The Breastplate of Righteousness

“The Breastplate of Righteousness...”
Righteousness is one of the most powerful defenses we have against our adversary; the enemy is full of unrighteousness and therefore cannot penetrate the armor of one who is truly righteous. There are few things that unravel the victory of a believer quicker than unrighteousness in some area of their lives. We are not by these opening statements saying that if one is upright that our adversary cannot come against us and make our life difficult but rather it is to say he cannot get inside to exploit a weakness; as Jesus said, “…the enemy comes (he will most certainly come) and hath nothing in Me”. Lets use Judas as an example to illustrate what we are saying; he is one who was not protected from the wiles of the devil because of a breach in his armor (unrighteousness through covetousness) and as a result the enemy found a place to get in, he open the door to the enemy through covetousness. Because there was unrighteousness in him there was a weakness in his life that the enemy could exploit and did, Satan entered into him through his weakness and provoked him to betray the Lord for love of money. However, one who has the character of righteousness worked out in their lives effectively stands against the enemy and there is no place for him to get in. We must as believers deal with all sin and unrighteousness; I would commend the prayer of our Lord in Heb 5:7 – “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;” The Lord cried out resisting sin and temptation that He might walk a straight path and reside in the place where He always did those things which pleased His Father. What a beautiful testimony, what an apt description of righteousness “I do always those things which please my Father”; it is somewhat like the description of the kings as we read: “He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord”. O’ may we strive to reside in this place, what a power it gives us against the enemy, what a power to break sins (Dan 4:23 – break sin through righteousness).

The armor of God...cont.

“Having your loins girt about with truth…”

As believers we must be lovers of the truth. Christ is described in John 14:6 as “The Way the Truth and the Life”. He is the truth; there is nothing false in Him and so we gird ourselves with truth when we, just like Christ, embrace and walk in present truth not living a lie (living a lie is confessing one thing but living another). Let us consider for a moment, what is truth? It is having Gods true balance on a given matter and not our own intellectual conclusions. In short it’s having the same balanced opinion as God; confessing what He is confessing, embracing what He is saying. One might find at times what He is saying is painful to hear; for He said to one man “…one thing thou lackest…” or to a group of believers “I have somewhat against thee…” This was Gods conclusion, was this truth embraced? We may find ourselves at the receiving end of such truth, how will we receive it?

Loving the truth is having integrity of heart not deceiving ourselves, thinking more highly than we ought to of ourselves. Having a balance works the other way as well, not becoming overwhelmed by our faults when in actuality God’s assessment of us is good (1 John 3:20 – “Beloved If your heart condemn you God is greater than your heart”). Embracing the truth is to be rid of all falsehoods and hypocrisy. It is having the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart acceptable in His sight.

There is another aspect of being gird about with truth and it is illustrated for us in 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”. In this instance truth is doctrine; doctrine is so important, it determines where we are going in the Lord, this too requires integrity of heart. Jesus clearly established the connection between the condition of one’s heart and understanding truth, or good doctrine when he stated in John 7:17 that if any man will do His will he shall know the doctrine (understanding truth or good doctrine protects us from being deceived).

In summary we can say this, a false balance is an abomination to the Lord and this applies to the truth as well, whether the truth be for us or against us. This true balance is part of the armor of God needed to defeat Satan and also possessing it gives us a good footing. Finally, we know the Father seeks for those who worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24) we must also remind ourselves it is loving the truth indeed, which sets us free (John 8:32).

The armor of God

Introduction:

Ephesians 6:11-17 – “Put on the whole armor of God...” Paul is counseling the Ephesian saints to put on what he calls “The whole armor of God”. I must confess that prior to undertaking this study the armor of God always seemed a bit mysterious to me; I didn’t understand how it was to work. Was it representative of some external accoutrement’s God put on some people? How do I put it on and what does it feel like? However after undertaking this study the Lord has opened up my eyes to what Paul means by this armor of God. When Paul is speaking here of the armor of God he is stating that this armor is in fact representative of attributes that the believer is to possess in their personal character and once they do then they are able to stand and even advance against the enemy. Paul said that we are more than conquerors, the armor of God illustrates how that is to be.

I want to note at this point that this armor is not used to combat worldliness (a task completed through circumcision of heart; Galatians 2:20 & Romans 6:6) nor is it used to overcome the works of the flesh (for that we refer you to Colossians 3) but it is to combat the devil “...that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”. Therefore, this armor represents qualities or virtues that a mature saint possesses, or should be striving to possess, in their personal character (I will comment that Adam & Eve did not have this armor when they were tempted by Satan and fell. However, Christ did possess this armor during His temptation and was victorious over the devil.). This armor will preserve the saint so the enemy does not have access to them but it will also equip them with the tools needed to advance against the devil.

Let’s look into this armor: