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Mind Over Mind

19 Monday Feb 2024

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Hello Readers!  Welcome to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I am posting another installment in my Whole Armor of God study series.

My study passage is Ephesians 6:10-18a and I am currently looking at the Helmet of Salvation.  In last week’s post, I quoted 2 Corinthians 10:4-6: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”  This passage has been at the forefront of my mind as I have considered what ‘bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’ means in terms the Helmet of Salvation protecting the head and thus our thoughts. 

Do you ever think about yourself? Of course we do but I mean paying deliberate attention to how exactly it feels when you think.  Do you recognize there is a YOU that knows YOU are thinking thoughts?  YOU are thinking and the thoughts themselves can be scrutinized, considered, and then either accepted or disregarded.  We are not separated from our thoughts because the chemicals associated with them affect our bodies but neither are they the masters of us.  Our brains are constantly absorbing information and, as we aren’t always aware of all we are absorbing, I do recognize that some of the thoughts that come into our minds are utterly foreign to who and what we know we are.  Still, the thought can be recognized as such and, while it can be exhausting, we do have the ability to decide which thought we are going to entertain and which we are not.  Therefore, it is a fact that we are the Masters of our thoughts.  It only remains to be seen whether we will choose to act in that capacity.

When we with conscious deliberation choose to act in that capacity we Believers in Jesus can find ourselves on the horns of a dilemma.  Many are they who level accusations of close-mindedness at us.  We have all seen the caricature of the close-minded person.  This is a person who will not learn either through arrogance that he or she knows all or through fear that if he or she entertains a thought that is different from his or her current belief system, he or she will be scorned and cut off.  In religious terms, there is the fear of the possibility of being led astray by a devil and ending up spending an eternity in hell.  Few people genuinely wish to be close minded and yet, there is no denying the very real danger of indiscriminate open-mindedness.  There are arguments and high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God and which are well worth eradicating from the fields of our minds.  We Believers must be discerning, holding fast to what is good and rejecting what is not. 

How do we do that?  I am not a proponent of deciding for ourselves what is good and evil because that is eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the fruit of that tree is death.  This passage in 2 Corinthians tells us we are to be “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”  What does that mean?  Is that thinking only what our Church leaders tells us is okay to think?  Is it following the Bible like a rule book and obeying everything we read in it?  If that is so, what do we do when we encounter passages that appear to contradict each other?  And then, if we are among that group of Believers who have seen that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death (see Romans 8:2), what are we obeying?  Jesus did say, “if you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15) which He’d already given in John 13:34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”  John the Beloved does expand on this a bit in his 1st letter: “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.  And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.  And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”

I do think it’s important to note the Greek words translated as “keep” and “obey/obedience” in these different passages are not the same.  The Greek word translated as “keep” is number 5083 in the Strong’s Concordance: tereo which means “to guard from loss or injury”.  Obey is a bit more complicated: as I run down the list of scripture passages containing the word “obey”, I find there are 6 unique Greek words all translated as “obey” (there are 7 different Strong’s Numbers but 3980 is the verb form of 3982 [peitharchein, peitho] so I’m counting them as one word). I could spend weeks studying “obey” but, for the sake of this study, I will focus on the Greek noun translated “obedience” in 2 Corinthians 10:4: hupakoe (G5218) and the verb hupakouo (G5219) translated “obey” in various passages.

What do we think of when we hear the words “obey” or “obedience”?  The first meaning that comes to mind is “to do what one is told”.  Perhaps it is the same for you.  I admit I was surprised to find that wasn’t the meaning of the Greek word nor is it the first thing I read when I look up “obey” in the dictionary.  The first thing I read in the dictionary entry is “to hear” and that is backed up by the definitions for the Greek.  The Strong’s defines hupakoe (G5218) as, “attentive hearkening”.  It does go on to define the word as “by implication compliance or submission” but also says that hupakoe comes from hupakouo (G5219).  Hupakouo is defined as, “to hear under (as a subordinate) to listen attentively, to heed or conform to a command or authority”.  Hupakouo is a compound word formed of hupo (G5259) and akouo (G191).  Akouo means, “to hear” but I found the definition of hupo particularly interesting.

