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