Paul speaks also in Eph 6:10-17 about spiritual weapons. All the other items – the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, our feet fitted with readiness from the gospel of peace, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation – are for our protection, to enable us to stand against the devil’s schemes and the things he does to trip us up and cause us to be ineffective in our Christian walk, but the sword of the Spirit is the way we can fight back. Paul makes it very clear this is not a literal sword, when he tells us this sword is the word of God. We’re not battling with natural weapons. (2 Cor 10:3-4)

The word of God is described as a double-edged sword (Heb 4:12) God’s word is living and active and creative. God’s word brought about creation (Gen 1:3; Ps 33:6) and creates new life in us. As we speak the word of God outloud, the enemy is defeated (see Matt 4:1-11). There is power in the word of God which is available to us as we declare the ‘Amen’ of God’s promises in every situation. (2 Cor 1:20).

Let’s be people of the word of God, for this is the way to spiritual victory. (Ps 149:6-9)

There are 5 items of armour mentioned in Paul’s list, which refer to the armour worn by Roman soldiers.

4. The belt of truth buckled round our waists (Eph 6:14)
5. The breastplate of righteousness in place (Eph 6:14)
6. feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace (Eph 6:15)
7. the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. (Eph 6:16)
8. the helmet of salvation (Eph 6:17)

The belt of truth – A belt or girdle holds things up and together. Before this Roman armour could be put on, the garments had to be bound together. God is ultimately righteous, faithful and true. Because of this, He desires ‘truth in the inward parts’ (Ps 51:6, KJV). We need to know the truth, for it is the truth which sets us free (John 8:32). We need truth to hold us together and keep us strong. Jesus is the truth (John 14:6) and the devil is a liar (John 8:44); we can only hope to stay strong against the enemy if we keep to God’s truth.

The breastplate of righteousness – A breastplate covers the front of a soldier; it protects the heart. God gives us His own righteousness to protect us (2 Cor 5:21). When the enemy condemns us and reminds us of our sin, we can know the righteousness of God which makes us as though we’d never sinned!

Feet fitted with the gospel of peace – Ill-fitting shoes cause us much pain, but the Roman sandals were designed to enable soldiers to walk for miles. God wants us to be people who take the gospel of peace all over the world, entrusting us with this message of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18-21), for Jesus has made peace between all people and between people and God. (Eph 2:14)

And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Eph. 6:15.

The shield of faith – Faith is the shield we need to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. These darts or arrows may come from other people, from circumstances we don’t understand, from misfortune and even from our own hearts, but as we trust God above what we can see (2 Cor 5:7), we can overcome doubt and walk in daily trust.

The helmet of salvation – Just as a helmet protects the head and brain, so too we need this helmet to protect our thoughts. Our minds need to be protected from self-righteousness, doubt, fear and condemnation; we need to trust in the salvation Jesus has purchased for us. Victory will only come as we fix our minds and thoughts on Jesus (Col 3:2, Is 26:3), choosing to fix our thoughts on all that is true, noble, right, lovely admirable, pure, excellent or praiseworthy. (Phil 4:8)

In our morning service today we looked at Eph 6:10-17, at the ‘Blessing of the Armour of God.’ In these verses, Paul reminds us that we are all involved in a spiritual battle, contending not against flesh and blood (i.e. people) but against the rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Eph 6:12) No matter how much the devil may use people against us and against God’s church, the real enemy is not people. We may feel frightened and intimidated by this talk of a spiritual battle, feeling inadequate and helpless, but God has given us the blessing of spiritual armour to help us. He does not leave us to fight on our own!

The armour of God is God’s provision for us, enabling us to stand against all the devil’s schemes. If we want to be strong in God’s mighty power and keep standing, even in the heat of the battle, we have to put on the armour of God. We have to fight with God’s armour and God’s weapons and not with our own. (2 Cor 10:1-5) God’s armour is the blessing we need to overcome the enemy. He doesn’t send us into warfare defenceless (like the soldiers in the First World War who were effectively ‘cannon fodder’ in the trenches), but gives us His Holy Spirit to be with us and spiritual armour to defend and protect us as well as giving us the all-important sword of the Spirit to use to cut down the lies of the enemy.