It means “under” or “beneath” but with verbs means “the agency or means-through”.  Returning to 2 Corinthians 10:5 in the Greek, I find that same little word tou which tells me the Apostle Paul is not admonishing us to force our thoughts to conform with strict obedience to some rigid system but is rather saying we are bringing every thought into captivity to Christ’s obedience.

Hebrews 5:8 says that Jesus “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”  The next verse says, “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey (hupakouo!) Him.”  The same Greek word is used by Paul in Romans 1:5-6: “Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ.” 

I have a 12-week study booklet on Romans.  I don’t even know how many years it has been since I first picked it up intending to spend 12 weeks in the Book of Romans and yet am still on question 2 of Week 2: “What might Paul mean by ‘the obedience of faith’?”  I still don’t have a concise answer to that beyond “it’s all interconnected and it’s all Jesus Christ.”  Romans 10:17: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith OF (tou) the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  The meaning of obedience is “attentive hearkening”.  The emphasis has to be on hearing. 

This post is getting to be rather long so I will close with this: we bring our every thought into the captivity of the obedience of Christ.  He is the Word of the Father.  His Spirit lives in us speaking the Word that is Jesus Christ to us.  Thus, we don’t have to worry that our bringing our thoughts into captivity means we are engaging in some form of religious close-mindedness.  Neither do we have to worry that our desire to hear and learn and live accordingly will lead us to dangerous levels of open-mindedness.  The same mind that was in Christ Jesus is in us through the Holy Spirit therefore we are not closed or open minded but rather Christ-minded.  We are joined to the Lord and are thus of One Spirit with Him.  May the Spirit of Truth guide us into greater understanding of this reality in Christ over the coming days.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Amen.

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

References     

2 Corinthians 10:5 Interlinear: reasonings bringing down, and every high thing lifted up against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of the Christ, (biblehub.com)

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1970, 1976

Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1990

Wilson, Jared C., Knowing the Bible: Romans A 12-Week Study, Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois, 2013, Page 12

Seeking a New Groove

12 Monday Feb 2024

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Hello Readers!  It’s a new week and time for a new post on Renaissance Woman!

I am continuing in my study of the Whole Armor of God described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18a and am finally moving on from the Shield of Faith to the Helmet of Salvation.

With simply a surface look at the Helmet of Salvation, a few things come to mind.  First is that the helmet protects the head and Christ Jesus is described as “the head”.  Paul does so in the same letter to the Ephesians: “but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ-” (4:15) and again in Colossians 1:18: “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” 

As I began studying the word “salvation” I also started making a list of scripture passages that stood out to me.  The Old Testament makes the point that salvation belongs to God, is of God, and is God Himself.  2 Samuel 2-3 says, “…The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence.”  Psalm 3:8 states, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.  Your blessing is upon Your people.”  Psalm 27 opens with “The Lord is my light and my salvation…”  Psalm 62:7 says, “In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God.”  I’ll quote just one more: “The Lord has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations” (Psalm 98:2).

My study up to this point has caused me to completely agree with those who say the Whole Armor of God is Jesus Christ.  Therefore, He is our Helmet of Salvation just as He is the head of we who are His body and the head over we who comprise His church.  I don’t yet have a clear picture of what this means but it feels significant.  It is an observation I will hold close as I proceed in the study.

The second observation I make is that the helmet protects the head and thus the brain which is the seat of all thought.  I am fascinated by the scientific studies on the brain and how the mind comes to exist.  Our thought patterns are just that: patterns in the brain.  Our thoughts form grooves in our brain and the more we entertain a thought, the deeper the groove thus our thoughts are of paramount importance.

The New Testament agrees.  Thought is a crucial component of Spiritual Warfare.  I’ve already quoted 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 but must do so again: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”.  Verse 6 continues with, “and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”  I’ve linked some articles below that speak of our thoughts forming grooves in our mind.  Changing our thought habits, or forming a new thought groove, is not a simple undertaking.  I don’t know if you have ever tried to actually change your mind but it is difficult.  It can actually hurt.  I wonder if this isn’t what verse 6 is referring to in such harsh language.

