Ephesians 6:10-20 reveals that Christ is the constituents of God’s armor. In this portion of the Word, the church is revealed as the warrior to defeat God’s enemy. As the warrior, the church needs might and the whole armor of God.
Verse 11 opens with the words, “Put on the whole armor of God.” To fight the spiritual warfare, we need the whole armor of God. The whole armor of God is for the entire Body, not for any individual member of the Body. The church is a corporate warrior, and the believers together make up this unique warrior. Only the corporate warrior can wear the whole armor of God; no individual believer can. We must fight the spiritual warfare in the Body, not individually.
The charge to put on the whole armor of God is an imperative, a command. God has provided the armor for us, but He does not put it on for us. Rather, we ourselves must put on the armor God has provided. We must exercise our will to cooperate with God’s command to put on the armor.
The Lord with His might is the armor that we put on for our protection. We as the Body need to put on Christ Himself as our armor. In order to fight the spiritual warfare, we must have Christ as the whole armor of God.
The first part of verse 14 says, “Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth.” For us to gird our loins is to strengthen our entire being. Our whole being needs to be strengthened with truth. This strengthening is not for sitting but for standing.
According to the way the word truth is used in chapter 4 (vv. 15, 21, 24-25), truth here refers to God in Christ as reality in our living, that is, God realized and experienced by us as our living. This is actually Christ Himself lived out by us (John 14:6). Such truth, such reality, is the girdle that strengthens our whole being for spiritual warfare. Our living must have a principle and a standard. This is nothing less than God Himself expressed in our living in a practical way. When such truth girds our loins, we are made strong for the purpose of standing.
Suppose, however, that our daily living is far below the standard of the truth as it is in Jesus. Instead of being able to stand and to withstand in the evil day, we will flee. Because in our daily walk there is no testimony and no expression of God, we do not have the strength to stand against the stratagems of the devil. If our daily living is loose, we are not able to stand against the powers of darkness. In order for us to stand, our daily living must be according to the principle of the truth and up to the standard of the truth—that is, God Himself expressed as the principle of our daily walk, as the standard of our daily living, and as the pattern of our life.
Those who have such a living certainly have their loins girded with truth. These are the ones who are able to face attack and opposition. Because they are girded with truth, they can stand before the opposers. But if God is not expressed in our daily life and walk, we will not have a girdle about our loins, and we will have no strength to stand against the enemy. We will not have the power to face opposition or controversy.
The truth with which we are girded for spiritual warfare is actually the Christ whom we experience. In Philippians 1:21 Paul says, “To me, to live is Christ.” This Christ whom Paul lived was his girdle of truth. This Christ was God expressed and revealed in Paul’s daily walk. Because Paul’s daily living was conformed to the pattern of Christ, he had the strength to face all opposition and adverse circumstances. Because Paul had been girded with truth, he had the strength to stand.
In Ephesians 6:14 Paul goes on to say, “Having put on the breastplate of righteousness.” The breastplate of righteousness covers our conscience, signified by the breast. Satan is our accuser. In fighting against him we need a conscience void of offense (Acts 24:16), but no matter how good we may feel our conscience is, we need to have it covered with the breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness is to be right with both God and man. If we have just a little problem with either God or man, Satan will accuse us, and there will be holes in our conscience through which all of our faith and boldness will leak out. Hence, we need the covering of righteousness to protect us from the enemy’s accusations. Such righteousness is Christ (1 Cor. 1:30).
If in anything we are not righteous, our conscience will be a conscience with offense, but if we are to engage in spiritual warfare, we must have a conscience void of offense, a conscience without holes. When our conscience has holes in it, our faith will leak out through the holes. If accusations and offenses remain on our conscience, faith will disappear. Therefore, we need to deal with our conscience in order to have a good conscience, a conscience void of offense. In addition, we need to put on the breastplate of righteousness to cover our conscience.
Revelation 12:11 says, “They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb.” To be covered by the blood of the Lamb is mainly to have upon us the breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness is in the blood, and the covering of the blood is the breastplate. Although this may be difficult to explain doctrinally, we can understand it experientially. Whenever we intend to fight against the powers of darkness, Satan, through his accusations, causes our conscience to become very sensitive. These feelings actually are not the sensitivity of the conscience but the result of Satan’s accusations. Immediately our response to such accusations should be, “I overcome Satan, the accuser, not by my perfection and not even by a conscience void of offense but by the blood of the Lamb. I am defended against his accusations by the breastplate of righteousness.”
The righteousness that covers our conscience and that guards us from Satan’s accusations is Christ Himself. He is our righteousness. We are covered not by our own righteousness but by Christ as our righteousness. Some may wonder how the breastplate of righteousness can be related both to Christ and to the blood. In experience we cannot separate the blood from Christ. Apart from His blood, Christ could not cover us. Under the cleansing of His blood, He becomes our righteousness. Whenever we are about to take part in the spiritual warfare, we need to pray, “Lord, cover me with Yourself as my righteousness. Lord, I hide under Your blood.” Furthermore, we must tell the accuser, “Satan, I overcome you, not by my merit but by the prevailing blood of the Lamb.”