The Full Armor of God
(and how to use it)
What is a Knight, without armor?
Less than a squire. Some kind of grunt infantryman, I suppose. Only effective in large numbers. Easily made to retreat when alone. And today our numbers are thin, in the West. We devout Christians do not have the luxury of a culture that supports our biblical worldview. Even a large number of our fellow Christians do not come to our aid. Example: a lukewarm, “nuanced” Christian might say, “It is fine if an adult man wants to dress in drag, or change gender, just don’t push it on the children.” Same kind of surrender for contraception, IVF, surrogacy, etc.
When we knights stand firm in our faith and say that these things are sinful, we quickly lose a lot of friends & allies. We come under verbal attack.
And when we are really effective and dangerous to our enemy, we come under spiritual attack. Our lukewarm friends don’t know what this means.
We must don “the full armor of God.” Ephesians 6:10-18 (or 13-17 below)
13 Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with [the belt of] truth, and having on the breastplate of justice,
15 And your feet shod with the preparation [the shoes] of the gospel of peace:
16 In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one.
17 And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God).
What does that mean?
You might see a few articles on the topic.
https://concordchurchofchrist.org/2019/04/05/put-on-the-whole-armor-of-god/
https://lifehopeandtruth.com/change/christian-conversion/armor-of-god/
These articles explain the spiritual battle with the devil, but only as a battle of daily temptation to sin. In other words, self-defense.
Yet we knights are on the offense. We are going out and taking the battle to the enemy, calling out the sin but loving the sinner, winning souls and offering our sacrifices on behalf of them in their spiritual blindness. For those in sin cannot truly see their sinfulness (not without divine intervention).
Use the proper tool for the proper job
When fighting lies, speak the truth, and live the truth. Walk confidently in the knowledge of the hope of salvation and the reality of eternal justice and mercy.
When fighting sin, let the darts of accusation bounce harmlessly off your shield of faith and breastplate of justice. When fighting greed & gluttony, use fasting & almsgiving. When fighting pride, use humility.
For our Catholic faithful out there, that means we must be fully forgiven and cleansed of sin through the sacrament of reconciliation, so that the enemy may not use our sins against us to make us fearful. We must free ourselves of attachment to sin. Whatever you confess the most to in your (hopefully monthly, at least) confession, that is what you must find the means to avoid.
I have witnessed this in real life. When we (my wife & I) fought to introduce a speaker on chastity to our Catholic parish, our immediate family suffered through what I can only categorize as a spiritual attack.
To overcome this, we sought the graces of the sacraments:
Confession/Reconciliation/Penance
Eucharistic Adoration
Holy Mass and receiving the Eucharist
and renewal of our vows of Holy Matrimony
all this, plus constant prayer & fasting.
Then, once the attack is conquered (through God’s strength, not ours), give thanks to God and move on to the next battle. Never look back.
Proper tool for the proper job. Yes. That.