I find this to be a difficult verse to understand.  I’ve quoted it from the New King James but other versions aren’t any clearer.  The King James says “And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”  The Amplified does attempt to do just that-amplify-with, “Being in readiness to punish every [insubordinate for his] disobedience, when your own submission and obedience [as a church] are fully secured and complete.” As I look at this verse as a continuance of the one before, I like the idea of considering thoughts as my subordinates because it oftentimes feels as though I am under their control.  There are many Christian Teachers who refer to “The Battlefield of the Mind” and I can’t help wondering if this passage is not speaking of demonic powers but is rather speaking to our thoughts and the deep grooves (strongholds?) they form in our mind as we allow them to repeat as well as the difficulty in redirecting our thoughts from these easy pathways and forming new grooves as we bring all of our thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Whether the passage does refer to thoughts or not, there are many other passages of scripture that stress the importance of our minds-and thus our thoughts-being renewed.  These very words are used by Paul in Romans 12:2: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”  In an earlier chapter of this same Epistle, Paul writes; “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (8:6-7).  Paul’s letter to the Ephesians says this: “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Verses 17 & 18).

Philippians 2:5 says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”.  As I consider all of these passages, I must return to a scripture passage that has been of such great importance to me since my first study on John 3:5.  That passage is Ezekiel 36:26-27: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”

The Greek word translated as “salvation” in The Helmet of Salvation is soterion (G4992) meaning “defender, defense” and is related to soteria (G4991) meaning “rescue, safety, deliver, health, salvation, save, saving.”  Is this the picture the Apostle Paul is intending to convey with his Helmet of Salvation?  That Christ Himself not only rescues and delivers our minds but defends them against thoughts that would seek to destroy our knowing God?  Is he saying also that Christ Himself is our very mind?

I hope to have answers to these questions, and many more, by the end of this particular segment of my study.  I hope you will stay tuned in the upcoming weeks.  Until then, May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, guard all of our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Amen.

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

References     

How the Mind Emerges from the Brain’s Complex Networks | Scientific American

How to rewire your brain – Center for Healthy Aging (colostate.edu)

Create New Habits: Cut a New Groove – Bryan Nichols & Associates Psychological Services, Inc. (drnicholsandassociates.com)

The Comparative Study Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1990

The River Within

05 Monday Feb 2024

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman and another post on the Shield of Faith!

I had thought last week’s post would be the last on the Shield of Faith but, as I received some feedback on last week’s post, I found one more post was necessary.

What is the Shield of Faith?  The Old Testament refers to God Himself as our shield.  Genesis 15:1 records the word of the Lord coming to Abram in a vision and saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram.  I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”  Deuteronomy 33: 29 says this: “Happy are you, O Israel!  Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help…”  There are passages in various Psalms that describe God as our shield.  I want to focus on three separate passages that stood out during my study.  The first I’ve already touched on in last week’s post: Psalm 3:3 says, “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me” and the Hebrew word translated “for” could accurately be translated “around me” or “about me”. Indeed, the New American Standard has “about me” and the New International “around me”.  This Hebrew word (#1157 in the Strong’s Concordance) also carries the meaning of “within”: a thought I will return to in a moment.

The second passage is Psalm 91:4.  Some translations render this passage as “his truth shall be thy shield and buckler” while others have it as “his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart”.  The Amplified covers all its bases and has this verse as “His trust and His faithfulness are a shield and buckler.”

The third passage appears in three different books of the Bible.  The first is 2 Samuel 22:31: “As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”  The second appearance is Psalm 18:30: “As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”  The third is Proverbs 30:5: “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.”

John 1:1 states “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  In John 14:6, Jesus describes Himself as “the way and the truth and the life.”  Holding this in mind, I return to the passages of scripture I’ve shared and wonder if they aren’t saying something far and above anything I’ve ever heard before.  Are these passages expressing separate thoughts?  The way of the Lord is perfect, His word is proven, and He is also a shield or is it saying The way of the Lord is perfect, His word is proven, and then the “He” that is a shield and buckler is the He who is the way and the word?  Is the truth and faithfulness that is a shield and rampart some attribute He bestows on us or is the shield and rampart He who is faithful and true?

