Chuck Larsen

In Ephesians, chapter 6, we read about the Armor of God. The helmet of salvation is protection against the fatal blows of the enemy. It protects our minds. It’s always a battle over our thoughts. The fiery darts of the evil one are directed primarily at what we think. He uses the world (its systems & values) as well as our flesh (our lusts and passions) to incite rebellious thinking in the hopes it will result in rebellious actions. We might not be able to prevent the thoughts from striking us, but the helmet of salvation will help prevent their penetration into our souls. The fiery darts of despair, discouragement, depression, and defeat are all instrumental weapons that are used skillfully by our enemy to weaken our faith and open our minds to inappropriate thoughts that will lead to sinful actions. The exhortation in this whole passage on the Armor of God contains the call to “Stand firm” several times. We are not to give way, surrender ground, or retreat from our position in Christ.

The knowledge of God’s Word is the very material from which our helmets are crafted. The first and most crucial piece of information we glean from God’s Word is the truth of Christ’s salvation, a gift of His marvelous grace, received through the channel of faith. According to Isaiah 59:17, the Messiah would come, fully equipped for battle against evil. It states, “He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head.” As Paul essentially quotes this passage in Ephesians, we are reminded that what we are called to put on is His righteousness. Our own righteousness will not protect us. It is his that will. The helmet of salvation, which we use, is also His. Our salvation, if based on our own efforts, would be most precarious. But His salvation is certain and true. This issue is what we refer to as “eternal security.”

Even in the face of the most profound attacks from the evil one, we can find inspiration in the example of ancient Job, who wore his helmet of salvation well. In Job 19:25-26, he declares, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.” He was certain of the presence of a redeemer, a savior in the midst of all our pains and struggles in life. As the old spiritual says, “there’s a balm in Gilead.” That balm is Jesus. Job also had the assurance that one day, in his flesh, he would see this redeemer. In his comments on this passage, Norm Geisler adds, “In other words, Job had present knowledge that he had been redeemed (‘my Redeemer’) and that he would see Him in his heavenly resurrected body: I ‘know’ (now) that I ‘will see God’ (later, in heaven). Such knowledge implies his assurance of eternal security.

The shield of faith is used by the soldier to quench “all the fiery darts…” The passage implies there are a lot of them. I remember how the Navy would lay off the coast of Vietnam and send in fighters from the Aircraft carriers to soften up the enemy before the ground troops would advance. The big battleships of World War II were brought into action and used to shell the enemy from many miles at sea before the advancing troops would engage the enemy. This pictures the enemy using the many fiery darts shot at us from a distance. Martin Lloyd Jones says, “Soldiers used to throw these darts at the enemy in great profusion from all conceivable directions so as to cause confusion. Having prepared the way in that manner, the troops would then advance. This was the ancient way of doing what in modern warfare is known as the preliminary barrage of the guns to prepare for the advance of the infantry.”

Long-distant spiritual warfare is a battle of words. While on the Cross, Jesus’ enemies, clearly under the direction of Satan, “hurled” their insults at him. The word hurled is used for arrows and/or spears. Words are the weapons. Thoughts are the substance of words, so our spiritual battle is a battle for the mind. Satan, you will remember, “blinds the minds,” not the eyes of unbelievers. An unbeliever is, by very definition, a person without faith. We may find ourselves under a barrage of Satan’s fiery darts. They are designed to cause us to doubt, despair, and ultimately desert our faith in God. We must wield the shield with skill to extinguish all his fiery darts. When those darts find their way into our thought lives, they have a way of building what the Bible refers to as strongholds. Satan establishes patterns of thinking in our lives that eat away, like cancer, our trust and confidence in God.

A Christian Doctor, Dr. Michael Jacobson, talks about these strongholds. He quotes Ed Silvoso, an Argentine Christian evangelist. He defines a stronghold as “a mindset impregnated with hopelessness that causes me to accept as unchangeable something that is contrary to the will of God.” A mindset is a pattern of thinking. And so, if I have a pattern of thinking which is inconsistent with God’s revealed truth, it is a stronghold. And, as we saw earlier, the Christian has weapons of warfare which are stronger than these strongholds, and are capable of bringing these wrong patterns of thinking into obedience to Jesus Christ.” Therefore, “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.”

