. morally right; fair and just [a righteous act] 2. morally justifiable [full of righteous anger], 4. [Slang] good, excellent, satisfying, pleasant, authentic, etc.; a generalized term of approval.”

I can’t disagree with anything here.  My personal definition of righteousness has been those things pertaining to acts or conduct which would lead to approval.  Specific to Believers, we are “righteous” if we do the Will of God and keep His commandments: doing the right things lead to His approval of us.  This belief appears to be rooted in the Bible because Revelation 19:8 speaks of the wife of the Lamb clothed in fine linen which is the righteous acts of the saints.  One of the most quoted scriptures on righteousness is Genesis 15:6: “And he (Abram) believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”  I don’t know that any believer would say Abram or Abraham as he became, possessed righteousness but he did something-he believed-and his act of believing was credited to him as righteousness thus indicating God’s approval. 

Our belief being a work is reinforced by the words of Jesus.  John 6:29 quotes Him saying; “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”  The same chapter declares the will of God to be that Jesus lose nothing of what the Father has given Him and that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life.  We do the work of believing and this belief is not only proof of our righteousness but our ticket to everlasting life and being raised on the last day (see John 6:38-40).

I would be curious to know how many of you reading this believe what I’ve written in the last paragraphs.  It is certainly what I’ve been taught from various pulpits.  There is no denying it appears to be backed by scripture and thus forms the picture of how I spent a great deal of my Christian life.  There is certainly a finished work of the cross.  There is no Jesus+.  Eternal life is the free gift of God in Jesus Christ but there is no escaping the fact that I must do my part.  I must believe and if I am not living victoriously then I have not believed hard enough and have to take care lest I lose my garment, be made to walk naked, and have my shame exposed (see Revelation 16:15).  If I fail to properly do the work, I lose God’s approval and risk spending an eternity separate from Him.   

However, is the meaning of righteous and righteousness moral conduct and right acts?  The word “righteous” comes from the Old English righwis (rightwise).  The first definition of “right” in the New World Dictionary is “not curved; straight;” and the dictionary states that definition is now only used in mathematics.  When I read down to the third and fourth entries, I find: “in accordance with justice, law, morality…fact reason, some set standard” which is how I find “right” is usually defined.  “Wise”in the Old English meant “manner, state, condition”.  So then being righteous or right wise was being morally correct and acceptable in one’s manner, state, or condition.

Looking at the Greek word translated as “righteousness” throughout the New Testament (Hebrews 1:8 is the exception), I found another definition that serves to expand the meaning a bit more.  The word is dikaiosune (G1343) and the Strong’s defines it as “equity (of character or act) justification, righteous.”  Dikaioma (G1345) meaning “an equitable deed” and dikaios (G1346) meaning “equitably” are both used in the New Testament as well and all three words are related to dikaios (G1342) meaning “equitable, holy, innocent, just” and come from the root dike (die-kay, G1349) meaning “right (as self-evident) justice (the principle, a decision, or its execution):-judgment, punish, vengeance”.  In turn, dike is related back to deiknuo (G1166) which means “to show”. 

I thought ‘equity’ and ‘equitable’ were worth looking up.  The meaning is “fair, just, impartial” and that fairness, justness, and impartiality pertains to laws or, in other words, a set standard which I feel brings me full circle.  I don’t find that my heading down this path has changed all that much how I define ‘righteousness’ or ‘righteous’.  For a believer, our set standard is Jesus Himself and therefore ‘righteousness’ is being aligned with and acting in accord with all He has revealed Himself to be which is shown in how we conduct ourselves day to day.  Which is impossible.

Bless religion’s heart but it has tried to make righteous conduct possible.  Various denominations all have their set standards of what righteous behavior looks like and it is presented to the congregation as rules to be followed.  If the congregation breaks the rules (which we inevitably must), there are various other acts we can perform to show not only how sorry we are but to work our way back into God’s good graces.  Wherein lies the rub: all of these rules of conduct and acts of repentance are built on the foundation that God the Father is disapproving and must be appeased.  We please Him by doing our work of believing but, if we should falter one iota in our belief, then we have doubted.  Our doubting does NOT please God and we should not expect to receive anything from Him (see James 1:6-8). 