I listen a great deal to Malcolm Smith and one of the points he stresses over and over is 1 John 4:8; “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”  “He does not have love”, Bishop Smith says, “He is it!”  I think of this when it comes to these passages of scripture and Jesus.  Jesus does not have the word: He is it!  He does not show us the way: He is it!  He does not simply tell us the truth: He is it!  He does not have faithfulness: He is it!  He does not give us a Shield of Faith: He is it!

And, He wasn’t all of these things sometime in the past and then will be these things again sometime in the future.  He is all of these things in us now.  How is this possible if He is seated at the right hand of the Father, received by heaven until the times of the restitution of all things? (See Ephesians 1:20, Acts 3:21).  If Jesus is in some far off heaven somewhere and we are down here waiting for His second coming, how is He all of these things now?  Doesn’t the Bible say our inheritance is reserved in heaven for us? (1 Peter 1:4).

Yes, it does.  However, the Bible also says we are established in Christ, sealed, and given the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (or earnest, or downpayment-2 Corinthians 1:21-22).  This Spirit is the Spirit described by Jesus in Chapters 14-17 of John’s gospel.  There is another promise in John 14:23: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”  “We love,” John says in his first letter, “because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19) and “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5).  I can’t help but to quote 1 Corinthians 6:19 again: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” 

In John 14: 18-20 Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you will live also.  At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”  The rest of the New Testament tell us of all that is ours because we are In Christ and Christ is in us.  Now.  This moment.  He is in us and we are in Him! The Father and Son have made Their abode in us!  How?  Because we are joined to the Lord and are of one spirit with Him!  (Back to 1 Corinthians 6).

Our Shield of Faith is Jesus Christ and we know this is the truth because the Spirit bears witness in our hearts it is so which brings me back to my thought at the beginning of this post.  The Hebrew word in Psalm 3:3 translated as “for”-thou art a shield for me-also carrying the meaning “within”.  In Christ we live and move and have our being.  If we believe that, it is not too difficult to picture Him as a shield surrounding us.  We are hidden in Him and His life quenches the fiery darts of the wicked one.  But there is another picture I admit I am just coming to see and understand and that is that Jesus Christ is a shield within us.  Jesus says, “’He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ But this He spoke concerning the spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive;  for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:38-39). 

The river is a symbol I find throughout the Old and New Testaments.  One of my favorite passages is Psalm 46:4: “There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God”.  I find this same river in Revelation 22:1; “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”  The River also appears in Ezekiel 47 where the prophet is first brought in up to his ankles, and then his knees, and then his waist, and then he must finally swim in it. 

There are passages of scripture where both the word and the Spirit are likened to water (See Isaiah 44:3, John 4:14, 1 Corinthians 12:13, John 15:3, Ephesians 5:25-27).  Faith is our response to who God has revealed Himself in Jesus.  The scriptures are of immense value in that revelation but, the Word is alive in us now.  We live in union with Him via His Spirit in us who speaks what He hears.  That word is energizing vitality.  It is living water within us, water that fill us to overflowing and flows out to the world around us.  I cannot say it too many times: our Shield of Faith-that Shield that is Christ Jesus Himself-does surround us on every side but it is also a river of life within us.

When the fiery darts of the wicked one come seeking to shake our faith and to convince us our God is something different than the One revealed in Jesus Christ, the river of living water that wells up from within us and flows out from us not only quenches them but I daresay sweeps them away. 

There is so much more to be said on faith and the word and I anticipate unearthing even more treasures as I move on to study the rest of the Whole Armor of God.  Until next week, I close with Paul’s prayer in his letter to the Ephesians: “Therefore, I ask…the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith: that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Hallelujah!  It is so! 

Amen.

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

References     

The Comparative Study Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1990

Guarded On All Sides

29 Monday Jan 2024

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

This week’s post is another installment in my study on the Whole Armor of God described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18a.  This post will (I think) be the last on The Shield of Faith which we are told to “take up” because, with it, we “will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one”. 

