Armor 3: Shoes of the Gospel

Alright, we are continuing our Be Prepared series where we are going through what Paul talks about in Ephesians 6 as the armor of God. So far we’ve looked at some context, some history, some of the reason why Paul would be sharing this and specifically with the church in Ephesus, and we’ve looked at 3 of the pieces of armor he talks about:

/ / Belt of Truth

Starting out, we fasten the belt... - we’re not just getting dressed here, but we are putting this belt on with intention. It’s fastened, it’s secured, because it is a foundation. And just as the belt is a foundational piece of armor for the rest of the pieces, the truth is foundational in our Christian life.

We are continually looking at the physical representation and the spiritual discipline that Paul is referencing. He’s giving powerful visuals for deep truths. And the belt of truth is primary to our survival as Christians.

Jesus said he himself IS the truth.

He said that the truth sets us free.

Even the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth. Jesus said this in John 16. He’s talking about the promise of the Holy Spirit and he says, / / There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard...

The Spirit of truth! I mean, the whole trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, are all about the truth. They are truth. They speak truth. They are incapable of speaking a lie, not because they couldn’t but because it’s just not who they are.

Numbers 23:19 says, / / God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?

Titus 1:2, Paul is writing, and he says, / / I have been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives. This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God - who does not lie - promised them before the world began.

Hebrews 6:18 actually says, / / ...it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.

So, to say that the belt of truth is important is kind of an understatement, isn’t it?

First of all, the truth is important to God, and not just that, but his intention and his purpose is to share that truth with us, FOR A PURPOSE.

/ / The truth sets us free.

/ / The truth is a promise, that he does not break.

/ / The truth gives us confidence of our salvation.

/ / And the Spirit of Truth guides us into all truth and speaks that truth to us.

Is it any wonder why Paul says that the truth is considered the belt that the rest is then built upon?

/ / Breastplate of Righteousness & Helmet of Salvation

Both of these are such symbols of what God has done that has nothing to do with our own merit. It’s the very definition of Grace. Undeserved, unmerited favor. We are MADE righteous because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We receive Salvation when we believe in Him because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. This is because of what HE has done!

Romans 5:6-9, / / When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.

Make no mistake, Sin can not go undealt with. Sin has to be taken care of. It will be condemned. BUT, the salvation of Jesus Christ means WE are no longer condemned.

John 3:17-18, and I’m reading this from the ESV, / / For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn [judge - NLT] the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

The beautiful thing here is that vs 18 that says those who do not believe are already condemned is not a final judgement. We were ALL in that state before we believed. UNTIL we believe we are condemned, not by God, but by the simple fact that until that point we have not recognized and acknowledged that we have an issue that needs to be dealt with - sin.

But, as soon as we recognize and acknowledge this fact, and choose to see God as the remedy for this issue, when we choose to believe that Jesus Christ IS the way to be redeemed, that condemnation, or judgement, the word means to separate, so as soon as we believe that separation is removed.

Again, this is nothing to do with our ability, our goodness, our actions, but simply in our believing in Jesus Christ. So, we get a helmet that protects us, salvation, and we have a breastplate of HIS righteousness.

Remember what I said last week, all the Christian discipline in our lives will come in time. But if you can remember these 2 things you’re in a great position:

/ / I am SAVED BY GRACE (undeserved / unmerited favor) through FAITH (believe)!

/ / I am MADE RIGHTEOUS (because HE is righteous)!

So, today we are continuing on our journey through Ephesians 6:10-18, let’s just recap starting in vs 14 and going to vs 17 today where Paul is writing about the armor of God. / / Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.

Alright, today we are going to focus on vs 15 which says, / / For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.

Now, we’re going to look at the NASB of this scripture this morning because the NLT doesn’t use a word that I think is important here./ / …and having strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace; the KJV and NKJV both say ...your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace..

There are a few things at play in this verse.

First of all, I’ve heard it said and preached, this is a direct call to evangelism, which is simply us telling other people about the Good News... go and preach the gospel. And that may be because of an Old Testament scripture - Isaiah 52:7 says, / / How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!

This is encouraging for us as believers to hear this way that this describes the journey of sharing the gospel: The saving grace of Jesus is definitely good news! It’s also something Jesus talked about:

Jesus gave a clear directive to the eleven remaining disciples in Matthew 28:19-20, / / …go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.

