Johann
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- Oct 26, 2022
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Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. (NASB: Lockman)
Greek: endusasthe (2PAMM) ten panoplian tou theou pros to dunasthai (PPN) humas stenai (AAN) pros tas methodeias tou diabolou;
Amplified: Put on God’s whole armor [the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
NLT: Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil. (NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips: Put on God's complete armour so that you can successfully resist all the devil's methods of attack. (Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest: Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God to the end that you will be able to hold your ground against the strategems of the devil, . (Eerdmans Publishing - used by permission)
Young's Literal: put on the whole armour of God, for your being able to stand against the wiles of the devil,
PUT ON THE FULL ARMOR OF GOD: endusasthe (2PAMM) ten panoplian tou theou:
Paul gives further explanation of what has to be done in order to be strong enough to meet spiritual enemies, especially the devil. It's not your armor that you are to put on but the armor God supplies. Another necessity in victorious warfare is to know the enemy. Don't try to fight your spiritual struggles based on human ingenuity or inherent personal strength. You don't stand a chance against the schemes of the invisible, powerful, crafty foe the devil. Spiritual warfare demands spiritual armor which can only be the "armor of God", the accoutrement He provides and which is even modeled on what He Himself wears as described by the prophet Isaiah....
Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist. (Isaiah 11:5 ) (Comment: compare this OT description to the picture of the Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ in Rev 1:13 where John saw "one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His breast with a golden girdle.")
And He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. (Isaiah 59:17)
Put on (also used in Eph 6:14) (1746) (enduo) from en = in + dúo = to sink, go in or under, to put on) means literally to clothe or dress someone and to put on as a garment, to cause to get into a garment (eg, Lk 15:22 where the father says "quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him...").
The aorist imperative is a command to do put on the armor now. Don't delay. There is a sense of urgency in the aorist imperative. Just do it like the Nike commercial says. The middle voice conveys the idea that it is your choice to do it. You put on yourself this armor. You make the choice to initiate the putting on of God's armor and then you participate in the benefits of having it on. Not one is going to put it on you. God is not going to force you to put it on. His command and His good and acceptable and perfect will is for you to put it on, but it still comes down to a choice you must make. It has to do with surrendering your will to His will. Saying no to self (self sufficiency, self confidence, etc) and saying yes to God, obeying Him out of love, as a son or daughter would their Abba, their Daddy.
Note also that this garment is unusual because it has to be put on from the inside! Ultimately this "new self" is Christ Himself (Ro 13:14) Legalism is putting them on the outside. You may look good in the pew or the pulpit but you won't be able to stand firm in the moment of temptation! Knowing the truth is not enough. You have to eat it, digest it, be renewed in your mind by it so that your futile thinking is taught, reproved, corrected and trained in the direction of righteousness then you are transformed from inside out by the Spirit.
The basic necessity for the believer is to depend on the Lord and put on the armor—and leave it on. We are gullible and vulnerable if we think that merely knowing the facts in Ephesians 6:10-18 will protect us. The armor is an absolute requirement for daily victorious living. And even the battles seem to wane, we cannot become apathetic or forget that we are in spiritual warfare everyday for the rest of our life until the day we die!
In the Gospels, enduo is used primarily in a literal sense e.g.
Matthew 6:25 "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?
Matthew 22:11 "But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw there a man not dressed in wedding clothes,
Matthew 27:31 And after they had mocked Him, they took His robe off and put His garments on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.
Mark 1:6 And John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey.
Mark 6:9 but to wear sandals; and He added, "Do not put on two tunics."
Mark 15:17 And they dressed Him up in purple, and after weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on Him...20 And after they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, and put His garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him.
Luke 12:22 And He said to His disciples, "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on.
Luke 15:22 "But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet
Jesus uses enduo once in a figurative sense in the Gospels declaring to His disciples...
Luke 24:49 "And behold, I am sending forth the Promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power (dunamis) from on high." (Comment: The Power, the Promise is His Spirit, Who God had promised in the description of the New Covenant in the Old Testament, [Ezekiel 36:27 "I will put My Spirit within you"], promised again in Acts 1:8 and realized in Acts 2:4 at Pentecost and then in every believer thereafter as described in Romans 8:9, Ephesians 1:13; 1:14])
Paul uses enduo are all figurative describing the putting on of "ethical, moral or spiritual" garments. And what a "wardrobe" he lays out for believers in his epistles...
