Sheild of Faith (Ephesians 6:16)
Today when we come to Ephesians 6, we are still looking at the equipment, the resources that God gives us in the gospel, that God gives us in Christ to be able to wage war against our spiritual enemy, against Satan's temptations and corruptions and accusations with which he assaults us. And you know, we don't want to separate in our minds these different pieces of equipment, these resources—whether it's the breastplate or the belt or the shoes or the shield or the helmet or the sword. We don't want to separate these things from Christ himself. All of these things are actually reminders of who Jesus is for us and what he does for us. And that's kind of important so that we don't disconnect these things from who Jesus is for us. He is the one who gives us the resources and the benefits that protect us and equip us to live the life of faith and to battle our enemy.
Well, today we come to verse 16, where after saying "take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm," now in verse 16 he says: "In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith." That's what we'll look at today. "In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one." And we'll just look at that verse today—just the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.
It might be helpful to think about the actual shield of faith in Roman times. It was a four-foot by two-and-a-half-foot wooden thing that covered the whole body. It was pretty much full-body armour. And on the side facing the enemy, it was covered with skin, usually. And soldiers would crouch pretty much behind it, completely covered behind it, so that when the arrows came flying, they could be protected. And you know, the other side would actually sometimes—the reason that it's called "fiery arrows" is that Roman arrows usually were dipped in pitch and ignited before they were sent out and before they flew off towards the enemy. In other words, they were trying to burn them up completely. And if the soldier wasn't adequately protected, the arrows would stick in the shields and actually ignite them, and they would just burn up completely. And the danger was, of course, that they would just get caught up in this.
So that's the metaphorical world. That's kind of the image in Roman battle that Paul is using here to give us kind of a picture in our minds of what our enemy is trying to do for us spiritually. Of course, in our case, the fiery arrows of the enemy are his accusations. It's fear, it's guilt, it's shame, it's anxiety, it's temptation, it's despair. Those are the things that come at against us. Those are the fiery darts. And the shield of faith that Paul is talking about is, well, it's faith. It's faith.
And faith is not some psychological, you know, self-talk of "I believe, I believe, I believe," or kind of a positive thing—just like a self-talk positive thing, although it is good to talk to ourselves and to preach to ourselves. But it's more than that. Faith is the assurance that I can hide in Christ, that I'm going to be safe in Christ, that I am safe in Christ. In Ephesians itself, it talks about faith a lot—one of the most famous verses in Ephesians where it talks about faith is Ephesians 2:8-9, where we're told that we are saved by faith and not by works, lest anyone should boast.
So ultimately, the shield of faith is the trust in Christ. It's trust in the one who protects us, the one who is victorious for us, the one whose power and forgiveness and goodness to us is so absolute and so certain that we shouldn't be afraid. You know, there's this famous allegory that was written 400 years ago. It was kind of like a story that was written for Christians by a guy named John Bunyan. He was a pastor, and he wrote a book called The Pilgrim's Progress and another one called The Holy War. And the idea was to help Christians think about this battle that we're in.
And he has an enemy there, kind of a satanic enemy named Apollyon. And he doesn't actually attack Christian, the believer, physically; he attacks him verbally. He just keeps assaulting him with nasty words. He accuses him of being inconsistent, of being too weak, of being doomed to failure. He says, "You might as well just give in, you're always going to fail. You know, there's no hope for you." He reminds him of his past sins. He reminds him that he's unstable. And it's just kind of a picture of what Satan comes at us with.
And what Paul is saying is: will you take up the shield of faith? The shield that points to God's promises—God's promises that he's going to protect you. So he says in those circumstances, don't rely on good vibes or good feelings or even thoughts about yourself. Remember that you have been reconciled with God through Christ, that he loves you, that you're not going to be punished. No, no, no—you are an object of mercy, you're an object of his love. And so faith takes hold of these promises, right? The shield of faith takes hold of God's promises to defend us.
You know, it's good to read and meditate on scripture and even to say it out loud when we're going through a hard time, when we're going through temptation or doubt. Like Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, I shall not lack anything," and to just read through the whole Psalm. Or Romans 8: "We know that in all things God works out his purposes for our good. He works all good things for the good of those who love him and who are called after his name."
So faith lays hold of God's promises, it lays hold of God's power, and then he protects us. We might be trembling behind the shield and scared, but the promise here that we're given is that Christ and his faithfulness will shield us. He will protect us. He will not let us fall. He will hold us fast. This is the Saviour we have. And so today, brother, let's you and I remember that we have the shield of faith. We can trust in Christ, who's done everything for us. We can lay hold of his promises and we can experience his power to protect us. We can pray to him and cry out to him in our moments of weakness, and we know he's with us and he's going to use us and he's going to bless us.
