“Armor from God”
By Rev. Elizabeth D. McLean, Prince of Peace Presbyterian Church, 8-23-15
Based upon Is. 11:1- 9; Eph. 6:10-20
When I was a child growing up outside of New York City, I was blessed to be able to go to
its great museums often with my mother and my schools. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one
of my favorite exhibits was the room filled with knights in shining armor. It wasn’t just glass cases
filled with armor and weapons, although the exhibit did have those. The curators of the exhibit had
also staged it so that it looked as though knights were riding through the main hall on horseback,
which made it a very appealing display for hopelessly romantic young girls as well as boys excited
by swords and jousting spears. I loved those knights best. But what I remember most about the
exhibit is the one time I was allowed to go with a school group behind the scenes to learn how
armor and mail were actually made. The docent showed us how the armorer had to spend hundreds
of hours, months and sometimes years, working by candlelight bending each small ring and then
connecting it to the others with pins to make the chains which eventually became metal shirts worn
underneath the breastplates. Some of the armorers even went blind from a lifetime of eye strain.
The docent also told us that much of the time the armor did not protect its wearers. There were
always niches and cracks– always the proverbial chinks in the armor– which made its wearers
vulnerable to sword or spear. That’s when I realized that the reality behind the shining armor was
not romantic at all.
For a lot of Christians, the romance of today’s famous lesson from Ephesians on the armor
of God has faded as well. This used to be a beloved passage, often matched in worship with a
rousingly sung rendition of “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Children were taught to fight the good
fight in Sunday school, while making helmets out of the tops of Clorox bottles, sticking feathers
out the spout. Christians of past generations were armed to battle evil and were ready. But such
understandings of this text now tend to make modern progressive Christians more uncomfortable
than inspired. We know about the Crusades and the other shameful Christian abuses that have been
committed throughout history in the name of holy warfare because of this text. We know all too
well the painful, unromantic reality of modern warfare, and therefore have no desire any longer to
take the gospel of peace which Jesus preached and turn it into some kind of rallying cry for battle.
And the idea of battling the Devil and cosmic dark forces...well for many people who do not
believe in a personified devil any more, or in the cosmic battle between good and evil that defined
the apocalyptic thinking of the early Church, that idea seems as much a part of ancient history as a
suit of armor in a museum.
So should we stuff this particular text about armor in the back of our spiritual closet and not
worry about it anymore? For fifteen years of ministry, I have basically done that. Although I did
not actively avoid this text, I never took it out to preach on it or teach it either. But after the
Lectionary prompted me to study it yet again this week, I have come to see it in a new light, one
which leads me to believe that we need this text as much as ever. We need this text because it is not
actually about arming ourselves for battle in an offensive sense; it’s about protecting ourselves
from assault in a defensive sense. And that’s something we all not only need to do given the
dangers of our world, it is also something most of us try to do every day. But we often do it wearing
© Rev. Elizabeth D. McLean, 8-23-15; all rights reserved. Page 1
the wrong kind of armor.
We all wear armor, not just those among us who serve in the armed services or the police
force and put on Kevlar every day. Human beings by nature forge psychological armor over time
to protect ourselves from the things that hurt in life like pain, disappointment, rejection and failure.
Some of us build emotional chain mail made of humor, which allow us to deflect vulnerability
using well-timed jokes or sarcastic observations. Some of us put on shiny breastplates called
perfectionism each morning in order to hide our hearts. We make sure that everything we do or say
is just right, so that no one will see how inadequate or flawed or unlovable we really are
underneath our armor. Some of us hold up shields made of independence, sometimes wrapped in a
cool, off-putting exterior in order to protect ourselves from loneliness; and some of us put on
actual clothing as armor, dressing in certain ways to ensure that people see an image, not our real
selves. There is a TV show, called “Love, Lust or Run” which trades in the popularity of this kind
of armor ever week. A fashion stylist, Stacy London, meets with young women who usually wear
outlandish attire: Goth black leather spiked outfits that make Mad Max look like Little Bo Peep;
skin tight revealing outfits that suggest a particular profession more than a unique personal style;
cartoonish outfits so garish that they hide the insecure women underneath them. Stacy talks to
these women, and discovers through her conversation that they are really smart, kind, lovely and
lovable. Then she shows them that their armor makes people scared of them or want them for the
wrong reasons. Finally she makes them take off all their armor, and shows them how to dress in a
way that reveals only their true selves.