So, the church has taken this to mean all christians have a responsibility to share the gospel of Jesus with others. Traditionally this is called the Great Commission - Jesus telling us to go out into the world and preach the gospel.

The book of Mark shares a similar story in 16:15 Jesus says, / / Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.

Throughout His ministry on earth Jesus sent disciples out to preach as well, and Matthew 10:7 says that he tells them, / / Go and announce to them [preach] that the Kingdom of Heaven is near [Good News].

Regardless of whether or not you are an evangelist, someone really gifted by the Holy Spirit to reach people with this truth that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, we are all capable and have opportunity to share with someone the grace of God - the Good News. How beautiful are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, good news of peace and salvation. I would say in the current climate that everyone in this world could use a little peace and saving, right?

So, that’s a good encouragement from this scripture, but, let’s read Ephesians 6:15 again, / / …and having strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace.

There’s a word in there that we need to take a moment and look at - preparation. When you look at the greek writing of this verse, this word that we have translated mostly as preparation, or readiness as it is also translated, is only used in the entire bible 1 time. In this verse.

It’s this word / / hetoimasia and it means the ACT of preparing.

Now, if you don’t know this, I’ll give you a little insight into a tool you can use. And by no means am I a scholar or expert here, but if you’ve ever heard someone mention “Strong’s Concordance”, or Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Or when I say something like, “The original word here is hetoimasia” that’s not because suddenly in this past week I learned how to read the original writing of this which is in Greek, but it’s because a man by the name of James Strong, back in the late 1800’s, took the King James Version of the bible and went word by word and labeled every word used in every verse with the Hebrew word in the Old Testament and every Greek word in the New Testament with a number. That ended up being 8674 Hebrew words and 5523 Greek words - no wonder it’s called an exhaustive concordance. So, when I say that, “the original word is hetoimasia”, it’s not because I’m suddenly a Greek Scholar, but I have used this really great tool that shows me when the word “preparation” is used here in Ephesians 6:15, it was originally written in Greek using the word hetoimasia.

And there’s a reason why I’m running down this rabbit trail this morning, because this is a very interesting word. Like I said, it’s only used once. Now, Strong gave each word a number, and this one is G2091, and the two words on either side, G2090 and G2092, and actually even G2093 are very similar.

G2090 is / / hetoimazo and it means to make ready, to prepare

John the Baptist said that he had been sent to prepare the way for the Lord, this is hetoimazo

Jesus said that God our Father has prepared for us the Kingdom! hetoimazo. And that word is used 40 times in the NT.

G2092 is / / hetoimos and it means when things are made ready. Or that you’re ready to receive something or someone.

Jesus says in Matthew 22:8, ‘the wedding feast is ready...’ [hetoimos]

And this word is used 17 times. And then as I mentioned the next word G2093 that is similar or from the same root word and means essentially the same thing and is used just af ew times.

Why have I bounded down this rabbit trail this morning? Because this one word, used one time, is different than the others...

Sure they can all mean that something has been prepared, something has been made ready, or I am prepared, I am ready, but this one word, / / hetoimasia is speaking specifically to the actual ACT of preparing.

It’s like Paul is saying the shoes that you put on your feet as part of this armor is the actual work of being saved. It’s the actual work of the gospel - not sharing the gospel, but the gospel in YOUR life.

Now, you might be thinking, didn’t we just cover the fact that our salvation has nothing to do with our works? It has nothing to do with our good deeds, right? It has everything to do with our faith, believing in Jesus Christ, because of his grace - the unmerited, undeserved favor shown to us by God?

Absolutely true… But - being given a free gift doesn’t mean you just put that gift in your back pocket and forget about it. The gift of salvation is not meant to be a passport we keep in our filing cabinet until the day we die and then pull it out for our entry into heaven. Salvation is meant to bring us into living in this gospel of peace. And when it comes to our struggle, our fight with any forces of evil and darkness, this is a very important tool.

So, we are being invited into a place of living something out.

Ephesians 6:15, / / …and having strapped on your feet the preparation, the act of preparing yourself with the gospel of peace.

So, what does it mean to prepare ourselves with the gospel of peace, the good news?

A little more word study here, / / Gospel is specifically speaking of the gospel of Christ, the gospel of God, the gospel of the Kingdom. This is the good news, the message of salvation.