Are you exhausted?  Burdened?  Heavy laden?  Are you hopeless?  Does the Bible itself increase your feelings of hopelessness?  Do you read a passage like Matthew 5: 20 where Jesus says, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” and know such a requirement is not possible?  When you read Isaiah 64:6 which states, “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” are you struck with the fear that God’s expectations are too extreme, that He knew we could not attain them, and that He just might not be equitable Himself?

This is too massive a subject to be dealt with in one post so I plan to continue looking at righteousness in the upcoming weeks.  I would urge you to see that the foundation of the Father being angry with you is an illusion.  When you see that, everything built on it crumbles to dust.  The foundation that can never crumble is Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God who is the very image and expression of The Father.  There is no difference in their characters.  Jesus is the one who knew no sin yet was made to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  We are In Christ and therefore our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees as far as the east is from the west because our righteousness is His!  It is not just our manner but our condition and state of being that now is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ we can rest in our rightwiseness.  The conduct of our lives will show His righteousness because it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us.  Christ in us and us in Him is the will of the Father.  Paul opens His letter to the Ephesians with this: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”   

This is what our Heavenly Father willed before we walked this earth and before we ever committed a sin.  He will carry the work He has begun in us on to completion and He will do so because He is equitable and acts in accord with the only set standard that could apply to the I AM: His own character which is agape.  That first definition of ‘right’ is “straight, not curved”.  He makes our paths straight.  He does so because of His goodness and not because we have worked so hard at believing that He is pleased enough to ease our way a little.  He leads us in paths of righteousness for His Name’s Sake!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1953, 1976

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Ending in Death

18 Monday Sep 2023

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Hello Readers!  Welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman.

This week is a continuation of my study of the Whole Armor of God as described by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians.  My study passage is Ephesians 6:10-18a.  For those of you who have been following along with all of my posts on this passage, you are well aware I have not made great inroads on this study.  I am, in fact, still looking at the words “take”.  Paul says to “take up the whole armor of God” in verse 13, “take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit” in verse 17, and says also “above all, taking the shield of faith” in verse 16.

“Take” in verses 13 and 16 are translated from the same word analambano.  The tenses are different but the words are the same.  “Take” in verse 17 is translated from the Greek dechomai.  The definitions of these two words aren’t all that different.  The Greek-English Lexicon (BDAG) defines analambano as “to lift up, carry away, take up, to take up in order to carry, to make something someone’s own by taking, with a focus on moral or transcendent aspects, to take to one’s self, adopt, take someone along on a journey, to take something up for scrutiny, take in hand” whereas dechomai is defined as, “to receive something offered or transmitted by another, to take something in hand, to be receptive of someone, to overcome obstacles in being receptive, to indicate approval or conviction by accepting” (BDAG, 66, 221-222). 

The two phrases that caught my attention are “to make something someone’s own…to take to one’s self” and “to indicate approval or conviction by accepting.”  What does it mean that two different words were used in this passage?  Is this passage saying we take the whole armor of God to ourselves and make it our own but then merely receive, or take hold of, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit?  Don’t we make salvation our own?  Since the Holy Spirit lives in us, don’t we also make the sword of the spirit our own?

As I meditated on the meanings of these two different Greek words I found the short is answer is “yes”.  A more descriptive answer is; since the whole armor of God is Jesus Christ, every piece ought to be considered part of the whole with no part considered greater or lesser than another.  As Jesus fully gives Himself to us, nothing lacking; so then does every part of the armor which He is become ours without limit.  And yet, I cannot deny the helmet of salvation and sword of the spirit are “taken up” dechomai rather than “taken up” analambano.  Can something be learned by considering these two different words and their usage in this passage?  Again, the short answer is “yes”!

I have been reading Andrew Murray’s With Christ in the School of Prayer and, just this last week, I read: “The whole of salvation is Christ Himself: He has given Himself to us.  He Himself lives in us…We participate, not only in the benefits of HIS work, but in the work itself.  This is because we are His Body.  The Head and the members are one: “The head cannot say to the feet, I have no need of thee” (1 Corinthians 12:21).  We share with Jesus everything He is and has. “The glory which Thou gavest me, I have given them” (John 17:22).  We are partakers of His life, His righteousness, and His work.”  (Murray, 115-116). 

