In order to fight the battle for God’s kingdom and defeat His enemy, we need power. We need divine power, not human power. In Ephesians 6:10 Paul says, “Be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength.”
We may say that this power is a divine dynamo energizing us from within. We may use electricity as an illustration of this power. It would be very foolish for us to turn off the electricity in our homes and try to make electrical appliances operate through our own effort. Since the electricity has already been installed, we simply need to turn on the switch, and then these appliances will be empowered. In a similar way, we should not try to fight the enemy in ourselves or by our own strength. Rather, we need to stay in the Body, where the “switch” is always on. If we stay in the Body and with the Body, we shall be empowered. But if we do not attend the church meetings or fellowship with the saints, we shall be weakened. If we come to the meetings, we shall be empowered.
Along with the inward empowering, we need to be clothed outwardly with the armor of God. This armor is wonderful and composed of a number of items: first, the truth to gird our loins; second, righteousness as a breastplate to cover our breast; third, the gospel of peace as shoes to protect our feet; fourth, faith as a shield; fifth, salvation as a helmet to cover our head. When we have all these items of the armor and our head is covered with the helmet of salvation, our entire being will be under this covering, and we shall enjoy full salvation.
The five aspects of the armor we have just mentioned are all defensive. When we have these items, we are fully covered and defended. But we also need something with which to fight. We need an offensive weapon, a sword, the word of God, with which to slay the enemies.
Let us now consider each item of this armor. We have seen that the first item is truth, or reality, with which we should gird our loins (6:14). According to Ephesians 4, truth refers to God as the reality in our daily life. When we live by God, our daily life will be a life of reality, not a life of vanity. To live in vanity without God implies falsehood and emptiness. Unbelievers who spend their time indulging in worldly entertainments live a life of vanity. There is nothing real in their living. Everything is false, empty. But we who love God and seek Christ should have a daily living that, in a practical way, is filled with God as reality. This means that we should live God. If we live Him, the very God whom we live will be our reality. With Him everything is true and real. With Him, there is no falsehood or emptiness. We need to be girded with such truth, such reality.
Suppose a brother indulges in a certain practice and then hides it from others. This is both falsehood and emptiness. Falsehood and emptiness will cause this brother to be weak, and due to this weakness he may not be able to testify in the meetings for a period of time. He does not have a girdle of truth around his loins; that is, he does not have God as reality in his daily living.
We all need to be girded with truth. If we are girded with truth, with reality, we shall be able to stand up boldly in the meetings and testify as those who are full of vigor.
In 6:14 Paul also speaks of putting on the breastplate of righteousness. When we are girded with truth, the issue will be righteousness. Righteousness comes from truth, which is God as reality. The righteousness that issues out of reality then becomes the breastplate that covers our breast. In figure, the breast signifies the conscience. Hence, the breastplate of righteousness covers our conscience.
The subtle enemy is always accusing us. If we are wrong even in a small matter, he will accuse us. When we are praying, he may accuse us concerning our attitude toward our husband or wife. As a result, we may not be able to continue praying. Furthermore, when we stand up to testify in a meeting, the enemy may accuse us again. If we do not deal with these accusations, we may develop a hole in our conscience, and our faith and peace will leak out. Because of the enemy’s constant accusations, we need the breastplate of righteousness. We need to be right with both God and man. However, by ourselves we cannot have this righteousness. But the Bible declares that Christ has become our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30).
Sometimes we may confess a certain fault to the Lord, or apologize to someone else if necessary, and experience the cleansing of the Lord’s blood. Nevertheless, Satan still accuses us. Because the fault has been dealt with, this kind of accusation is false. Whenever Satan falsely accuses us, we need to declare, “Satan, you point to my mistake, but I point you to Christ. Christ is my righteousness.” If we do this, we shall experience Christ as the breastplate of righteousness covering our conscience.