The Bible is full of stories of people who were confronted by God, of people whose lives were radically changed by their encounters with the Holy One. One thing we learn from each of these stories is that God is who He is (see Ex 3) and that His holiness had a profound impact on people (see Is 6:1-5, Rev 1:12-17).

So often, however, we crave the wrong thing, like pregnant women who want to suck coal! We want a cosy God who makes us feel comfortable and warm. Instead, we find ourselves confronted by a God who is a consuming fire (Heb 12:24). We want a God who will ignore our sin and wrongdoing (and punish everyone else’s) and pat us on the back when we do something good. Instead we have a God with no blind spots, a God who is not deceived by appearances and who demands truth in the inward parts, a God who is wholly fair and with whom there is no favouritism. We want a God who makes no demands on us but who yields to our every demand. Instead, we are confronted by a God who demands from us total allegiance, unswerving obedience, blind trust, and often gives us no explanation and little consolation.

We want a God shaped in our image. But we are instead made in the image of God and His goal is that we are transformed into His likeness, not the other way around.

Encounters with God are uncomfortable for us, for God will not change who He is for our pleasure. We have to choose between the God we want and the God who is. So many of us opt to worship the God we want, because that is easier. This God has no mystery. This God has no inexplicable actions or bewildering commands. Yet this God is actually an idol. He is not real.

We need instead to encounter and be confronted by the real God. The God who left Daniel, Ezekiel and John face down in awe and wonder. The God who loves us unconditionally, unceasingly and unfailingly. The God of perfect justice and mercy. The God of amazing grace and unlimited power. The God who is so much greater than the God we think we want. Only that God, the ‘I AM’, can meet the deepest needs of our hearts and transform us. Only that God will be enough for us.

One of the questions asked this afternoon was ‘Do I have to become a different person to speak someone else’s language?’ Since we will all naturally speak one love language better than another (some of us need affirmation to feel loved; others need physical contact with people; others need gifts or time or love shown through action), it can feel hypocritical at times to try to demonstrate love to someone in another language that feels alien to us. How do we do this without actually losing our own sense of identity?

As someone who loved learning languages, I found this question effectively cropped up time and time again in the classroom. Since we’re English, how can we learn to speak French in such a way that won’t mark us out as Mr Bean or someone from a stereotypical comedy? How can we ever learn to speak another language properly?

We are told that if we learn a language from a young age, we can actually speak it without any foreign accent; we can sound like a native! Others who learn languages later in life might not achieve this native fluency, but can still speak well enough to be understood and to communicate well. In all cases, however, I found that in some ways you do have to become a different person to speak another language well. You have to listen and mimic something which initially sounds very odd. Teenagers often find this difficult to do because they are self-conscious and don’t like feeling (or looking) stupid. Yet to learn another language will to some extent always involve putting aside those feelings in order to make new sounds. Garry told me this afternoon that when I read out Bible verses in French, my posture and voice changed markedly. I wasn’t aware of that, but if I’m speaking French, I have to ‘become’ someone else: a French speaker, not an English speaker.

Now obviously that doesn’t make me French. And in the same way, if I learn to speak in someone else’s love language, that doesn’t make me fluent in that language; it doesn’t change who I am. But my willingness to do that – to give a gift to someone because I know it means something to them, to give someone a hug because that’s their native language – has to be the starting point of love, for love considers others and wants to do what makes them feel loved. Love has to go the extra mile, has to recognise that people’s differences are not really barriers that are insurmountable. They are hurdles that can be overcome.

This post has been written in a larger font because someone I know was struggling to read the pre-formatted font which comes with the blog. It doesn’t take much time to adapt the font, and it might help someone to read more easily. Learning to love others starts when we’re willing to honour each other and help each other. Let’s learn other love languages and fulfil Jesus’s command to love one another.

One of the ideas of the Team Building Day is to encourage us to work as a team! Sarah gave us a task to do in two groups: to build a bridge out of newspapers strong enough to bear the weight of a toy car.

In these tasks, it’s always interesting to see who takes the initiative, who is eager to get on with the building, who would rather plan carefully before starting, who is able to modify and adapt and so on. In every situation, we will need leaders and followers; we need people to communicate vision; we need people to take ideas and make them happen. Part of the church’s role is to use the gifts and talents of each of its members. God has given us all gifts, talents and skills which we can use for His glory. Let’s work together to see His kingdom come, realising that we do indeed achieve more when we work as a team.