There is a long standing belief that the Apostle Paul was describing the Roman soldiers either soaking their shields in water or covering them with a wet hide in order to protect them from burning arrows.  I cannot say with absolute certainty that this is not true.  I have added a few books to my reading list to see what arguments are made and sources used for this belief and, since I have not yet read them, I am putting this idea on a shelf until a later time.  What I will say is that my studies on Ancient Warfare has told me this is highly unlikely.  I shared these studies in last week’s post so won’t repeat them here.

My studies have also led me to believe fiery darts or burning arrows were not something a Roman Soldier would face in open combat.  I don’t know if this is true for you but the mental picture that would form whenever I read this passage in Ephesians was one of Roman Soldiers lined up in battle using their shields for protection against flaming arrows being shot at them by the enemy.  Both sermons I heard and images from movies helped to form this mental picture.  If this picture is inaccurate (and I believe it is) what does this mean when we study Paul’s letter to the Ephesians?  Was Paul mistaken?  How does this passage tie in to the warfare of the day?  If it doesn’t describe actual warfare, can we trust this passage?

My study has led me to answers that I find satisfactory.  If you have asked these questions yourself and perhaps not dared to ask them of anyone else, I hope these answers are a help for you as well.  My simple answer is this: I believe the Apostle Paul used actual warfare as an analogy but then built on it in a way that transcends any sort of warfare.  He twice made the point that our warfare is spiritual rather than carnal and our enemy a spiritual rather than one of flesh and blood (See 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Ephesians 6:12) so I am not at all bothered he would begin with an analogy rooted in actual warfare but then point out our weapons have properties far and above their earthly counterparts.

There is every reason to believe the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians while he was in prison being guarded by Roman soldiers.  I believe that he would not have let such an opportunity go to waste.  I imagine him asking his guards questions, drawing them out, building relationships with them, and looking for those opportunities to share the gospel.  I think these soldiers would have eventually shared their experiences and thus Paul’s passage on the Whole Armor of God was rooted in ancient warfare but, rather than describing battles fought by infantry,  I believe the picture he was painting was one of siege warfare. 

Flaming arrows were an integral part of siege warfare.  The goal of using them was to cause distraction, chaos, and terror.  The arrows didn’t need to start a fire though if even a few succeeded the better for the army laying siege.  These arrows did need to be stamped out and that meant the defender no longer had his full attention on any mounting attack.  As I take this into account along with the fact that the Apostle Paul writes it is the Shield of Faith which quenches these fiery darts, I see both the enemy’s tactics revealed as well as our defense against them. 

I have spent weeks looking at the definition of faith along with the meaning and use of the word in its original language.  I think the dictionary definition of faith is important to know as it makes me careful to listen to what others mean when they use the word while at the same time I am careful to hold the original meaning close.  The original use of the word was one of covenant.  Faith was the response one made to another person according to all that person revealed him or herself to be.  Our faith in God is the same: God reveals Himself to us and we respond to that revelation.  “Faith comes by hearing,” Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “and hearing by the word of God” (10:17). 

Jesus is the Word who became flesh John writes in his gospel and he goes on to write “No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (See John 1:14-18).  As our eyes are opened to see Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), we respond to that revelation.  We come to know Him intimately and through Him to know the Father.  This knowing is the definition of eternal life (See John 17:3, 1 John 5:20).  It makes perfect sense to me that the Apostle Paul would state the defense against the fiery darts used in siege warfare-weapons intended to distract and cause fear-was the shield of the faith which originates in the revelation and word of God.  “Has God indeed said…?” the enemy asked in the garden and the tactics have not changed in millennia.  Perhaps not every arrow will start a fire, but if they can lure us away from our stability in our faith and make us doubt all He has revealed Himself to be, the tactics have been successful.