This quote is taken from Andrew Murray’s Chapter Titled “Christ the Intercessor” and the entire chapter reiterated to me that I ought not to think of the helmet of salvation and sword of the spirit as something separate from the armor and shield: it’s all Christ.  The difference in Greek words was not suggesting to me that the helmet and sword were something I could receive but could not adopt as my own.  I think the difference in the Greek words are a warning and that warning is found in the portion of dechomai’s definition which says, “to indicate approval or conviction by accepting.”

I was reminded of something I had read in William Gurnall’s The Christian in Complete Armor.  He writes, “The Christian’s armour which he wears must be of divine institution and appointment.  The soldier comes into the field with no arms but what his general commands.  It is not left to every one’s fancy to bring what weapons he please; this will breed confusion.  The Christian soldier is bound up to God’s order; though the army be on earth, yet the council of war sits in heaven; this duty ye shall do; these means ye shall use.  And [those who] do more, or use other, than God commands, though with some seeming success against sin, shall surely be called to account for this boldness.  The discipline of war among men is strict in this case.  Some have suffered death by a council of war even when they have beaten the enemy, because out of their place, or beside their order.  God is very precise in this point; he will say to such as invent ways to worship him of their own, coin means to mortify corruption, obtain comfort in their own mint; ‘Who hath required this at your hands?’” (Gurnall, 50).

On the armor of God must be of God in constitution, Mr. Gurnall has this to say: “The Christian’s armour must be armour of God in regard of its make and constitution.  My meaning is, it is not only that God must appoint the weapons and arms the Christian useth for his defence: but he must also be the efficient of them, he must work all their work in them and for them.” (Gurnall, 54).

The Chapter in Andrew Murray’s book opened with this: “All growth in the spiritual life is connected with clearer insight into what Jesus is to us.  The more I realize that Christ must be everything to me and in me, that everything in Christ is indeed for me, the more I learn to live the real life of faith.  This life dies to self and lives wholly in Christ.  The Christian life is no longer a vain struggle to live right, but a resting in Christ to find strength in Him as life.  He helps us fight and gain the victory of faith!” (Murray, 115).

Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”  This is what I see in the difference between the two Greek words used in my study passage.  It’s all Christ.  There is nothing of Himself He holds back from us but He is THE WAY.  Jesus Christ is salvation.  I think it’s significant that Paul says “the helmet of salvation”.  I plan to take some time with this later in the series so will only say now that, the helmet does not only serve to keep our thoughts safe from the wiles of devil.  We have the mind of Christ but are admonished by Paul to “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).  Our thoughts ought to be His thoughts.  We ought to be thinking about salvation the same way He thinks about salvation.

The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, is ours to wield.  The Greek for “word” in this passage is rhema (G4487) and means “utterance.”  We are to live on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).  God did not stop speaking at some point in the past.  We are not stuck with the books that have been collected into that which we call The Bible.  No, we can hear God’s words for ourselves at any moment.  His Spirit lives within us and He guides us into all truth for “He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak” (John 16:13, emphasis mine). 

We indicate our approval and conviction by accepting His helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit.  When we go about our daily lives, we do so in the knowledge that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world.  We live each moment in vital union with the Father and Son in by and through the Spirit.  Like our Elder Brother, we know that we can of ourselves do nothing and so we do only those things we see The Father doing and we speak only those words we hear The Father speaking.

It is a heartbreaking truth that many believers have chosen to wear another helmet and wield another sword.  They do not declare the truth God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself not imputing their trespasses to them nor do they speak the word (logos) of reconciliation.  They do not listen for nor wait for the utterances of God but go rushing forth with swords forged from carnal interpretation forgetting the letter kills and it is the Spirit who gives life.

There is a way that seems right but its end is the way of death.  Jesus Christ is THE WAY and He is the only way wherein there is life.  Let us refuse the counterfeit armor of God and instead allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.  May we listen for His voice alone and may grow more and more each day in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  May we dechomai only those things that are of Him and from Him.

To Him be the glory both now and forever!

Amen

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Danker, Frederick William, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition (BDAG), The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1957, 2000

Gurnall, William, The Christian in Complete Armour, Volume 1, Seventh Printing, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2021

Murray, Andrew, With Christ in the School of Prayer, Wilder Publications, Radford, Virginia, 2008

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Receiving What’s Mine

11 Monday Sep 2023

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I continue my study of The Whole Armor of God as described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18a. 