And Paul calls it the gospel of PEACE.

Every translation I read uses that word, peace. Why? Because this is what it means, / / the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is.

That sounds very much like the contentment that Paul writes about in Philippians 4:11-13, / / …I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Remember 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, / / Three different times I [Paul] begged the Lord to take it away [something he was suffering]. Each time he [God] said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, SO THAT the power of Christ can work through me… for when I am weak, then I am strong.

I can do all things, even the hardest things I face, even the very weaknesses I can’t change, because I experience the strength of Christ. This is a major theme in Paul’s writings. I can do all things THROUGH Christ, who gives me strength. when I am weak, THEN I am strong, because the power of Christ is at work through me.

/ / Gospel of Peace - assured of my salvation in Christ, so now I fear nothing from God and I am content with whatever my earthly experience is… For whatever my situation, I have Him!

Ok, so let’s take a step back. Not getting too ahead of ourselves here. Each week we’ve been looking at the physical representation and the spiritual discipline.

There are two outlooks on the shoes used by a Roman soldier at the time, that may have influenced Paul’s writing of this scripture.

First of all, You have two types of soldiers. There were lightly armored soldiers who would have wore some pretty basic and light sandals that would let them move quickly and be light on their feet. Made for agility and speed.

And second there are the more heavily armed Roman legionaries and they wore a heavier boot, called the caligae. These were still very sandal looking, but had a heavy sole and maybe a bit of a cover over the toes, but not much - very much still a sandal. But let’s say kind of like a sandal-boot.... I feel like that wouldn’t go down too well on Miami Beach. Check out my new sandal boots.... we got a cold front in Florida, so I pulled these bad boys out...

But, for the sake of Paul’s writing here, the rest of the armor described is in line with this heavier armored legionnaire, so Paul most likely has in mind this heavier sandal-boot, the caligea.

/ / What’s so special about the Caligae?

First of all, even though the sole is heavy, the boot itself isn’t. It offered very little in the way of upper protection. But that was intentional. Being strong on the bottom, and then strapped on to the foot, just like Ephesians says, …having strapped on your feet… this gave the shoe a lighter overall feel. I mean, who wants to be marching 25 miles, which was common for these roman soldiers, in heavy boots?

The light nature of these boots and the openness gave the person wearing them a bit of relief, air flow over the foot, and nothing pressing against the foot, so less chance for blisters.

Next, it had a thick, hard, heavy leather sole, ideal for these long marches. Stepping on stones, uneven ground, long and tiring journeys can get very painful for your feet, but these offered protection where it matters most.

And they also were kind of like athletic cleats in that they had these studs on the bottom, the purpose being to really grip the ground during their marches, and then when it came time for battle, better equipped to hold their ground, to dig in, not lose their balance.

I read something kind of funny, it said, “Everyone loves to talk about swords and armors but when you are fighting for 12 hours after marching for 2 straight weeks so much of warfare comes down to comfortable footwear.”

So, these three things really helped in the way of preparation and constant movement. Light overall, Heavy where it needed to be, Equipped for battle.

Today I want to briefly look at these three things that made the Caligae a great choice for a soldiers foot, but also why Paul would compare this to how we are meant to prepare ourselves with the gospel of peace.

/ / 1. Be light on your feet!

So yes, we’re talking about the preparation of salvation, and we’re going to look at the work of salvation, BUT, the first thing you always need to remember, and we have covered this in both righteousness and salvation, is that Jesus did the heavy lifting.

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says, / / “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

A couple things that are very interesting here. A lot of people come to Jesus expecting him to just take all the weight and burden away and we’re done. But, look at what he says, / / TAKE my yoke… It’s not heavy, it’s light, BUT, you’re taking something instead of your burden. Then he says, / / Let me teach you...

Teach you what? His way. The “burden” of Jesus that he’s talking about here is how to live, and how to live without being weary because you’re carrying such heavy burdens.

This is two-fold:

Jesus came to set you free from sin, and to make you righteous because He is righteous, and so that means / / the burden of sin has been removed. The burden of shame is gone. Remember John 3:18, / / Whoever believes in him [Jesus] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

It’s not you are condemned and there’s no chance any more. It’s not a final judgement, but rather the current state of being. If you have yet to believe, you are condemned by your sin. If you have chosen to believe in Jesus Christ, the curse of sin, that has been on the human race since Adam & Eve chose to eat that fruit in the Garden of Eden has now been lifted, and you are now righteous because of Jesus obedience and because you believe you are no longer condemned.