But, the Apostle Paul writes the Shield of Faith quenches every fiery dart and there is no proof a Roman soldier ever used his shield to quench anything.  Protect and deflect absolutely: quench no.  I can see the Apostle Paul warning his readers of how the enemy would attack.  There would be no need to go out to meet the enemy in battle: the enemy would come to us.  The attack would be leveled at the foundation of our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.  We would find ourselves under siege.  The analogy found in Ancient Siege Warfare is a perfect one.  And yet here is where the Apostle Paul transcends his analogy and, in order to understand why he writes the Shield of Faith quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked one when no shield would have been capable of such a feat; we have to take into account several things.  First, the two words used for “word”.  Second, Psalm 3:3 and third, Paul’s understanding of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the logos of God (John 1) and our faith comes by hearing the rhema (Romans 10:17).  Logos (G3056)means “something said, including the thought, by implication a topic (subject of discourse) reasoning” while rhema (G4487) means “an utterance”.  There isn’t much discernable difference between the words on the surface but let’s think of it this way: Jesus is the thought of God made manifest in flesh.  He is the living word, God expressed, and is also the revelation of God’s thoughts toward humankind.  The words (rhema) He speaks are spirit and life (John 6:63).  When Jesus faced the enemy in the wilderness, he spoke these words: “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word (rhema) that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  We need both: we must know the Logos of God who is Jesus Christ but we must also hear the rhema that proceeds out of His mouth.

Psalm 3:3 says “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me…”  It would be more accurate to use “around” or “about” in place of “for” in this passage.  The word in the Hebrew is baadi (H1157) and means “in, up to, over against, beside, among, behind, about, within.”  Each of these words is important to consider and the picture here is not just of a shield being carried in front of one but rather a shield that utterly surrounds and protects.  I have no doubt the Roman soldiers would have loved to possess such a shield and I think this is Paul’s point: you, Believer, possess such a shield.  “In Him we live and move and have our being” Paul declared to the Athenians (Acts 17: 28) and I think this is his point in his letter to the Ephesians: the wicked one will lob fiery darts at you in an attempt to destroy your faith but fear not!  Your Shield of Faith is the very life of Christ which surrounds you on every side!  This shield quenches every fiery dart!

The Shield of Faith.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.  Man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  The words that Jesus speaks are spirit and life.  Before Jesus ever declares the words He speaks are spirit and life, He says, “it is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.”  Jesus later says this about the same Spirit: “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13-14).

I find it interesting that the word used in Ephesians 6:16 and translated quench is translated as quench in another significant passage. The word means “to extinguish” and is used for what the Shield of Faith does to the fiery darts of the wicked one but is also used in 1 Thessalonians 4:19: “Do not quench the Spirit”. 

This is something far too many believers have done.  They have fallen victim to the fiery darts of “the Holy Spirit died out with the last apostle” and the fiery darts of “the Holy Spirit was no longer needed once we had the Bible.”  The Bible is precious to me.  It contains the very words God has spoken to so many others but the fact remains it contains the words God has spoken.  The Spirit gives life, Jesus said, and the New Testament is packed full of the description of our new covenant life in Jesus Christ through the vitalizing working of the Holy Spirit.  Without the Spirit at work in our lives, speaking what He hears to our hearts and minds, and causing our knowledge of Jesus Christ and who we are in Him to come to maturity; the Shield of our Faith cannot quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. 

Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians 11:3-4: “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.  For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, of a different gospel which you have not accepted…”

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.  He is the only trusted voice to lead us into the truth that is Jesus Christ.  Without His teaching, guiding, instructing, and leading, we have not heard the words by which faith comes and our shields are not capable of quenching the fiery darts of the wicked one.  There is no substitution for KNOWING Jesus Christ, and through Him the Father, for yourself.  That is done by the Holy Spirit indwelling us and teaches us.  You must know He indwells YOU.  You must know that YOUR body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  There is no priest or teacher or any other intermediary that is necessary.  The Spirit has been shed abroad in YOUR heart!  This is the absolute truth.

Maybe this is too much for you to believe.  Read the scriptures I have shared in this post for yourself.  Read to the end of John 6 where Peter says, “To whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  Then ask that the Spirit Jesus promised He would send would open your eyes to see Jesus has kept His promise.  Ask Him to convince you it is the truth that both Jesus and the Father dwell within you in the Spirit, and ask Him to open your ears to hear the words of eternal life.