In last week’s post, I looked at the Greek word translated “take up” in Ephesians 6:13.  The word is analambano (G353) and is defined in the Strong’s as “to take up-receive up, take (in, unto, up).” Analambano is a compound word formed of ana (G303) and lambano (G2983).  The Strong’s defines Ana as “properly up but (by extension) used (distributively) severally, or (locally) at:–and, apiece, by, each, every (man), in, through.  In compounds (as a prefix) it often means (by implication) repetition, intensity, reversal.”  Lambano is defined as “to get hold of, accept, be amazed, assay, attain, bring, when I call, catch, come on (unto), forget, have, hold, obtain, receive (after), take (away, up).” 

As I attempted to take all of the entirety of the definitions into consideration, I wondered if analambano couldn’t be defined as “to constantly take hold of that which we have received in our inner being.”  I see no problem with that definition based on what I found in the Strong’s.  However, my definition needed to be tested both by looking analambano up in other resources and by seeing how it is used in other passages of scripture.  According to The New Koine Greek Textbook, analambano appears 13 times in scripture.  I’ll include a list at the end of this post in case anyone is interested in looking up the occurrences.  The Strong’s said that ana, when used in compounds as a prefix, often meant repetition, intensity, or reversal.  I found no sense of repetition as I looked up the other occurrences of analambano: intensity and reversal where another matter.

Five of the passages containing analambano had to deal with Jesus being “received” or “taken up” into heaven or, as 1 Timothy 3:16 has it, “received up into glory”.  I can only imagine how intense of a time this was for the disciples.  So intense was it that two men clad in white had to come to them and ask why they were just standing staring up into heaven (see Acts 1).  There is also a sense of reversal here though I wonder if the Disciples were fully aware of it until the giving of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

There were other passages where I could see the idea of reversal.  Analambano is used to describe the Apostle Paul traveling on foot but then being “taken up” into a ship.  Perhaps “reversal” is too strong of a word to describe the usage here but, at the very least, there was a change in how Paul was travelling.  Analambano also appears in the story of Peter’s vision before he goes to see the Centurion Cornelius (see Acts 10:16).  The vessel in his vision is “received up” into heaven.  This was definitely a reversal in how Peter was to think and act toward those who were previously excluded under the Law of Moses but were now included in the Life of Christ.    

I discovered something else I found interesting.  Analambano is the word used in Ephesians 6:16: “above all taking (or having taken up) the shield of faith”.  It is NOT the Greek word translated as “take” in verse 17: “and take the helmet of salvation…” That word is dechomai (G1209) and, in order to understand the subtle difference in definition, I looked up both words in the Greek-English Lexicon (BDAG).  Here, analambano is defined as, “to lift up, carry away, take up, to take up in order to carry, to make something someone’s own by taking, with a focus on moral or transcendent aspects, to take to one’s self, adopt, take someone along on a journey, to take something up for scrutiny, take in hand” (BDAG, Page 66).  Dechomai is defined as, “to receive something offered or transmitted by another, to take something in hand, to be receptive of someone, to overcome obstacles in being receptive, to indicate approval or conviction by accepting” (BDAG, Page 221,222). 

My attention was focused on “to make something someone’s own” as opposed to “to receive something offered or transmitted by another.”  I wrote last week on how I pay attention to the mental pictures that form during studies.  When it comes to the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, I picture a soldier standing clad in the full armor.  A fellow soldier stands alongside and hands the first soldier both the helmet and sword and then the first heads into battle.  I want to spend more time exploring this as I look at the pieces of armor.  For now, I hope I am making clear the difference in intensity.  Both words do mean “to take up” or “to receive” but there is a difference in taking in hand something another offers to you and making something your own by taking it to yourself.

This is a massive subject I will be meditating on in the upcoming days: perhaps for years.  I am still a bit gob smacked that the same word used to describe the receiving of Jesus into heaven is the same word used to describe our taking up the whole armor of God.  There are depths here I have only begun to plumb.  I am also meditating on the Strong’s definition of ana: specifically repetition and reversal.

I have already experienced a reversal in my understanding of the Whole Armor of God.  I have always thought it something I had to mentally arm myself with before I left my house in the morning.  It was Christ Himself, of course, but still something external from me I had to attain to.  And, perhaps saddest of all, there was always the fear of; could I really consider myself clad in the whole armor of God if I didn’t quote that passage every day?  This passage was invoked like a talisman against evil.  I don’t remember every being taught to rest in the covenant I participated in by sheer gift and trust that Jesus Christ who is my armor would be my protection no matter what I faced. 