But the other side of this is religious burden. If you read the four gospel writings, Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, you’ll see over and over again that Jesus really got into it with this group called the Pharisees… And these Pharisees were this ultra religious group that was very judgmental toward anyone who didn’t live according to their interpretation of the law. And their interpretation was a VERY heaven burden… it consisted of 613 rules that they said you had to keep!

613 rules, that’s no small list! I don’t know if I could even remember that let alone get them all right all the time. And James points out in James 2:10-11, / / For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws. For the same God who said, “You must not commit adultery,” also said, “You must not murder.” So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law.

What’s he mean by this? I think he means 2 things:

/ / First, it is impossible to keep the entire law.

/ / Second, guilty is guilty, regardless of the severity of the breaking of the law. It is not a sliding scale here. It’s not like we get to the pearly gates after we die and St. Peter is there and says, “Alright, looks like you had a pretty decent life, so we think you should be allowed in...” That’s not how it works. The standard is the same across the board for all of humanity, are you righteous, are you justified? If you are not, then we have a problem. If you are, come right in, there is a place that has been prepared for you.

I won’t get into the whole thing, but this is the very end of a story that Jesus tells in Matthew 25 about those who follow what is right and those who do not. And as harsh as it may sound, the end result is this, Matthew 25:46, / / “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”

That sounds a little terrifying, but remember the reality we are talking about here. Condemnation is based on belief. To simply believe in Jesus Christ and you are MADE righteous.

So, back to shoes. These Pharisees were trying to live the perfect life and made anyone who didn’t feel terrible. Jesus steps in and says, “my burden is light…the burden of trying to keep 613 laws is way to heavy for you, and if that’s how you’ve been feeling, like you always have to get it right, like you always have to be perfect, like you’re condemned to eternal punishment if you can’t live a perfect life? It’s time to drop that burden, come to me and I will give you peace and rest from that, and then you can take up my burden, and live by that instead.”

So, be light on your feet. Don’t let religious rule keeping keep you down. Be free, but like we said last week, our righteousness is mean to bring us into righteous living. Don’t be free to keep sinning, be free to choose life!

/ / 2. Work it! - the ACT of preparation - the work of our christian life

The second thing about these shoes is that they were built to withstand heavy duty work. Long marches, battle for hours, standing and guarding all day… These aren’t just sandals you wear out to the beach, they are sandal-boots made for serious work, maybe even the most serious work. Serving the King.

Paul writes in Philippians 2:12, / / Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.

Peter writes about this in 2 Peter 1 as well. Remember, we looked at some verses that Peter wrote that were very similar to what Paul has been writing in Ephesians. Peter is the one who says, Stay Alert, the enemy is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

So, he says in 2 Peter 1:3-10, / / By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

So far all of that is what God has done for us, right? It’s his divine glory and excellence! Now, listen to what he says next:

In view of all of this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are short-sighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away.

So, Peter says Supplement your faith.... Well, Faith - That’s the believing part, right? That’s believe in Jesus, and because I believe, I am no longer condemned, I am made righteous, I am saved by grace through faith.

But he says to/ / supplement our faith… supplement means something that completes, or enhances something else when added to it. To add an extra element or amount to.

So he’s saying, your faith has brought you into the promises of God. Now that you are here, let’s get to work.

And he lists these really amazing things which would be an entire series on the Christian life, but for sake of time let’s just look briefly.

/ / Moral Excellence

Actually, he says with a generous provision of moral excellence. The ESV says, Make EVERY EFFORT to supplement your faith. And the ESV calls Moral Excellence - / / virtue. This means having a high moral standard.

As a follower of Jesus we are not meant to have a moral standard that is just better than the world, we are called to a high moral standard set by God, not by us. Now, this wasn’t actually a foreign concept to the people Peter is talking to. This was a common discussion among Greek philosophers, they talked about excellence, but he’s explaining here that as Christians our moral excellence is empowered by our relationship in Christ. True goodness, true morality can only be found in relationship with Christ. So, to our faith, our believing in Jesus, we are meant to add a lifestyle that mirrors Christ. Not because it has to do with our salvation or eternal righteousness, but because when we behold Jesus, when we make our lives about following Him, watching HIS life compels us to be our very best.