Faith comes by the hearing of these words of God and this faith is a mighty shield that surrounds you on every side.  It is a living shield fully capable of quenching every fiery dart of the wicked one.

Hallelujah!  It is so! 

Amen.

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

References     

Quenching fire arrows on shields (romanarmytalk.com)

Hebrew Concordance: ba·‘ă·ḏî — 8 Occurrences (biblehub.com)

Green, Jay P., The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek, English, Volume 2, Authors for Christ, Inc., Lafayette, IN, 1985

Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1990

Facing The Flaming Arrows

22 Monday Jan 2024

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Hello, Readers!  Welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman and another installment in my study on Ephesians 6:10-18a where the Apostle Paul describes the Whole Armor of God.  My focus is still on verse 16: “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

The mental picture painted here is a curious one.  It’s not all that difficult to picture a Roman Legion facing foes who have either tied something flammable to the end of their arrows or soaked the arrows in something flammable like pitch, set these arrows alight, and launched them toward the Romans who would then seek to deflect them with their shields.  As I was researching both the Roman shield and flaming arrows, I found a post on the Rick Renner Ministry site that suggested the Roman Legionaries would soak their shields in water before going into battle so that they would be able to extinguish any flaming arrows that would be shot their way.

An article on ancientfinances.com which quotes the book Suit Up!: Putting on the Full Armor of God by Michael Lantz (which I do not have a copy of and have not read) also describes flaming arrows used in battle and suggests shields would have so many smoking arrows sticking out of them that the shields looked somewhat like a roasting porcupine.  This article also mentions reading comments stating the shields would be soaked in water before commencing battle.  I would like to get and read this book to see what sources Mr. Lantz and Pastor Renner are using because all of the other sources on Ancient Warfare I have studied tell me the use of flaming arrows and soaked shields are not at all likely within the context of open battle.

The first argument against this is the fact that the Roman shield (or scutum) was fashioned of strips of wood glued together with animal based glue which is soluable in water.  During marches, the Romans carried their shields in leather cases to protect them from rain but whether this was to protect them from disintegrating or to protect the design painted on them, I can’t say definitively one way or the other.  My research has given both as reasons for the leather carrying case.  Even assuming the shield wouldn’t disintegrate after being soaked in water, a waterlogged wood shield would be extremely heavy and thus cumbersome in battle. Not to mention how few battles would be fought close by a handy water source…

Second, flaming arrows weren’t used all that often in infantry battles.  Setting an arrow alight wasn’t impossible but firing it long range was which is usually the point of having archers comprise one’s battle formation.  A flaming arrow couldn’t be drawn to the fullest or the archer risked burning his own hand and/or setting his bow alight.  Assuming some sort of guard could be used thus allowing a flaming arrow to be fired long range, there was the chance that an arrow fired at velocity would be extinguished before it ever reached its target. 

Third, there’s the fact that a flaming arrow wouldn’t have much purpose in an open battlefield unless the opposing army was standing in the middle of flammable materials.  Such a thing is not outside the realm of possibility but all of my studies on Ancient Warfare tell me that flaming arrows would not have been practical in a battle where two armies marched out to face one another.

So, if a Roman Legionary would not have faced flaming arrows in the battlefield, where did the Apostle Paul come up with the idea?

The use of flaming arrows was not unheard of.  They were immensely practical in both siege and naval warfare.  In both instances there was no need to fire the arrows over a long range and neither was it necessary that every arrow succeeded in setting its target alight: which is good because my research has told me that approximately 2% of fire arrows ever actually caused a fire.  They were fabulous weapons for causing chaos and for keeping a besieged city or ship occupied in stamping them out before they could start a fire.  There are documented historical instances of flaming arrows being used in siege warfare.  In Weapons Through the Ages, William Reid describes a battle from 429 BC where the Plateans used fire arrows against the siege engines threatening their city.  William Reid also describes Caesar’s battle against Marseilles where his miners used a 20 yard long portable covered passage with a thick, sloping, fireproof roof to safely approach the wall.  Fire was used both to attack and defend during a siege.  

