The Sword of the Spirit.

Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary a. The Christian Conflict (6:10–20)

Finally there is the sword of the Spirit. The Old Testament often refers to speech as a sword. The words of the wicked are said to wound as a sword (e.g. Pss 57:4; 64:3). But in the Bible God’s own word4 is also as a sword in his hand, a sword that lays bare, separating the false from the true (Heb. 4:12), bringing judgment (Isa. 11:4; Hos. 6:5) but also bringing salvation. His word can thus be wielded by his messengers in the lives of others (e.g. Isa. 49:2), but here the thought is of the word of God as a defensive weapon for the person who holds it. The genitives in the preceding verses have been genitives of apposition, and some have taken this here to mean that the Spirit himself is the sword. Clearly, however, what the sword stands for is explained, not by the genitive, but by the following clause. The word is the Spirit’s sword,5 because given by the Spirit (cf. 3:5; 2 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 3:7; 9:8; 10:15; 1 Pet. 1:11; 2 Pet. 1:21) and it is ‘as He works in the believer as the Spirit of truth (Joh. 14:17) and faith (2 Cor. 4:13). He puts the sword into his grasp and enables him to use it’ (Moule, CB). The Lord’s use of the word of Scripture in his temptations (Matt. 4:1–10) is sufficient illustration and incentive for Christians to fortify themselves with the knowledge and understanding of the word that they may with similar conviction and power defend themselves by it in the onslaughts of the enemy.

Word Studies in the New Testament Chapter 6

Sword (μάχαιρα). Compare Matt. 10:34. In Homer, a large knife or dirk, worn next the sword-sheath, and used to slaughter animals for sacrificfice. Thus, “The son of Atreus, having drawn with his hands the knife (μάχαιραν) which hung ever by the great sheath of his sword, cut the hair from the heads of the lambs.… He spake, and cut the lambs’ throats with the pitiless brass” (“Iliad,” iii., 271–292). It is used by the surgeon Machaon to cut out an arrow (“Iliad,” xi., 844). Herodotus, Aristophanes, and Euripides use the word in the sense of a knife for cutting up meat. Plato, of a knife for pruning trees. As a weapon it appears first in Herodotus: “Here they (the Greeks) defended themselves to the last, such as still had swords, using them (7:225). Later of the sabre or bent sword, contrasted with the ξίφος or straight sword. Aristophanes uses it with the adjective μιᾷ single, for a razor, contrasted with μάχαιρα διπλῆ, the double knife or scissors. This and ῥομφαία (see on Luke 2:35) are the only words used in the New Testament for sword. Ξίφος (see above) does not occur. In Septuagint μάχαιρα of the knife of sacrifice used by Abraham (Gen. 22:6, 10).

Matthew 10:34 NKJV

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.

This may be a refernce to the weapon of self-sacrifice.

Genesis 22:6 NKJV

So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.

Genesis 22:10 NKJV

And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

Romans 12:1 NKJV

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 10:8 NKJV

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):

Romans 10:17 NKJV

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

1 Peter 1:25 NKJV

But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

Matthew 4:1–11 NKJV

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ” Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

Hebrews 4:12 NKJV

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Psalm 119:11 NKJV

Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.