“And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…”
The text for this article is part of the “armor of God” that Paul described in Ephesians 6:13-17. Besides the helmet Paul mentions “the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes of God’s peace, and the shield of faith.” Paul gave us this armor because we are in a spiritual battle with Satan and his demons that will ruin our lives if we let them. Our text verse tells us that “the sword of the Spirit” is the word of God. Over the last three days we have seen the word of God portrayed as a lamp, a fire and a hammer. Now we turn to the word of God as a sword. It has many uses in our lives. It is interesting that all of the other parts of the armor are mainly for defense, and defense is important, but “the sword of the Spirit” can be used as both defense and offense. We see the word of God used as a defensive weapon in the temptation experience of Jesus in Matthew 4. When He was tempted to turn stones into bread, Jesus used as His defense the word of God from Deuteronomy 8:3: “It is written: man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The next temptation was to prove Himself by jumping from the highest part of Solomon’s temple, and if He was truly God’s Son angels would rescue Him. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:16: “It is also written: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” To the temptation to fall down and worship Satan and receive the kingdoms of the world, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:13: “Jesus said to him, Away from me, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.” Doesn’t it make sense that if the Son of God Himself used scripture to defend Himself against temptation, that we should do the same? That’s why we need to read and study the word of God, because we cannot defend ourselves with weapons that we do not have. It’s not just a matter of being strong enough to fight temptation; we need the knowledge of God’s word to recognize temptation when it comes. We can also see that the word of God was used by Jesus as an offensive weapon. He went right to the attack, knowing that the word of God would tell Him what to do. We see the word of God as a defensive weapon in Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is quick (alive) and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” This informs us that we can use the word of God to protect our own hearts and minds. This is why it is so important for us to internalize the word of God as we read it. I do not mean to merely memorize. We can memorize something and it can mean nothing to us. When we internalize the word of God, it becomes a part of us. The word of God works its way into our inner lives and gives us the protection that Jesus claimed during His temptations. The word of God needs to be implanted in our hearts so that it can grow and help us to grow in our faith. Of course, the “sword of the Spirit” is also a weapon that we can use on offense. I have in my mind the sword fights that I saw iin Errol Flynn movies, and others, years ago. It was important that the sword fighter knew how to use the sword. When we read and study the word of God, Satan trembles, because he knows that we are getting ready for the fight, and that he is no match for the word of God. The word of God is in our hearts to give us a means of defense against temptation, but also as a weapon to wield as we face the temptations that will surely come. If you are a Christian, you have the “sword of the Spirit” available to you, not only in your Bible, but in your heart. Do not hesitate to use it, because if you don’t Satan will have a field day. Don’t let that happen in your life. Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|