THE ARMOR OF LIGHT
Romans 13:12 The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside (middle voice = you yourself initiate this action and participate in the effect) the deeds of darkness and put on (clothe yourself = middle voice = you yourself initiate this action and participate in the effect) the armor of light. (See notes)
CHRIST HIMSELF AS OUR GARMENT
Galatians 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Comment: This putting on refers to salvation, at which time the Spirit replaced our filthy rags of sin with the righteousness of Christ - this is now and forever our new position before God. He sees us in Christ's righteousness - the theologians refer to this as positional truth = past tense salvation = justification).
Romans 13:14 But put on (our practice = present tense salvation = progressive sanctification - put Him on each morning and every moment of the day - aorist imperative [middle voice = you initiate the action and participate in the result = put Him yourself]) the Lord Jesus Christ, and make (present imperative = with the negative means to stop an action already in progress! You know what I am talking about!) no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. (See notes) (Comment: As you study the pieces of armor, you can see that ultimately putting each of them on is equivalent to clothing one's self with Christ - truth, righteousness, peace, faith
THE NEW SELF
Ephesians 4:24 and put on (not a command - aorist tense) the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Comment: As discussed in the notes there is debate between excellent commentators, some favoring this putting on as indicative of positional truth and others favoring it as calling for this to be our practice - progressive sanctification or present tense salvation).
Colossians 3:10 and have put on (past tense salvation = positional sanctification = our position now and forever in Christ - see our practice in Col 3:12) the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One Who created him (See notes)
Colossians 3:12 And so, as those who have been chosen of God (cf notes Eph 1:5), holy and beloved, put on (present tense salvation = progressive sanctification = our practice - a command be clothed [middle voice = clothe yourself] now = aorist imperative) a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (See notes)
THE BREASTPLATE OF FAITH AND LOVE
1 Thessalonians 5:8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on (at the time of our new birth = justification = our position = past tense salvation) the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
IMPERISHABLE, IMMORTAL GARMENTS
1 Corinthians 15:53 For this perishable must put on (glorification = future tense salvation) the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory.
What a "wardrobe" God has made available for believers! We're the "best dressed" folks in the world and most of us don't even know it!
And the best is yet to come for John describes our new...
GARMENTS OF FINE LINEN, WHITE AND CLEAN...
Revelation 19:14 And the armies (this is us, those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb) which are in heaven, clothed (enduo) in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him (the Lamb = Faithful and True = the Word of God) on white horses. (Comment: This incredible historical event will occur at the end of the 7 year period, Daniel's Seventieth Week, and marks the defeat of the antichrist and his armies and the inception of Messiah's Millennial Reign)
Full armor of God - genitive of source or origin indicating that God provides the armor. So we need not only Divine armor but that equipment in its completeness and with no part missing or in disrepair.
Paul frequently pictures the Christian as a soldier in his writings - see Ro 6:13, 23, Ro 13:12, 2Cor 10:4, 1Thes 5:8, 1Ti 1:18, 1Ti 6:12, 2Ti 2:3-4, 4:7). It is not surprising that Paul would draw the analogy of the Christian life with that of a soldier, for it was to a soldier that he was chained while in prison.
Wiersbe writes that...
Paul emphasizes the fact that the full armor is necessary if we are to defeat Satan. The area in our life that we leave unguarded is sure to be the very place that Satan attacks. On October 17, 1586, Sir Philip Sidney was killed at the Battle of Zutphen, because he was not wearing his full armor. He saw that Sir William Pelham was not wearing leg armor, so Sidney removed his. He was struck in the leg and died from the wound. I cannot stress enough the importance of complete protection. (Wiersbe, W: Strategy of Satan: How to Detect and Defeat Him)
Full armor (3833) (panoplia from pás = all, every + hoplon = weapon, originally any tool or implement for preparing a thing, became used in the plural for weapons of warfare) is literally wholly armed and refers to the complete set of instruments used in offensive and defensive war. The literal meaning referred to the full preparation of a foot soldier for offense and defense - the complete suit of armor. Certainly Paul could claim knowledge of the Roman soldier’s armor, being chained to one for some three years.
This armor is of God both is the sense that it is from Him, and in the sense that it is His actual armor Isaiah recording that the Messiah also wears this armor (Isaiah 59:17). It is His armor that Messiah now shares with every person who places their faith in Him. Truths such as these explain why Paul can exclaim...