I have done a similar exercise on retreats both with teens and with women using masks
instead of outfits. Participants are invited to decorate the outside of their masks however they
want. They can make them about how they want to be seen, or how they think they are seen.
Then on the inside of their masks for their eyes only, they are asked to write what they really think
and feel about themselves. The difference between the outside and the inside is often quite
remarkable.
The human inclination toward armor was not so different in Paul’s day. The Roman
soldiers wore battle armor, breastplates, helmets and such of course. Everyone else wore
psychological armor much like our own in order to help them cope with society’s demands and
challenges. But like the docent at the Metropolitan Museum, the author of the Letter to the
Ephesians, who was most likely a disciple of Paul rather than Paul himself, wanted them to
appreciate that all manmade armor is inadequate. It may be able to withstand the slings and arrows
of other human beings, the author argued, but when the battle is against unseen forces like
temptation or sin, we need something tougher, stronger and long lasting.
This is not to suggest that we are to go out and battle evil and its related demons in the
world. There are other biblical texts which invite us to do this. But this text seems to be focusing on
defense more than offense, and more on personal spiritual struggles than on those with others. Not
only does the text mention standing firm, withstanding, standing one’s ground etc. four different
times, the armor itself is primarily defensive as well. There is a helmet to protect the head, a
breastplate to protect the heart. There is a belt to protect the gut, and shoes to ensure no one’s toes
© Rev. Elizabeth D. McLean, 8-23-15; all rights reserved. Page 2
get stepped on. The only part of the gear that could be used for offensive attack is a sword, but it is
a sword of the Spirit, a sword which issues forth the wisdom of the Word. Unfortunately, there are
people who try to use the Word of God, the Bible, like a weapon. But in the context of this passage,
it seems more like we are to hold onto the sword to equip ourselves with the Word to resist attack,
in the same manner that Jesus was able to resist the Devil with nothing but the Word when he was
tempted in the wilderness.
The author’s readers would have been very familiar with Roman armor, with all the
different pieces and what they were supposed to do. For example, the Roman shield of the day,
which was made of wood, was covered in leather soaked in water because the enemy liked to use
flaming arrows to disarm soldiers in battle. But the armor he described was very different. It was
not made of metal or wood, it was made out of the Gospel and the grace of God. The belt was made
of truth, which presumably means the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord. But it also could be the truth
of God’s love in Christ, which would be a powerful thing to wrap oneself in. The breastplate is
made of righteousness. Since it protects the heart, this is not self-righteousness, but rather the
goodness of God and the way of God. The head gets a helmet of salvation, to guard the mind
against worry about acceptability, and death and the future. The shoes are my favorite part. The
Roman soldiers wore shoes with nails in the soles to make them like cleats, all the better to cope in
mud or step on people. But the spiritual armor in this text says any shoes will do– flip flops, high
tops, dress shoes or Jimmy Choo’s -- as long as they enable the wearer to stand in and proclaim
peace. Maybe they should be bunny slippers? It’s hard to understand how this text could have been
used to justify warfare in the name of Christ with those shoes. They are entirely the wrong kind of
footwear.
