Spiritual Streakers
Some time back, I was doom scrolling on Instagram, cycling through reel after reel. One video I came across was a snippet from a podcast. Sadly, I don’t remember who was talking or which show he was on, but the speaker said something that really stood out to me. The line went something like this:
“We’ve got a lot of Christians who are Spiritual Streakers. They’ve got the Helmet of Salvation on, and nothing else.”
Looking at church culture here in the USA, this is a vivid and accurate illustration. Many Christians are very casual about their salvation, treating it like fire insurance or a Get Out of Jail Free card.
However, the Helmet of Salvation is just one piece of the Armor of God, listed in Ephesians 6:13-18.
“Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.”
The Apostle Paul, who wrote this letter, spent a lot of time around Roman soldiers while under house arrest. He got a good look at their equipment and used it to illustrate how we should arm ourselves in our spiritual battles. After all, as Paul says earlier in the chapter, we do not fight against flesh and bone. Every piece of the Armor of God is important and cannot be fully utilized without equipping the rest. We’re already Geared for Story on this site. Now, it’s time to get Geared for Life.
Belt of Truth
First up is the Belt of Truth. The purpose of a belt is pretty obvious: it keeps your pants up. There’s an old Biblical saying to “gird your loins.” Essentially, you’d bundle up the bottom of your tunic and tie it to your waist with your belt. Now, you have much more mobility and won’t trip over yourself when you run. A belt can also help free up your hands and carry things, like a Roman legionnaire’s sword or the wallet chains I’ve worn since high school.
Why would Paul choose to describe Truth like a belt? In the same way a belt keeps our clothes together, Truth keeps our lives together. When you know the truth about any subject or situation, it helps you keep a level head, and you can maneuver through the discussion or confrontation with ease. Without it, you’ll be floundering, much like the two guys I saw scrambling across the street because the crosswalk timer was almost out, and their pants were dropped to their shins.
Truth on its own, however, will not get us very far. If you don’t act on the Truth you know, if you don’t hang the Sword of the Spirit on it to give it purpose, it becomes useless head knowledge. You know all the facts, but you never apply it. I cannot stress how dangerous such complacency is. Simply knowing the Truth about God will not sustain or save you in the end. As it says in James 2:19,
“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”
Body Armor of God’s Righteousness
Some translations call this the Breastplate of Righteousness because Roman soldiers’ armor at that time typically covered the torso. The role of the breastplate was to protect the vital organs, such as the lungs, the intestines, and, most importantly, the heart.
Due to medical knowledge in those times, the Jews believed that a person’s thoughts came from the heart, not the brain. This could be why Paul chose Righteousness as the heart’s protector. The modern dictionary defines righteousness as “the quality of being morally right or justifiable.” However, Biblical Righteousness is defined as “being right in God’s eyes.” While these two may sound similar, the key difference is in how one attains Righteousness. In most (if not all) other faiths and religions, a person is made righteous through their own efforts and diligence. However, as the Bible indicates all throughout its pages, humans are unable to keep God’s standards perfectly. Taking this into account, He set His salvation plan into motion and used Jesus’s death and resurrection to redeem mankind. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:21,
“God made Him who had no sin to be a sin offering for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
In other words, we do not make ourselves righteous. God Himself made us right in His eyes.
However, we cannot act with Righteousness alone. This is where we get the self-diluted “holier than thou” behavior. We can certainly act Righteous and do all of these good things, but it would be the wrong righteousness. Some do it for self-gain and recognition. Some could convince themselves that they’re doing it for others, even for God. However, it would all amount to self-righteousness, not God’s Righteousness. Without Peace, we would constantly be judging our own actions, weighing them on an imaginary scale of Good and Bad, and stressing over how much we’ve done to tip the scales in the right direction.
Shoes of Peace
Shoes have a two-fold use: protect our feet and give us traction. Anyone who has stepped on a Lego brick can tell you how much a pair of shoes would’ve helped in that situation. For soldiers, foot protection is a must on long marches, and in the midst of an intense fight, you don't have to worry about about slipping.
This assuredness is why Paul called this piece of gear Peace. When you have Peace, you can continue to operate in any situation. The world could be at its most turbulent, and you could still walk in confidence. For those of us who had to deal with the 2020 Quarantine, we understood the terror of an uncertain future. I still meet people who haven't fully recovered from that trauma. However, Peace held us together, even when we couldn't explain it.
In Luke 10, Jesus sent His disciples out to share His message. When they came back, they reported all the amazing things they did, from healing the sick to casting out demons. In verse 19, Jesus replies,
“Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.”
Imagine having so much confidence that you could walk through snake and scorpion infested ground and not worry about stepping on them or being harmed by them. Those sound like some very trustworthy shoes.
Now, do keep in mind that Paul called it the “Peace that comes from the Good News.” Good News in Greek is Gospel. This is one of those Christian code words that refers to the news of Jesus's coming, message, and salvation. All throughout the Bible, messengers are painted in a positive, beautiful light. Take Isaiah 52:7, for example.
“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!”
This is really saying something, especially when you factor in the dislike for feet the Jews of those days had. If you had a guest come over, it was proper etiquette to have their feet washed. However, nobody wanted that job. The servants would enlist the local homeless to do that job, because when you traveled down dirt roads in nothing but sandals, feet got nasty. So, if a messenger bearing good news after miles of travel is said to have beautiful feet, you know that news is good.