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer (we continually -present tense- super-conquer) through Him who loved us. (We win the supreme victory through Him Who loved us. See note Romans 8:37) (Comment: Stedman writes "If we barely manage to win our way to heaven by the skin of our teeth, we could be said to be a conqueror, but a "more than conqueror" is someone who takes the worst that life can throw at him and uses that to become victorious. "More than conqueror" is one who, by the grace and the gift of God, and in the strength of God within him, actually takes the very things that are designed to destroy him, and they become stepping stones instead of stumbling blocks. That is being "more than conquerors." William Newell adds that "loved us" is past tense and "It is this past tense gospel the devil hates . . . Let a preacher be continually saying, ‘God loves you, Christ loves you,’ and he and his congregation will by and by be losing sight of both their sinnerhood and of the substitutionary atonement of the cross, where the love of God and of Christ was once for all and supremely set forth.")
God has supplied the complete armor, but He expects the Christian to put it on. We need the divine equipment in its completeness, without the lack of any single part. God has not sent us out into battle without everything we need at our disposal. However, there is no armor for the back -- we are expected to face our foe!
This Greek word gives us our English word, panoply, which refers to a full suit of armor; ceremonial attire; something forming a protective covering; a magnificent or impressive array; display of all appropriate appurtenances.
Expositor's writes that - The soldier must be protected from head to foot and the panoplia is made up of all the various hopla (hoplon = singular) or pieces of armor, both defensive and offensive. Polybius has left a detailed description of the heavily armed Roman infantryman or hoplite. Paul may have drawn his picture "live" from the soldier he was chained to in his house arrest, though it is not altogether certain that such a custodian would have been in full battle dress. (Gaebelein, F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament. Zondervan Publishing)
TDNT - The soldier's equipment remains much the same for centuries but with minor variations, e.g., in the size of shields or the weight of armor. The Roman legionary carries a lance or spear, a shield, javelins, helmet, and breastplate of coat of mail. In the OT we read of shields, helmets, armor, shoes, spears, bows and arrows, and slings... The word is used only figuratively in the NT. (Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans)
Other than the use here and in Ephesians 6:13, there is only one other NT use...
Luke 11:22 but when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied, and distributes his plunder.
How does the believer put on the full armor of God? One of the most important ways is to hide God's Word in our heart (Ps 119:9-11) as if our very life depended upon it because our spiritual vitality does. Toward the close of World War II, Allied forces were mopping up against remaining Nazi resistance. One particular unit was assigned a crucial mission in Berlin. Each soldier had to memorize a map detailing all of Berlin's important military sites -- and they had to do it in a single night! In just a few hours, each soldier in the unit had committed the map to memory. The mission was a success. Several years later, the Army conducted an experiment to see if that original feat could be duplicated. They offered a similar unit an extra week's furlough--an attractive incentive--if they could carry out a comparable mission without a hitch. But the second unit could not match the success of the first. What made the difference? The lives of the men were not at stake. Surviving in battle was a greater motivation than a week's vacation. Christians are engaged in spiritual warfare. Our road map, our plan of strategy against Satan's military strongholds, is the Bible. The more we read it, the more of it we memorize, and the more thoroughly we know it, the more effective we will be for God. We must approach God's Word as if our lives depended on it--because they do. That's real motivation!
Thy Word is like an armory,
Where soldiers may repair,
And find, for life's long battle-day,
All needful weapons there. --Hodder
If your life depended on knowing the Bible, how long would you last?