This armor is different from regular armor in another critical way beyond being defensive
however; it is armor made by God, not by human hands or hearts. “Be strong in the Lord and in the
strength of his power” the passage begins. The author is not commanding us to drum up our own
inner resources to be strong and courageous. He knows that when we are fighting against darkness
and sin, either internal or external, we don’t have enough resources to do this. So we are advised
instead to be strong in the Lord and to put on the whole armor of God instead. We first hear of this
kind of divine armor in the Bible in the Old Testament, when the prophet Isaiah describes the first
person who would wear it. “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the
Lord....He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with
righteousness he shall judge... Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness
the belt around his loins.” Christians cannot hear these words without thinking about Christ. Thus
most scholars believe that in telling his readers to put on the armor from God, the author to
Ephesians was alluding to this text, and basically telling them to put on the armor of God; he was
telling them to put on Christ. But if we are going to remember Isaiah when we think of the armor
of God, then we also must remember the surrounding context of the prophecy. Right after Isaiah
describes the Messiah, he describes what has come to be known as “the peaceable kingdom.” “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and
the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.... They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy
mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
© Rev. Elizabeth D. McLean, 8-23-15; all rights reserved. Page 3
Imagine a world without hurt or destruction, in which enemies are reconciled and even the
most vulnerable are safe and happy. It’s an end-of-time vision, a prophetic dream to be sure. Still,
Ephesians gets us one step closer to that dream by reminding us that if we want to protect our
hearts and minds from a world of hurts, both self-inflicted and externally inflicted, we would do
well to put on the armor that God has given us to keep us safe and whole instead of the stuff we
forge for ourselves. In order for the armor to work really well, however, we cannot simply put it
on the outside of ourselves. This is where the author’s metaphor about hats and shields and belts
and everything fails a bit. Those are external images. Yet if all we do is wrap our outsides in the
Gospel, not only are we in danger of turning our armor into offensive gear instead of defensive
gear, we still leave our insides, our troubled hearts and our worrying minds vulnerable both to sin
and suffering. A far more effective route therefore is for us to put on God’s armor internally
because it is really made to be psychological and spiritual armor. If we take God’s love and truth
inside us, then we can be safe from our dark sides and those of others.
It takes time to learn how to shed one’s own armor in favor of God’s, time to learn how to
focus more on fortifying the internal than appearing a certain way externally. That’s why the
author to Ephesians advises praying all the time for God’s help. Christians cannot don God’s
armor without praying for God’s help, which is why G.K. Chesterton observed that some
Christians end up with the right armor in the wrong place. Some end up as crustaceans whereas
others are vertebrates, Chesterton said.1 Crustaceans appear strong on the outside but still quite
vulnerable on the inside to temptation, sin, and more. Vertebrates are soft and vulnerable on the
outside, but strong on the inside. The reason why vertebrates are better, according to both
Chesterton and Eugene Peterson, is in taking the armor of God in them, they have found their
strength in God. “The armor of God” Peterson wrote, “is the embodiment, the internalization of the
life of the Trinity— truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, word of God– Christ in us...”
2
Christ was stronger than we will ever be when it came to resisting sin and self-doubt. He trusted in
God and God’s love at all times. But he was not hard on the outside, or closed off in his
interactions with others. He was a vertebrate, not a crab.
It’s an amazing thing to watch someone change from a crustacean to a vertebrate with
God’s love. When I was a child, I saw it happen to a woman who went to my church. She
fascinated me as because she came as a visitor looking like someone from the TV show I spoke of
earlier; her hair, her makeup, her clothing made her stand out from the suburban congregation of
which I was a part. At first she sat in the back of the sanctuary. She looked hesitant, uncomfortable
and isolated. But over the course of many months, she became a changed woman. I watched as she
moved forward in the sanctuary pew by pew. I noticed as she went from wearing her hair dyed
platinum blond to her own soft brown, from presenting a well-spackled face to a naturally
beautiful one. I watched as she went from shy and anxious looking, to smiling and at peace. Now
1
As cited in Peterson, Eugene H., Practice Resurrection: a conversation on growing up in Christ (Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2010), 263.
2
Ibid.
© Rev. Elizabeth D. McLean, 8-23-15; all rights reserved. Page 4
I’m not saying that God doesn’t like blondes or makeup— please don’t get me wrong. Our creative
God has given us the gift of creative personal expression; and our tradition does not equate plain
attire with holiness like the Amish. I’m just saying that in this particular case, the woman’s
appearance initially seemed like self-forged armor. When she came to trust in God’s love for her,
and switched to God’s armor instead of her own, it was visibly apparent that she felt safer and
more at peace.
What are the personal demons that haunt you? What kind of armor do you usually wear?
Whatever your answers, whatever your age, don’t lose sight of your best source of strength
spending a lifetime holding up a shield that ultimately cannot make your mind feel whole and your
heart feel peace. If you let your guard down on the outside, and put God’s armor on the inside
instead, you can both live the Gospel more faithfully and find rest for your soul. Thanks be to God!
Amen.
© Rev. Elizabeth D. McLean, 8-23-15; all rights reserved. Page 5