I have experienced a reversal in the direction of Spiritual Warfare.  Instead of going out and engaging who or whatever I perceive my enemy to be in attempt to advance the Kingdom of God here on earth, I rest in the finished work of Christ, I live out of His victory, and trust I am made more than a conqueror through Him who loves me. 

Perhaps there is no sense of repetition in the way analambano is used in my study passage.  After all, Christ died once for all and all authority in heaven and earth is His so the armor that He is isn’t ever going to change in composition or intensity.  However, there is a repetition in that, as my understanding changes, so is there a return and a reclamation and a receiving of all that is mine.  I can only receive to the extent my eyes have been opened to understand who Jesus Christ is, who He is in me, and who I am in Him.  As that understanding deepens, so too do I once more take up the Whole Armor of God and make it even more my own.  In this sense, I do constantly take hold of that which I have received in my inner being.

There is a passage in Revelation I will close with.  It is Revelation 22:12: “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.”  The Greek words for “coming quickly” are erchomai tachy.  Erchomai is a verb and its tense in this passage is present indicative.  Present is self-explanatory: it means NOW!  Indicative means it is telling a fact.  Translating tachy as “quickly” is perfectly fine although it is important to know it means “speedily” and “without delay”.  I have heard it said this passage could be rendered as “And, Behold, I am ever coming to you…” which I find beautiful.

Constancy is a better word than repetition and so is faithfulness.  He is ever coming to us.  He dwells within us by His Spirit.  Repetition can be a limiting idea-generating the mental picture of some sort of spiritual hamster wheel-and there is no limit in Jesus Christ: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning.

Great is His faithfulness!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

List of passages containing analambano: Mark 16:19, Acts 1:2, Acts 1:11, Acts 1:22, Acts 7:43, Acts 10:16, Acts 20:13, Acts 20:14, Acts 23:31, Ephesians 6:13, Ephesians 6:16, 1 Timothy 3:16, 2 Timothy 4:11

References

livelingua.com/blog/present-indicative-english/#:~:text=Indicative means to tell the,in all the basic tenses.

Danker, Frederick William, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition (BDAG), The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1957, 2000

Green, Jay P., The Interlinear Hebrew-Greek-English Bible, Volume 4, Authors for Christ, Inc. Lafayette, Indiana, 1796, 2000

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Walker, Allen G., The New Koine Greek Textbook, Volumes II/III, 2014-2019

Canvas of the Mind

04 Monday Sep 2023

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One of My Mom’s Acrylic Pours! Used With Permission

Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I return to my study of the Whole Armor of God described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18.

I previously mentioned I was reading The Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall as part of conducting this study.  In his book, William Gurnall asks, “What is this armour?” and then answers his question as follows:

“By armour is meant Christ.  We read of putting on the ‘Lord Jesus,’ Ro. Xiii, 14, where Christ is set forth under the notion of armour.  The apostle doth not exhort them for rioting and drunkenness to put on sobriety and temperance, for chambering and wantonness [to] put on chastity, as the philosopher would have done, but bids, ‘put he on the Lord Jesus Christ;’ implying thus much [that] till Christ be put on, the creature is unarmed…The graces of Christ, these are armour, as ‘the girdle of truth, the breast-plate of righteousness’ and the rest.  Hence we are bid also [to] ‘put on the new man’, Ep.iv. 24, which is made up of all the several graces as its parts and members.  And he is the unarmed soul, that is the unregenerate soul, not excluding those duties and means which God hath appointed the Christian to use for his defence.  The phrase thus opened, the point is, to show that to be without Christ is to be without armour.” (Gurnall, 45)

That the Whole Armor of God is Jesus Christ is my belief as well, though I do try not to draw conclusions until a study is complete.  Still, I don’t suppose there are believers who would disagree with me or with William Gurnall so I take a brief moment to ask myself if it is necessary to dig further.  The moment is definitely brief because knowing the Whole Armor of God is Jesus Christ doesn’t do much to help me understand how and what the armor enables me to be in the world.  Thus, or hence (borrowing from William Gurnall) I will continue to dig into this passage until I am satisfied.