How important is the full armor? Here's an illustration - Bull Moose - Recently National Geographic ran an article about the Alaskan bull moose. The males of the species battle for dominance during the fall breeding season, literally going head-to-head with antlers crunching together as they collide. Often the antlers, their only weapon are broken. That ensures defeat. The heftiest moose, with the largest and strongest antlers, triumphs. Therefore, the battle fought in the fall is really won during the summer, when the moose eat continually. The one that consumes the best diet for growing antlers and gaining weight will be the heavyweight in the fight. Those that eat inadequately sport weaker antlers and less bulk. There is a lesson here for us. Spiritual battles await. Satan will choose a season to attack. Will we be victorious, or will we fall? Much depends on what we do now—before the wars begin. The bull-moose principle: Enduring faith, strength, and wisdom for trials are best developed before they’re needed. (Craig Brian Larson - Bible.org)
Greek: endusasthe (2PAMM) ten panoplian tou theou pros to dunasthai (PPN) humas stenai (AAN) pros tas methodeias tou diabolou;
Amplified: Put on God’s whole armor [the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
NLT: Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil. (NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips: Put on God's complete armour so that you can successfully resist all the devil's methods of attack. (Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest: Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God to the end that you will be able to hold your ground against the strategems of the devil, . (Eerdmans Publishing - used by permission)
Young's Literal: put on the whole armour of God, for your being able to stand against the wiles of the devil,
PUT ON THE FULL ARMOR OF GOD: endusasthe (2PAMM) ten panoplian tou theou:
Paul gives further explanation of what has to be done in order to be strong enough to meet spiritual enemies, especially the devil. It's not your armor that you are to put on but the armor God supplies. Another necessity in victorious warfare is to know the enemy. Don't try to fight your spiritual struggles based on human ingenuity or inherent personal strength. You don't stand a chance against the schemes of the invisible, powerful, crafty foe the devil. Spiritual warfare demands spiritual armor which can only be the "armor of God", the accoutrement He provides and which is even modeled on what He Himself wears as described by the prophet Isaiah....
Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist. (Isaiah 11:5 ) (Comment: compare this OT description to the picture of the Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ in Rev 1:13 where John saw "one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His breast with a golden girdle.")
And He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. (Isaiah 59:17)
Put on (also used in Eph 6:14) (1746) (enduo) from en = in + dúo = to sink, go in or under, to put on) means literally to clothe or dress someone and to put on as a garment, to cause to get into a garment (eg, Lk 15:22 where the father says "quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him...").
The aorist imperative is a command to do put on the armor now. Don't delay. There is a sense of urgency in the aorist imperative. Just do it like the Nike commercial says. The middle voice conveys the idea that it is your choice to do it. You put on yourself this armor. You make the choice to initiate the putting on of God's armor and then you participate in the benefits of having it on. Not one is going to put it on you. God is not going to force you to put it on. His command and His good and acceptable and perfect will is for you to put it on, but it still comes down to a choice you must make. It has to do with surrendering your will to His will. Saying no to self (self sufficiency, self confidence, etc) and saying yes to God, obeying Him out of love, as a son or daughter would their Abba, their Daddy.
Note also that this garment is unusual because it has to be put on from the inside! Ultimately this "new self" is Christ Himself (Ro 13:14) Legalism is putting them on the outside. You may look good in the pew or the pulpit but you won't be able to stand firm in the moment of temptation! Knowing the truth is not enough. You have to eat it, digest it, be renewed in your mind by it so that your futile thinking is taught, reproved, corrected and trained in the direction of righteousness then you are transformed from inside out by the Spirit.
The basic necessity for the believer is to depend on the Lord and put on the armor—and leave it on. We are gullible and vulnerable if we think that merely knowing the facts in Ephesians 6:10-18 will protect us. The armor is an absolute requirement for daily victorious living. And even the battles seem to wane, we cannot become apathetic or forget that we are in spiritual warfare everyday for the rest of our life until the day we die!
In the Gospels, enduo is used primarily in a literal sense e.g.
Matthew 6:25 "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?
Matthew 22:11 "But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw there a man not dressed in wedding clothes,
Matthew 27:31 And after they had mocked Him, they took His robe off and put His garments on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.
Mark 1:6 And John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey.
Mark 6:9 but to wear sandals; and He added, "Do not put on two tunics."
Mark 15:17 And they dressed Him up in purple, and after weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on Him...20 And after they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, and put His garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him.
Luke 12:22 And He said to His disciples, "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on.
Luke 15:22 "But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet
Jesus uses enduo once in a figurative sense in the Gospels declaring to His disciples...
Luke 24:49 "And behold, I am sending forth the Promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power (dunamis) from on high." (Comment: The Power, the Promise is His Spirit, Who God had promised in the description of the New Covenant in the Old Testament, [Ezekiel 36:27 "I will put My Spirit within you"], promised again in Acts 1:8 and realized in Acts 2:4 at Pentecost and then in every believer thereafter as described in Romans 8:9, Ephesians 1:13; 1:14])
Paul uses enduo are all figurative describing the putting on of "ethical, moral or spiritual" garments. And what a "wardrobe" he lays out for believers in his epistles...