The normal citizen doesn’t carry a shield with him. We don’t need protection like that. Society is usually considered safe enough that we can go about our way without carrying weapons or wearing armor of any kind. While it’s very true for us in our society as far as our physical safety is concerned, it certainly is not true for us spiritually. We have an enemy who’s always on the prowl. He’s diligent in looking for openings, lapses in our preparedness, weaknesses in character, and flaws in our personalities that he might get to us in any way he can. It’s for this reason we need the Armor of God and particularly the shield of faith.

One commentator writes, “To be without faith is to be without God, as our belief relies on our faith for its existence. Such is the nature of believing in a redeeming Creator. Our faith relies on trusting God’s Word and accepting it as true. This can only be done through faith, with perseverance. Without it, we are lost.” Paul says that those without faith in the Lord are “lost…aliens…excluded… and hopeless…without God” in this world (Ephesians 2:12). The author of the book of Hebrews tells us that it’s impossible to please God without faith. It’s our faith, our trust, in Him through all the cares and woes as well as the temptations and trials of life that protect us through it all. Faith is not an optional accouterment. It’s an essential piece of the arsenal God gives us in our battle with the Evil one. As one credit card commercial puts it, “Don’t leave home without it.”

In the wonderful little allegory, “Pilgrim’s Progress,” John Bunyan tells of Pilgrim on his journey to the celestial city. When he entered the territory of Giant Despair, he was captured and thrown into a deep, dark dungeon. He was tied up and placed in the pits of doubting castle. He began to despair for his life. He thought all was lost and he’d never reach the celestial city. When he lost all hope, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and informed him that he need not lay low in doubting castle under the bondage of the Giant despair because he had been given a key. That key would open any door. He had the key to freedom and deliverance from the wiles of the giant. He had but to put it to use. What was that key? The angel informed him that it was faith. Pilgrim put the key of faith into the great gate and it swung open and once again he was on his way to the Celestial City.

The first three parts of the Armor of God are things we “put on.” The belt of truth is strapped around the waist. The Chest plate is fastened over the upper torso. The boots are strapped onto the feet. The last three parts of the Armor are “taken up” rather than “put on.” They include the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit. The shield was an incredibly important part of the armor for soldiers who were to engage the enemy who were hurling arrows and spears at them. Thus, Paul begins his instructions regarding “taking up” the shield by saying, “In all circumstances…” (ESV), or “at all times…” (GN) or “In every situation…” (HSCB). The King James Version takes this as a matter of importance in its translation. It begins the exhortation to take up the shield with the phrase, “Above all…” But I agree that the phrase means, as the Amplified Version explains it, “Overall….” This is the idea that the shield is something that forms a wall of protection over all the armor that has already been “put on” by the soldier. It protects his breastplate, his belt, and his feet at times.

Faith extinguishes the devil’s darts before they even reach the breastplate of righteousness. It can be maneuvered to block his attacks on the belt of truth. It can be maneuvered to block the darts aimed at the Gospel of Peace, which have been strapped to our feet. It takes skill to wield the shield in all the ways necessary to block Satan’s attacks. MacArthur observes, “Two types of shields were commonly used by Roman soldiers. One was a small, lightweight, round shield strapped to the soldier’s left forearm and used to parry blows during hand-to-hand combat. The other, which Paul refers to here, was a large shield measuring about four and a half feet high and two and a half feet wide. It was made of sturdy wood covered with metal and a thick layer of oil-treated leather. The metal deflected arrows, while the oily leather extinguished the fiery pitch with which arrows were commonly swabbed. That type of shield was ideal for full-body protection.”

Yes, faith is our full body protection. It will extinguish ‘all’ the fiery darts of the evil one. It extinguishes the darts of doubt. In the battle for our thoughts, we might find ourselves thinking ‘did God really say….’ Guess where that dart of doubt came from. It will extinguish the fiery dart of discouragement. When you think you’ll never be able to…. (fill in the blank), Faith puts out the fire. Delay (why is this taking so long), Difficulty (why is this so hard), Depression (I just want to give up), and Defeat (I’ve had enough!) are all darts that the shield of faith can extinguish when wielded with mature skills. But remember, it all takes practice, practice, practice! The more we practice, the more skilled we become in wielding our shield of faith.