But what if Peace was the only thing we had? We had that peace-filled confidence, but no Righteousness, Faithfulness, or Salvation? We would suffer from spiritual inertia. Physics tells us that an object in motion stays in motion, and an object at rest stays at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force. In the same way, we can be confident in our steps, but taking a beeline to Hell until God acts. That also applies to when we're standing still. “Nah, it's okay. I’m good where I’m at.” Alright, then. Just know there will be no growth there.
Shield of Faith
The Roman shield had some interesting functions. It was large enough for a soldier to hunker behind for protection and had built in fire retardant. Sometimes, soldiers fought enemies that lit their arrows on fire, so that helped keep the flames from spreading.
Paul alludes to the weapons the devil uses on us as fiery arrows. Anxiety. Trauma. Abuse. Lies. All of these can harm us, and Faith protects us from them. By leaning into our Faith in God, we can withstand those deadly blows.
One of the Roman military formations was called the Phalanx. Soldiers would interlock their shields to cover their fronts, sides, and heads. This turtle formation proved useful when enemies fired large volleys of arrows. By calling Faith our Shield, Paul implies that it's not just for ourselves. You can't do faith alone. All of our shields together deflect the enemy's fiery arrows and keep the flames from spreading to our comrades.
“Don’t do Faith alone” can apply to the Armor of God, too. Without the Sword, God’s Word, to guide us or Truth to at least point us in the right direction, all we’d have is blind faith. You wouldn't know where to point your shield to protect yourself, or you’d cower behind your shield and never move.
This does tie into the “Faith without works is dead” debate. The Bible teaches that Grace through Faith is all we need to be saved. If we believe that Jesus is Lord and that He rose from the grave, then we’re good. We don’t need to work for our Righteousness because God took care of that for us.
Instead, our good works, our Righteous actions, become the proof of our Faith. Look at James 2:14-17.
“What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, ‘Goodbye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well’—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.”
Helmet of Salvation
And now, we come to the one that started this entire piece, although it certainly isn’t the last. Helmets are meant to protect our heads and, in certain cases, display status. Salvation is like that protective crown. We have been redeemed and reinstated with God.
Like I said at the beginning, we’ve got a lot of Spiritual Streakers right now, running around with just the Helmet of Salvation, declaring one thing but behaving in the opposite. This hypocrisy creates one of the greatest turnoffs to Christianity.
This is actually a return to a certain school of thought that plagued the early church: Gnosticism. Gnosticism suggests that the body and the soul are separate entities. What you do with your body has not affect on your soul’s condition. Paul calls people out on this multiple times in his letters, debunking their claims at every turn.
We can clearly see what it looks like when we have Salvation without the rest of the Armor. People do what they want, but not what God wants. That disconnect may not compromise your Salvation, but it will destroy other people's chances of receiving it.
Sword of the Spirit
Now we come to the piece that every action-loving child (myself included) can't wait to get their hands on: the Sword. Unlike the rest of the Armor pieces, a sword is meant for offense. While you can certainly parry with a blade, its primary purpose is to cut, slice, and stab.
Paul clarifies that this Sword in particular is God’s Word, the Bible. There is a verse for nearly every aspect of the human condition. Each one is like a bullet in our proverbial gun. Every time temptation or fear rear their ugly heads, we just load one into the chamber and pull the trigger. After all, when you're in a battle, what good is a weapon if you keep it stored?
While swords may fulfill our power fantasies, we must remember that they require the most amount of training amd protective gear. We could just as easily hurt ourselves or our allies with our own weapons. Without the Breastplate of Righteousness, we could accidentally cut our own chests. Without the Shoes of Peace, we could slip and stab an ally.
How would this look without the metaphors? We could shout about God’s wrath and how He detests sin without sharing His grace and mercy, scaring people to submit to strict rules and practices. We could sing about how God loves us as we are but fail to include how He loves us too much to let is stay as we are, granting people a free pass to live in a way contrary to God's design. I have, at one regrettable point, said “Neither a lender nor a borrower be” was in the Bible, when it was really a quote from Hamlet. Clearly, I needed to treat the Word as something other than another textbook (I've gotten better now).
You could very well use the Sword of the Spirit without the Helmet of Salvation. Case in point: Satan used Scripture when he tried to tempt Jesus in the wilderness.
And there we have it. Every piece of the Armor of God, their purpose, and why they need the other pieces to function. However, I intentionally included another verse from that passage in Ephesians. While he didn't give it an armament analogy, Paul listed this immediately after because it is something we need to use.
Pray Without Ceasing
I've talked at length before at how important Prayer is in my Living on a Prayer article a couple of years back, but it still rings true here. Prayer is our open line of communication with God, our commanding officer. Wherever we are, from the front lines of work to the comfort of our beds, we can talk with God and hear what He has to say. You can wear the Helmet of Salvation, but if you tune out God’s voice, you train yourself to ignore the upper echelon.
Prayer is dreadfully underutilized, but it shouldn't be. It compliments and encourages every piece of the Armor of God.
Looking for the Truth? Pray for God to reveal it to you.
Working toward Righteousness? Receive if freely through Prayer.
Desperate for Peace? Ask for it in Prayer.
Wavering in Faith? Pray for God to strengthen you.
Seeking Salvation? Declare Jesus as your Savior and allow the Holy Spirit to indwell you through Prayer.
Trying to discern what God’s will is? Study His Word and listen for His voice in Prayer.
Put on the full Armor of God, and Pray without ceasing. Then, when any aspect of life hits you, you will be able to stand firm.