THE ARMOR OF LIGHT
Romans 13:12 The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside (middle voice = you yourself initiate this action and participate in the effect) the deeds of darkness and put on (clothe yourself = middle voice = you yourself initiate this action and participate in the effect) the armor of light. (See notes)
CHRIST HIMSELF AS OUR GARMENT
Galatians 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Comment: This putting on refers to salvation, at which time the Spirit replaced our filthy rags of sin with the righteousness of Christ - this is now and forever our new position before God. He sees us in Christ's righteousness - the theologians refer to this as positional truth = past tense salvation = justification).
Romans 13:14 But put on (our practice = present tense salvation = progressive sanctification - put Him on each morning and every moment of the day - aorist imperative [middle voice = you initiate the action and participate in the result = put Him yourself]) the Lord Jesus Christ, and make (present imperative = with the negative means to stop an action already in progress! You know what I am talking about!) no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. (See notes) (Comment: As you study the pieces of armor, you can see that ultimately putting each of them on is equivalent to clothing one's self with Christ - truth, righteousness, peace, faith
THE NEW SELF
Ephesians 4:24 and put on (not a command - aorist tense) the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Comment: As discussed in the notes there is debate between excellent commentators, some favoring this putting on as indicative of positional truth and others favoring it as calling for this to be our practice - progressive sanctification or present tense salvation).
Colossians 3:10 and have put on (past tense salvation = positional sanctification = our position now and forever in Christ - see our practice in Col 3:12) the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One Who created him (See notes)
Colossians 3:12 And so, as those who have been chosen of God (cf notes Eph 1:5), holy and beloved, put on (present tense salvation = progressive sanctification = our practice - a command be clothed [middle voice = clothe yourself] now = aorist imperative) a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (See notes)
THE BREASTPLATE OF FAITH AND LOVE
1 Thessalonians 5:8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on (at the time of our new birth = justification = our position = past tense salvation) the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
IMPERISHABLE, IMMORTAL GARMENTS
1 Corinthians 15:53 For this perishable must put on (glorification = future tense salvation) the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory.
What a "wardrobe" God has made available for believers! We're the "best dressed" folks in the world and most of us don't even know it!
And the best is yet to come for John describes our new...
GARMENTS OF FINE LINEN, WHITE AND CLEAN...
Revelation 19:14 And the armies (this is us, those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb) which are in heaven, clothed (enduo) in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him (the Lamb = Faithful and True = the Word of God) on white horses. (Comment: This incredible historical event will occur at the end of the 7 year period, Daniel's Seventieth Week, and marks the defeat of the antichrist and his armies and the inception of Messiah's Millennial Reign)
Full armor of God - genitive of source or origin indicating that God provides the armor. So we need not only Divine armor but that equipment in its completeness and with no part missing or in disrepair.
Paul frequently pictures the Christian as a soldier in his writings - see Ro 6:13, 23, Ro 13:12, 2Cor 10:4, 1Thes 5:8, 1Ti 1:18, 1Ti 6:12, 2Ti 2:3-4, 4:7). It is not surprising that Paul would draw the analogy of the Christian life with that of a soldier, for it was to a soldier that he was chained while in prison.
Wiersbe writes that...
Paul emphasizes the fact that the full armor is necessary if we are to defeat Satan. The area in our life that we leave unguarded is sure to be the very place that Satan attacks. On October 17, 1586, Sir Philip Sidney was killed at the Battle of Zutphen, because he was not wearing his full armor. He saw that Sir William Pelham was not wearing leg armor, so Sidney removed his. He was struck in the leg and died from the wound. I cannot stress enough the importance of complete protection. (Wiersbe, W: Strategy of Satan: How to Detect and Defeat Him)
Full armor (3833) (panoplia from pás = all, every + hoplon = weapon, originally any tool or implement for preparing a thing, became used in the plural for weapons of warfare) is literally wholly armed and refers to the complete set of instruments used in offensive and defensive war. The literal meaning referred to the full preparation of a foot soldier for offense and defense - the complete suit of armor. Certainly Paul could claim knowledge of the Roman soldier’s armor, being chained to one for some three years.
This armor is of God both is the sense that it is from Him, and in the sense that it is His actual armor Isaiah recording that the Messiah also wears this armor (Isaiah 59:17). It is His armor that Messiah now shares with every person who places their faith in Him. Truths such as these explain why Paul can exclaim...