I am looking for a complete picture to form in my mind.  I have been thinking about communication, understanding, and how language forms pictures in our minds. This has been especially true over the last couple of weeks when I read a study by a Bible Teacher I admire and usually agree with.  I did not agree with the conclusions he drew in the particular study I read.  What he said would have made sense to me and I never would have thought to question it had I not already conducted a study on the passage he was using and therefore understood the meaning of the Greek, and had nothing but my English translation of the Bible to aid me. I realized how easy it is to draw erroneous conclusions as I almost did so when studying Paul’s admonition to “stand” in the Ephesians passage.

It seems so clear reading the English translations. “Stand” means just that: stand firm, unmovable.  The picture that had formed in my mind was that of believers as Spiritual Warriors, clad in the whole armor of God, strengthened in the Lord Jesus Christ to hold our ground, defend it to the uttermost, and not surrender even one iota to the enemy.  Then, I looked at the Greek word translated “stand” (histemi) and saw it did mean “made to stand” but carried also the idea of covenant and my mental picture disintegrated.  I could have put my conclusions into words, described my mental picture to the best of my ability, and there may have been those of you who would have agreed with me.  My conclusions would not have been totally inaccurate but neither would they have been correct.  I have to wonder how much harm a partially accurate bible study can do…

I do not want to get involved in arguments over the accuracy and validity of the various translations of the Bible.  However, I will say it is important to take care what pictures are being formed in our minds.  One of my favorite books on writing is Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan and it is this book more than any other that has made me conscious of the way words paint pictures in my mind.  I would say it is important to realize the English words Bible translators have chosen to portray what the Hebrew and Greek intend are not always the best and most accurate.

I have already looked at the Greek word translated “put on” in Ephesians 6:11 and shared how the word means “to sink down into”.  It is not putting on a garment in the sense of ‘there’s my coat over there: I’m going to get it and put it on”.  It is more like snuggling into a blanket on a chilly day while resting on a comfortable couch except that, when we are speaking of the Life of Christ, there is no separation between Him and us.  Putting Him on would be more like saying the blanket is always a part of us and there is never an instant where we cannot snuggle into it and be warmed and soothed.

This made me wonder just what Paul meant when he said “Take up the whole armor of God” in verse 13.  Perhaps you are like me and the words “take up” instantly bring to mind Jesus’ command to “take up your cross and follow me” in Matthew 16:24.  “Take up” in the English paints a mind picture for me where both the armor and the cross are like that coat I mentioned before: it is something over there, apart from me, and I need to go to it, take it up, and put it on.  Is this the picture painted by the Greek?

Would you be surprised if I told you the Greek words used in these passages are not the same?  I was not.  In fact, I’ve come to expect it.  The Greek word translated “take up” in Matthew 16:24 is airo (G142) and is defined in the Strong’s as “to lift; by implication to take up or away, figuratively to raise (the voice), keep in suspense (the mind), specifically to sail away (i.e. weigh anchor); by Hebraism to expiate sin;-away with, bear (up), carry, lift up, loose, make to doubt, put away, remove, take (away, up).” There’s enough in this definition to make me question the mental picture this passage has always painted in my mind: that of me stumbling under the weight of my cross as I drag it along while following the Lamb withersoever He goest.  A study for another time.

The Greek translated as “take up” in Ephesians 6:13 is analambano (G353) and is defined in the Strong’s as “to take up-receive up, take (in, unto, up)”.  Analambano is a compound word formed of ana (G303) and lambano (G2983).  The Strong’s defines Ana as “properly up but (by extension) used (distributively) severally, or (locally) at:–and, apiece, by, each, every (man), in, through.  In compounds (as a prefix) it often means (by implication) repetition, intensity, reversal.”  Lambano is defined as “to get hold of, accept, be amazed, assay, attain, bring, when I call, catch, come on (unto), forget, have, hold, obtain, receive (after), take (away, up).”

Taking all of this into consideration, I don’t think I do the Greek a disservice if I begin to define analambano as “to constantly take hold of that which we have received in our inner being.” 

“The armour is Christ” William Gurnall writes and knowing that to be the truth is all well and good as long as we know exactly what Christ is to us.  What exactly have we received?  What are we taking hold of?  What word pictures have been painted on the canvas of our minds by the sermons we have listened to?  How have these pictures been formed by our understanding of the language used to translate our Bibles?  How accurate are they?  Unless we have laid hold of the living Christ in, by, and through His Spirit, the pictures cannot be at all accurate.

