The armor of the ancients was of two different kinds, and both kinds were absolutely necessary.
It was partly armor for attack and partly armor for protection.
Now very generally, in the New Testament, faith is one of the weapons of attack .
1John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
We see that magnificently illustrated in the pageant of the eleventh of Hebrews.
But here, and it may be only here, Paul looks on faith in quite another light, for he sets it among the armor of protection.
Faith is not here the power that leads to victory; it is the power that protects us in the battle.
It keeps us unembittered and serene amid the mysteries and buffetings of life.
To believe that love is on the throne and that through everything there runs a loving purpose, is in the deepest of all senses to be shielded.
How effectual that shielding is, is shown by the apostle's choice of words.
There are two words in the Greek tongue for shield; the one is common and the other rare.
The one connotes a little shield or target; the other a frame that covered the whole man.
Faith is not a partial protection; it casts its defense over the whole of life.
It is a means of safety for the intellect, as surely as for the passions of the heart.
It guards the feet when they are prone to wander, and the hands when they are growing weary, and the eyes when they are drawn to what is wrong.
The shield of faith is an all-embracing shelter.
Faith in God through our Lord Jesus Christ is nothing less than a universal safeguard.
All was choicely shown to the Ephesians by the word which the apostle used when he bade them take up the shield of faith.
~George H. Morrison~
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