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer (we continually -present tense- super-conquer) through Him who loved us. (We win the supreme victory through Him Who loved us. See note Romans 8:37) (Comment: Stedman writes "If we barely manage to win our way to heaven by the skin of our teeth, we could be said to be a conqueror, but a "more than conqueror" is someone who takes the worst that life can throw at him and uses that to become victorious. "More than conqueror" is one who, by the grace and the gift of God, and in the strength of God within him, actually takes the very things that are designed to destroy him, and they become stepping stones instead of stumbling blocks. That is being "more than conquerors." William Newell adds that "loved us" is past tense and "It is this past tense gospel the devil hates . . . Let a preacher be continually saying, ‘God loves you, Christ loves you,’ and he and his congregation will by and by be losing sight of both their sinnerhood and of the substitutionary atonement of the cross, where the love of God and of Christ was once for all and supremely set forth.")
God has supplied the complete armor, but He expects the Christian to put it on. We need the divine equipment in its completeness, without the lack of any single part. God has not sent us out into battle without everything we need at our disposal. However, there is no armor for the back -- we are expected to face our foe!
This Greek word gives us our English word, panoply, which refers to a full suit of armor; ceremonial attire; something forming a protective covering; a magnificent or impressive array; display of all appropriate appurtenances.
Expositor's writes that - The soldier must be protected from head to foot and the panoplia is made up of all the various hopla (hoplon = singular) or pieces of armor, both defensive and offensive. Polybius has left a detailed description of the heavily armed Roman infantryman or hoplite. Paul may have drawn his picture "live" from the soldier he was chained to in his house arrest, though it is not altogether certain that such a custodian would have been in full battle dress. (Gaebelein, F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament. Zondervan Publishing)
TDNT - The soldier's equipment remains much the same for centuries but with minor variations, e.g., in the size of shields or the weight of armor. The Roman legionary carries a lance or spear, a shield, javelins, helmet, and breastplate of coat of mail. In the OT we read of shields, helmets, armor, shoes, spears, bows and arrows, and slings... The word is used only figuratively in the NT. (Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans)
Other than the use here and in Ephesians 6:13, there is only one other NT use...
Luke 11:22 but when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied, and distributes his plunder.
How does the believer put on the full armor of God? One of the most important ways is to hide God's Word in our heart (Ps 119:9-11) as if our very life depended upon it because our spiritual vitality does. Toward the close of World War II, Allied forces were mopping up against remaining Nazi resistance. One particular unit was assigned a crucial mission in Berlin. Each soldier had to memorize a map detailing all of Berlin's important military sites -- and they had to do it in a single night! In just a few hours, each soldier in the unit had committed the map to memory. The mission was a success. Several years later, the Army conducted an experiment to see if that original feat could be duplicated. They offered a similar unit an extra week's furlough--an attractive incentive--if they could carry out a comparable mission without a hitch. But the second unit could not match the success of the first. What made the difference? The lives of the men were not at stake. Surviving in battle was a greater motivation than a week's vacation. Christians are engaged in spiritual warfare. Our road map, our plan of strategy against Satan's military strongholds, is the Bible. The more we read it, the more of it we memorize, and the more thoroughly we know it, the more effective we will be for God. We must approach God's Word as if our lives depended on it--because they do. That's real motivation!
Thy Word is like an armory,
Where soldiers may repair,
And find, for life's long battle-day,
All needful weapons there. --Hodder
If your life depended on knowing the Bible, how long would you last?
How important is the full armor? Here's an illustration - Bull Moose - Recently National Geographic ran an article about the Alaskan bull moose. The males of the species battle for dominance during the fall breeding season, literally going head-to-head with antlers crunching together as they collide. Often the antlers, their only weapon are broken. That ensures defeat. The heftiest moose, with the largest and strongest antlers, triumphs. Therefore, the battle fought in the fall is really won during the summer, when the moose eat continually. The one that consumes the best diet for growing antlers and gaining weight will be the heavyweight in the fight. Those that eat inadequately sport weaker antlers and less bulk. There is a lesson here for us. Spiritual battles await. Satan will choose a season to attack. Will we be victorious, or will we fall? Much depends on what we do now—before the wars begin. The bull-moose principle: Enduring faith, strength, and wisdom for trials are best developed before they’re needed. (Craig Brian Larson - Bible.org)