The Romans did use firedarts.  Quoting Adrienne Mayor’s book Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs, J.W. Elliot says, “Firedarts were used by the Romans in the fourth century BCE by filling the hollow space in cane shafts with petroleum material such as tar, napthta, and asphalt.  These darts were lit and shot from low-weight bows at the target so that the velocity of the arrow wouldn’t put out the flames” (see jwelliot.com link below).  I happen to have Ms. Mayor’s book so I looked up this quote.  The description of these firedarts were described by Ammianus Marcellinus: the cane shafts of these darts were reinforced with iron and punctured with many small holes on the underside to provide oxygen for combustion.  These were extremely effective and, according to Ammianus, the fire flared up on contact with water and could only be put out by smothering them with sand.

Ms. Mayor does describe something called a falarica which were reported by Roman Historians Silius Italicus and Tacitus but this was a machine fired spear with a long iron tip that had been dipped in burning pitch and sulphur.  Ms. Mayor quotes Silius Italicus who wrote the burning spears were “like thunderbolts cleaving the air like meteors”.  Silius Italicus also describes the resulting carnage and the blazing ruins of the siege towers.

All of these quotes are found within the Chapter entitled “Infernal Fire” and, in this chapter, Ms. Mayor describes Assyrian reliefs from the 9th century BC showing attackers and defenders exchanging volleys of flaming arrows and firepots over fortified walls.  Flaming arrows then were used by many cultures of whom the Apostle Paul would have been aware.  The Roman soldiers guarding him as he wrote his letters would have been able to describe the use of flaming arrows but my research has led me to believe that description would have been within the context of siege warfare.

I find this significant.  The Apostle Paul writes this in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God…” (II Cor. 10:4-5).  As I have studied the definition of “faith” I have discovered that the original word is a covenant word and J. Preston Eby gives the closest definition: “Faith is the mental attitude of confident response which is evoked in you by what another person reveals himself to be.”

I have already looked at what the word “stand” means in the Ephesians passage describing the Whole Armor of God and have shared how I am not seeing the picture of warfare described by the Apostle Paul as one of attack and conquest.  Rather, it is a posture of defense.  Psalm 61:3 says this about God: “For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy”.  Psalm 3 also says “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me.” 

Again, whenever I have read this passage in Ephesians, I have pictured a Christian warrior clad in armor and going forth into battle confident the Armor of God could not ultimately be defeated.  I am beginning to picture that Christian warrior defending against attackers armed with and fighting from the unassailable ground of God Himself.  Our faith is a response to who God reveals Himself to be and that revelation is Christ Jesus.  The fiery darts are just one weapon the enemy utilizes to undermine that faith.  The enemy has erected towers, great high things exalted against the truth of the knowledge of God which is eternal life (See John 17:3, 1 John 5:18-20) and these fiery darts are lobbed at us to cause chaos and distract us from his attempts to destroy our foundation.

I am getting a bit wordy and so want to close this week but plan to continue with this next week.  As we go out into the world let us remember that we are the Children of the Most High and no weapon formed against us can prosper (Isaiah 54:17).  Our Lord Jesus Christ is our Shield of Faith and, in Him, we need not fear any fiery dart!

Hallelujah!  Amen.

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

References

THE LAW OF FAITH Part 1 by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

Scutum – Roman Shield | Roman Military (unrv.com)

Here’s How To Extinguish The Fiery Darts of the Wicked! | Renner Ministries

Fire Arrows – J.W. Elliot Books (jwelliot.com)

satan – What did Paul mean by “the flaming darts of the evil one” in Ephesians 6:16? – Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange

Description of Scutum, a Roman Legionnaire’s shield. – Ancient Finances

Kiley, Kevin F., All Illustrated Encyclopedia of The Uniforms of the Roman World, Lorenz Books, Aness Publishing, London UK, 2014

Mayor, Adrienne, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological & Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World, Overlook Duckworth, London • New York, 2019, Pages 207-213

Reid, William, Weapons Through the Ages, Peerage Books, London, UK, 1984, Page 20