In his Epistle to the Ephesians, the same epistle in which he describes the whole armor of God; the Apostle Paul writes a glorious prayer:

“I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.  And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.  And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Now that’s something to take hold of!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Gurnall, William, The Christian in Complete Armour, Seventh Printing, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2021, Page 45

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

New Vistas

21 Monday Aug 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I continue in my study of Ephesians 6: 10-18a.  I am looking specifically at the Apostle Paul’s urging to “Put on the whole armor of God” (verse 11).

This past week has been an interesting one.  Every Christian book I have picked up and every teacher I have listened to has given me a variation on the same message: rest, abide, do only those things you see The Father doing, it is Christ in you that is the hope of glory, Christ lives in you by His Spirit, it is the Holy Spirit who is the revealer, guide, and ability to live the Christian life.  This is all in line with what I have seen up until now in my study: that the Whole Armor of God is the very life of God.  My conviction appears to be substantiated when I read Ephesians 6:11 out of Jonathan Mitchell’s New Testament: “you folks must at some point, for yourselves, enter within (or: clothe yourselves with) the full suit of armor and implements of war (panoply; the complete equipment for men-at-arms) which is God (or: which comes from and belongs to God), in order for you to be continuously able and powerful to stand (or: to make a stand) facing toward the crafty methods (stratagems; schemes; intrigues) of the adversary…” (Mitchell, 479)

I believe this to be true: I believe when Jesus cried “it is finished!” on the cross He had done everything necessary to abolish sin and death and restore us to relationship with The Father.  With His resurrection and ascension, we now have a new and living way opened for us and we-boldly and with confidence-enter the holy places (see Hebrews 10:19-20).  In terms of the whole armor of God and Spiritual Warfare, I don’t believe we are “putting on” something exterior to us nor are we responsible for claiming ground for Jesus, building the kingdom, or seeking to defeat Satan in any way.  Again, I believe this passage is describing the Covenant Life of God freely given to us (and IN US via the Holy Spirit), that the victory belongs entirely to Jesus (see 1 John 3:8) and is a free gift to us because we are in Him, and that His life in us makes us to STAND. 

But then, it doesn’t really matter what I believe if the scripture is saying something else.  The English is clear: Paul says to “PUT ON the whole armor of God”.  I am not forgetting he says to “take up the whole armor of God” in verse 13 but that is the focus of a later post.  At face value, “Put On” does seem to be describing the whole armor of God as something external that we must put on in the sense that we put on our clothes every day.  To that end, I looked up the Greek Word translated “put on”.

That word is endysasthe.  It is the Aorist Imperative Middle 2nd Person Plural Verb form of the Greek enduo.  I realize few share my love of Grammar so I ask you to stay with me through the next few paragraphs!  I’m sure we all remember the definition of a Verb from our language classes but, just as a reminder, a verb is a word that shown an action, occurrence, or state of being.  The Aorist is the tense of the verb and is (probably) best defined as simple past tense.  The Aorist states that an action has happened but gives no information on how long the action took or whether the results are still in effect.  Aorist verbs describe the entire action as a single event.  According to the Ezra Project, “Aorist is an ideal tense to describe an action that happens at a particular point in time.  That is why some grammar books describe it as ‘punctiliar’”. (See Ezra Project link and link to definition of “punctiliar” below).

The Mood of the verb is Imperative which is a verb form used to make a demand or to give advice or instructions.  2nd Person Plural refers to the speaker’s audience.  In this case, the Apostle Paul is addressing many “youse”. 

The Verb enduo is Strong’s number 1746 and is a compound word comprised of en (1722) and duo (1416).  En denotes a fixed position in place, time, or state, instrumentality, a relation of rest, and means simply “in”.  Duo means “to sink, to go down.”  Enduo is thus defined as “to invest with clothing in the sense of sinking into a garment; array, endue”. 

