"Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." (Eph. 6:11)
God has provided for us everything we need to fight the spiritual battle and come out victorious. In Charles Wesley's song "Soldiers of Christ, Arise" he took the word from this verse and transliterated it to fit in his song: "And take, to arm you for the fight, the panoply of God;"
The words "whole armor" as it appears in the King James is one word in the Greek (πανοπλία) or panoplia. Of course the Translators were faithful in translating the word and so we have 'whole armor' in the KJ. We are to take the whole armor or the complete armor, Strong says "full armor." This 'whole armor' of God is something that we are commanded to "put on." Once again, if a Christian is loosing the spiritual warfare, it is ultimately because of his own choosing. What ever happened in the past, whatever abuses and suffering a Christian has gone through is really of no consequence since the command is to 'put on' what God has provided for us to win the spiritual battle.
The armor that God has provided is composed of various elements. However, as the word panoplia points out it must be viewed as a whole. God has given us a full and complete armament and we should never think of trying to fight the spiritual battle neglecting one or two peices. Truly, it is all or nothing. We should be encouraged to know that God has blessed us to the point where He provides for us a complete armor. Our responsibility in this is to put it on. How is your spiritual armor doing today? Did you put it on today? Do have yours on today?
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