The Whole Armor of God, Part 5

Today I continue my series of articles commenting on the concept and principles involved in the Armor of God, which the apostle Paul described in the New Testament. This is the topic of the Sunday school lesson I am currently teaching.

The Armor of God is a Matter of the Mind

The Armor of God is not physical but mental and operates by God’s power.

It is in the mind. The mind being both the brain and the soul and spirit: material and nonmaterial. This is not simply a situation of thinking positive though thinking about things of God is certainly positive.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood (physical), but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual forces of wickedness in high places (nonphysical). (Eph. 6:12)

Jesus said, “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” (Matthew 15:19)

The author of Proverbs wrote, “As he thinketh in his heart so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7). What a person thinks is who they really are. Invariably this comes out in their speech for from a person’s heart the mouth speaks.

“God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen. 6:5). When the peoples’ thinking had become only continually evil, then God destroyed all life on earth.

Paul wrote, “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice unto God. Holy, acceptable unto Him, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may be able to prove what is that perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1, 2). By putting God’s word into our mind and thinking on it our lives are transformed as we live in obedience to it.