/ / Knowledge

Next Peter says, follow up your Moral Excellence with Knowledge. Also a very common and discussed virtue in Greek culture. Peter brings it in here from a Christian perspective. This isn’t just get smarter, but it means to gain knowledge of God. The word / / gnosis in the greek defined as:

the general knowledge of Christian religion

/ / the deeper more perfect and enlarged knowledge of this religion, such as belongs to the more advanced

/ / especially of things lawful and unlawful for Christians,

/ / Moral wisdom, such as is seen in right living.

This might seem pretty straight forward, but if you think that you’re just going to know how to live once becoming a Christian, you’re partly right and a fair amount wrong. Yes, when we believe we receive the Holy Spirit, and Jesus himself said that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and he would lead us into all truth. So, there is a wonderful relationship we develop with the Holy Spirit that he shares with us and leads us into truth, but we are also meant to be dedicated to growing in our knowledge of God and His ways.

Think about it - This is just how life works. We are confident by what we know.

I’ve seen something in people. The most sure people are the ones who have actually spent time themselves looking into something. And that has a benefit from two different angles. First, if I want to know what I am supposed to believe about something in particular, I can go to the bible and read what it says, read some commentaries, pull out my Strong’s concordance and look into it. Grow in my knowledge. I can read about what the fathers of our faith have believed. I can look at what the early church believed. And through gaining more knowledge I come to a conclusion and confidently believe something - whcih then directs how I live.

The second way this is really good is that sometimes that means I can say, “ya know what, I don’t know if there’s a definitive here, BUT, this is what I believe, and this is why, and I think you should look into this for yourself.

So, we grow in our knowledge, which helps us in our pursuit for moral excellence!

/ / Self-Control

Oh man, now he gets into it. Self-Control. Isn’t God in control? Well sure, God is absolutely in control of himself. But he expects us to be in control of ourselves. Again, Peter is pointing to the promises and blessings of God. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control. It’s the same word used in both of those passages. 2 Peter 1 says that our knowledge leads to self-control, which makes sense, because the more we know about how we are meant to live, the more we are able to live by those truths and conviction. And again, he’s connecting all of this to our relationship with Christ.

Paul writes in Galatians 5:22 that the fruit of the spirit is self-control. But that doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit takes control of us and does what he wants, no, Galatians 5:16, which is leading to that point says, Walk by the Spirit…live by the spirit, and you will not give in to the desires of the flesh. Because if you live according to the flesh, desiring the things of the flesh, you’re going to exhibit those things… BUT, if you live by the spirit, seek Him, follow after God, the fruit in your life will be.... and he gives a list, one of which is self-control.

And this again, was another thing that the Greek culture held in high value, BUT, theirs was based on will-power. This is back to that willful self-denial we’ve been talking about a lot lately. Romans 8:12-13 says, / / …you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.

/ / Endurance

Next he says that our self-control leads to patient endurance. Remember, this is about the work of our salvation in our lives. Self-Control and Endurance go hand in hand. The ESV translates this as steadfastness.

This can be in a varying capacities. We endure in our faithfulness. We endure in our self-control. We endure in our dedication to knowledge. We endure in our moral excellence. But we also endure through suffering. We endure through trial, through hardship.

This is why I find myself being reminded more and more of a prayer I have learned this past year. God grant me the grace to accept with serenity, or peace and calmness, the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. To endure, either through what I can’t change, or endure in obedience and faithfulness in what I can.

/ / Godliness

This is a reverence of who God is. An honor of Him. A respect for God, but not just I honor you, but I honor you with how I live. Think of it this way, / / the more you fall in love with God the more you want your life to reflect what he wants for you.

/ / Brotherly Affection

No, I’m not telling you to move to Philadelphia… But, if you didn’t know this, the word there, Affection, actually the greek word Philadelphia… literally why it’s called the city of brother love.

As we grow in our morality, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, these things lead to loving others well. Of course it does. This is the great commandment, Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself! When we love God, and allow him to love us, we naturally will love others well because love becomes what we do. We are becoming more like Christ, who, as the bible says, God IS love.

And this word used for affection is traditionally a word used for family, and so Peter is really saying, as we do these things we will love each other like we truly are brothers and sisters, for real. And in some sense he’s talking about the relationship we have with other Christians, other believers in Jesus.

