Have also the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God's word;
The armour ends with two pieces: a helmet to wear and a sword to use. Commentators press hard on why the sword comes last, and on which word counts as a sword at all.
Writers link the helmet to the settled knowledge of being saved, and warn what happens without it.
The helmet rests on the head. It covers the head, the place where we think. Assurance of salvation — past, present and future — is this helmet. As we wear it, and as it rules our mind and heart, the devil's tricks cannot land on us. We have a salvation that is secure... It is sad to see thousands of believers without the helmet of salvation. They have no assurance of salvation, so they are easy prey to the devil's tricks.
The picture comes from an older prophecy about Christ in armour, though He wears it for a different purpose.
This surely comes from the Old Testament prophecy which speaks of Christ putting on "righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head" (Isa. 59:17). But with Christ it is the righteousness He carries out in judgment. It is the salvation He brings as the deliverer of His people. With us it is the righteousness and salvation we have in Him.
The order of the pieces is not accidental. Everything that defends comes first; only then the weapon that attacks.
The helmet of salvation is the bold and joyful awareness of the full deliverance God has worked for us in Christ. This crowns the various parts of the armour already noticed. So what follows is not another means of defence — the defence is complete — but the weapon for attacking the enemy: the sword of the Spirit, God's word. How wise it is to place it last of all!... If we do not know this order in practice, we make the word a mere toy, or a whip for self, instead of the sword of the Spirit; we misuse it and it has no power.
The order carries a personal warning: do not swing a text that has never cut you.
Nothing is more dangerous than to use the word if it has not touched my conscience. I put myself in Satan's hands if I go beyond what I have from God, or beyond what my soul holds.
Notice the order inside the verse, and then whose sword this is.
The helmet comes before the sword: without this confidence, this assurance, we cannot even handle the sword of the Spirit. Without it Satan can use even the word of God to overthrow us. This word is called the sword of the Spirit, not of the understanding, but of the Spirit in us. It is the Spirit of God who alone can handle the sword of the word. It is the Spirit who recalls the suitable passage at the moment of temptation... We may reason about the things of God, but reasoning does nothing for us against the enemy. The Spirit must act in us and apply the word.
The verse does not say the word of God is the sword of the Spirit; it says take the Spirit's sword, which is the word of God. The distinction matters, because the enemy quotes Scripture too.
Satan knows how to use Scripture against the truth. A piece of Scripture taken out of its connection has kept many a saint in bondage, pressed him hard, and wounded him. That is not the sword of the Spirit. So the Word of God is not always the sword of the Spirit. But the sword of the Spirit must always and only be the Word of God.
The word used here is narrower than the whole Bible. It points to the fitting word for the moment.
The sword of the Spirit is "the word (literally, the saying) of God" — not the word of God in general, but the word that applies, the word spoken at the right time. It is not the whole Bible we are to bring to someone, but the word that fits his actual condition. This needs wisdom and the Spirit's guidance.
Jesus showed how the sword works when Satan tempted Him in the wilderness.
The Christian cannot "fight the good fight" by natural wisdom or powers of argument. In the wilderness our Lord defeated Satan by using the sword of the Spirit. Three times He quoted from Deuteronomy, and began each quotation with the words, "It is written." We need to know our Bibles to use our sword.
- Covered — The helmet is assurance of salvation. It guards the mind, and without it a believer is easy prey.
- Crowned — Assurance completes the defence. Nothing more is needed to guard you; the next piece is for attack.
- Cutting — God's word is the only weapon for attack. Let it cut your own conscience first, before you use it on anyone else.
- Carried — The sword belongs to the Spirit, not to your own reasoning. He brings the fitting passage to mind when temptation comes.
- Correct — Satan can use a verse pulled out of its context. Only the fitting word, in season, is the Spirit's sword — as Jesus showed when He said, "It is written."
praying at all seasons, with all prayer and supplication in [the] Spirit, and watching unto this very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and for me in order that utterance may be given to me in [the] opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the glad tidings,
Paul ends his description of the armour by asking the church at Ephesus to pray — not for all saints only, but for him. What does he ask them to pray for? And why is "the mystery of the gospel" the thing he needs help to say?
The chapter has just called every believer to constant prayer for all the saints. Then Paul puts himself inside that circle. One commentator sees this as a kindness to the readers.
Last of all comes activity for others, just as before there was dependence for ourselves… What a gracious way to encourage and strengthen believers! It gives them a sense of the value of their prayers, both in God's sight and in fellowship with the most blessed apostle God ever gave the church. … He felt his own need and the need of the work.
The request was not a formality.
No doubt, as an apostle of Christ, he was in one sense independent of their prayers… But he felt two things too deeply: the reality of his own weakness, and the blessing of spiritual fellowship. So he valued with all his heart every genuine expression of sympathy towards him.
He is writing from prison. The obvious thing to ask for is freedom. He does not ask for it.
Great servant of God though he was, he wanted the prayers of others who were not so great as he was. But he asked for prayer with one aim. Not that he might be let out of prison and his circumstances made easier, but that he might finish his ministry in full, even as a prisoner.
He asks that speech be given him. Even after years of preaching and repeated fillings of the Spirit, he treats the right word as something he cannot manufacture.
It is beautiful to see the apostle here. He does not rely on having been filled again and again with the Spirit for special testimony. He asks instead that, now as always, he may magnify Christ in his body with all boldness… Notice that he does not ask them to pray that he may be filled with the Spirit, but that he may speak the Word with boldness.
The good news he carries is not the kind people already expected.
It was not good news with a plain and obvious meaning, as in earlier days — the keeping of promises that belonged to the age or ages of this world. It was the mystery that none of this world's rulers knew, or they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Another writer ties the word to Paul's changed sense of his own errand.
When he was free he thought of himself more as an ambassador of the Gospel, urging people to be reconciled. Now, as a prisoner, he sees himself as an ambassador of the mystery — the mystery he opened up briefly in the earlier part of the letter. It is called "the mystery of the Gospel" because the one springs out of the other and follows on from it. If we do not understand the Gospel, we cannot understand the mystery.
Boldness sounds like the least likely gap in such a man. But the message itself made enemies, and the messenger knew what he was carrying.
We learn from this that a particular spiritual gift is not enough to make Christian ministry prosper. Much more is needed. The deep distrust of himself that always stayed with this chosen vessel of God's grace was, in fact, what kept him morally safe… By the phrase "mystery of the Gospel" we are to understand the full teaching of the grace of God in the calling of the Church, which is the most striking display of that grace.
The verse leaves a standing job for ordinary believers who will never preach.
Paul wanted to keep on with this precious ministry, so he asked the saints to pray. He knew well that the enemy would be glad to silence this wonderful truth. In these last days the truth of the mystery is so little known among God's people. Should there not be constant prayer to God that this precious truth may be announced with boldness in the power of the Spirit?
- Asked — The greatest servant in the letter asks for prayer himself. That tells the weakest reader their prayers carry weight.
- Given — He asks for words as a gift. Past fillings of the Spirit do not remove the need for a fresh supply.
- Not freedom — He wants his ministry completed in prison, not his chains removed.
- The mystery — What he longs to say is the secret no ruler of this age knew: God's grace shown in the calling of the church. It grows out of the gospel, and no one grasps it without the gospel.
- Boldly — Self-mistrust, not confidence, kept him safe. Pray now what he asked then: that this truth go out with boldness in the power of the Spirit.