There was enough here for me to meditate on for days however some teachers I’ve recently listened to have made some snarky comments about the definitions in the Strong’s Concordance.  Thus the reason I verified the definition in two other resources.  The Young’s Concordance defines enduo as “to clothe, to go into clothing”.  The Greek English Lexicon defines enduo literally as “to put any kind of thing on oneself; clothe oneself in, put on, wear” and metaphorically as, “the taking on of characteristics, virtues, intentions.”  This Lexicon lists Ephesians 6:11 under the literal definition and Ephesians 4:24 under the metaphorical.  That scripture is “and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”  An interesting anecdote of Alexander the Great is included in this section and that is that, when he would dress as the gods, he believed he became Ammon, Artemis, Hermes, or Heracles.

Still with me?  Great!  Here are my conclusions.  First, I see no reason to consider the occurrence of enduo in Ephesians 6:11 as literal and the occurrence in Ephesians 4:24 as metaphorical. The occurrence in Ephesians 4:24 is endysasthai which is the Aorist Infinitive Middle form of the verb.  Second, I am fascinated by the verb being aorist in both passages.  Both the new man and the whole armor of God are new realities and ways of being for us in this today moment but they originate at a point in the past. They are not new in any sense of the word except that they are new to us when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see them.

Third, I am fascinated by the fact there is no getting around that there are two ways of looking at this word enduo.  We can define it as we are clothing ourselves in the armor that belongs to God and it is ours on loan or we can define it as we are sinking down into the very life of Jesus Christ and He Himself is our armor.  In the first definition, there is no vital connection to the armor.  It is not something that is a part of us which brings me to the inevitable conclusion that, since the armor belongs to God and it is really only loaned to me, it is something that can be snatched away if I happen to fail while conducting Spiritual Warfare.

I have heard many believers say things about their relationship-or lack thereof-to The Father which makes me believe many accept this first definition as truth.  I recently read a description of a book on spiritual warfare which told me the book would help me learn how to escape Satan’s grip, how to address the roots of spiritual bondage, and would teach me how to avoid the wrong approaches so I could truly partner with the Holy Spirit and experience freedom.

This book description is, to me, sadly indicative of the state of believers who do not believe what is spelled out in the Bible.  Satan has no grip on me because the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil.  I don’t worry about sin because I am IN CHRIST, therefore I am born from above (or again), and, because I am born of God I do not sin because His seed remains in me and I cannot sin.  Don’t believe this means you as well? Don’t believe all of that is even in the Bible?  Read 1 John 3!  And, there’s more.

The blood of Jesus, the blood of the new covenant, has cleansed me from all sin because I am IN CHRIST and therefore I walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light (See 1 John 1:7).  Perfect freedom is mine because the law of the Spirit of life IN CHRIST JESUS has set me free from the law of sin and death (see Romans 8:2).  I could go on.  An excellent eye-opening study is to go through the New Testament and underline every occurrence of the words “in Christ”.  Seeing what is ours IN CHRIST is truly marvelous.

And so, I choose the second definition.  I don’t choose it because I wish to (although it really is so much better than the first) but because it is the truth I see proclaimed to me from every page of the Bible.  The manifestation of Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, is my fixed position in time.  As time is linear, this fixed point is past and yet is so vitally my present and also will be my future.  I put Him on by hastening to enter into His rest thus resting from all my works.  I put Him on by abiding in Him because apart from Him I can do nothing.  I put Him on as I conformed more and more into His image.  I sink down into everything He is and experience everything that is mine because I am His and He is God’s (1 Corinthians 3:21).         

He is my salvation.  He is my life.  He is the whole armor of God who protects me and ministers His victory to me in all times and places because in Him I live and move and have my being.  I sink down into Jesus Christ, snuggle into Him like the most comfortable of garments, and my life is now hidden with Him in God (Colossians 3:3).

Isn’t this incredible?!  May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to Christ who is our life!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Ephesians 6 Interlinear Bible (biblehub.com)

Greek Tenses Explained – Ezra Project

Punctiliar Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster

Imperative Mood | Definition, Examples & Use (scribbr.com)

Middle Voice: Overview & Examples | What is Middle Voice? | Study.com

Second Person: Explanation and Examples (grammar-monster.com)

Danker, Frederick William, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1957, 2000

Green, Jay P., The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek, English, Volume IV, Second Edition, Authors For Christ, Inc. Lafayette, IN, 1796, 2000

Mitchell, Jonathan Paul, MA, The New Testament, 2019 Edition, Harper Brown Publishing, 2009, 2019

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Young, Robert, LL.D., Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts