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