I’ve said this before, / / but relationship is worth it. It’s worth working out. It’s worth figuring things out, having the hard conversations, having difficult moments. Don’t give up on people. Don’t give up on each other. Don’t get in an argument and walk away. If you get in an argument, work together, come back to each other. Love well. Be willing to forgive. Be willing to reconnect and GROW in relationship. And do it like our godliness toward God depended on it!

/ / Love for everyone

The ESV simply says Love. You’ll grow in love, but this is a different word than philadelphia, or brotherly affection, a love for someone like you would have for a brother or sister, but this is the word Agape…

If you live in this area you’ve probably passed a place called Agape. Our local food bank in the town I grew up in is called Agape. And for good reason... it’s Greek for love, but it’s different than philadelphia because yes it means to love, but love through / / benevolence, charity, good will. Benevolence is the quality of showing kindness. When we show love, agape, we are showing kindness to someone through something.

So, when we all show up on Food Drive day and hug and smile and laugh when we see each other, we are experiencing philadelphia, the love we have for each other. When we start putting food in cars, we’re showing agape, our love for people through meeting a need they have.

And Peter wraps this all up with, / / The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The ESV says it this way, it’s got a little punch to it, / / For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you think about it, this is really an expanded version of what Paul is saying in Ephesians 6:15, / / having strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace. The NLT says, / / put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.

This Preparation, the act of becoming prepared, is our journey in growing in our knowledge, understanding and follow through of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And Peter does a great job of breaking down what that should look like.

Like I said last week, where you are is where you are, and that’s good. If you are at a place where all you know is that you believe in Jesus Christ, then you can say in the midst of trial, in the midst of the devil trying to wear you down, “I AM MADE RIGHTEOUS!” “I AM SAVED BY GRACE”… and then you can make a commitment to growing in the rest. Not because, “Oh, now I have to be a good little christian”, but as always, when God instructs us to do something it’s for our blessing.

OK, so the sole of your shoe is thick and heavy, ready for hard work!

/ / 3. Dig In! ...stand your ground

The last thing we’ll look at this morning as we wrap this up is Paul’s encouragement here to really dig in. As you read through Ephesians 6:10-18 there is a lot of encouragement in this.

/ / vs 10 - Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power...

/ / vs 11 - stand firm against all strategies of the devil...

/ / vs 13 - resist the enemy....after the battle you will still be standing firm...

/ / vs 14 - Stand your ground...

/ / vs 18 - Stay alert and be persistent...

The last thing on these Roman fashion statement sandal-boots is that the bottom of the soles had studs, almost like a soccer players cleats. To give them grip, to help them stand their ground, to help them pivot and turn easier, not slip or slide or lose their balance. To Dig In!

We’ve talked about this a little bit throughout this series, especially in the first week when we looked at what Peter says, Stay alert! and how Paul is saying that here. If you get one thing out of today’s message, I hope it is this: / / It’s time to take seriously your walk with the Lord.

This is why we call it our walk with the Lord, because it is a journey. You can’t expect yourself to know more than you know or have figured it all out or live differently than you have if you don’t know yet how you’re meant to live. But all of that doesn’t mean you simply stay where you are and just ride out the rest of your life waiting for the day to come when you die and go to heaven. I’ll just bide my time here on earth and wait for it all to end when He takes me home.

Because the simple truth is, if you don’t choose to walk this journey you’ll end up like Israel in the desert, free from slavery - sure you might have your passport to get into heaven - but still living like a slave. Free physically, but mentally and spiritually as tuck as you’ve always been.

You are free, don’t waste that freedom!

So, strap on those sandal-boots, put on your shoes, remember, the burden of Jesus is light, he’s not wanting you to feel heavy and burdened by the Christian life, if it is, there’s something wrong. It’s not about getting 613 rules right all the time!

Be light on you feet. Take the steps to grow in your faith. And dig in, take it seriously, make that commitment. Commit to the journey, commit to growing, commit to learning. Because the more you do, the better prepared you are against what the enemy will try to do to take you out.

I need you to hear this this morning… We have defined that the enemy is out there looking for someone to devour, he’s looking to be able to kill steal and destroy...

It is harder to rob from someone who’s paying attention.

It’s harder to hurt someone who has learned how to fight.

It’s harder to hit someone who is light on their feet and prepared for the attack.