SPIRITUAL BATTLE: AN EXEGETICAL STUDY
Ephesians 6:14-20 — The Armor, Piece by Piece
Executive Summary
Ephesians 6:14-20 answers a question the previous passage deliberately leaves open. Paul has commanded the church to “put on the whole armor of God” (6:11) and to stand against an organized spiritual enemy, but he has not yet said what that armor consists of. Verses 14-20 supply the inventory — six pieces of equipment and a call to prayer. The central question is therefore practical: is the armor of God a specialized kit issued for combat and unrelated to ordinary Christian living, or is it something the believer already possesses and simply fails to wear?
The argument moves in four parts. First, the grammar settles the shape of the passage. “Stand therefore” (v. 14) is the single imperative; the participles that follow — having girded, having put on, having shod, taking — describe the means of standing rather than issuing six further commands. Paul is not handing out a checklist, but describing what a standing believer looks like.
Second, the pieces are examined one at a time through the scholarly lexicons: the belt that gathers the tunic and anchors the sword, the breastplate over the vital organs, the footwear that gives a soldier firm ground, the door-shaped shield large enough to cover the whole man, the helmet, and the short sword that is the list’s only offensive item. The lexical evidence largely confirms what the English suggests — and in two places corrects what is commonly said about it.
Third, the passage is set against its Old Testament background, which proves decisive. The breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation both come from Isaiah 59:17, where they are worn not by a soldier but by God Himself: “For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head” (Isaiah 59:17). The belt echoes Isaiah 11:5, the gospel-shod feet Isaiah 52:7. It is “the armor of God” not merely because He supplies it, but because it is His own.
Fourth, the passage is read alongside the wider vocabulary of being clothed — Romans 13:14, Galatians 3:27, Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10 and 3:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:8 — where Paul uses one verb for putting on Christ, the new man, and tender mercies. The armor is not a separate category from Christian character; it is that character, named in military vocabulary because the setting has shifted from formation to conflict.
The practical bottom line is unglamorous and freeing. Every piece Paul names is something this letter has already described at length. Nothing exotic is required — only that a believer actually put on what he already has, and that, since the list closes with prayer rather than a seventh weapon, he stand in dependence rather than self-sufficiency.
Introduction
This is the second document in a five-part exegetical study of spiritual battle, following the study of Ephesians 6:10-13, which established the passage’s call to stand and withstand — Greek ἵστημι and ἀνθίστημι — against an organized, spiritual enemy. Having named the enemy and the goal in verses 10-13, Paul now names the specific pieces of armor a believer is to put on in order to reach that goal, before closing the whole section with a call to prayer. This document takes up Ephesians 6:14-20 directly, developing the “put on” (ἐνδύω) theme introduced briefly in verse 11 into its full, piece-by-piece detail, and tracing that theme’s connection to several parallel New Testament passages that describe believers being clothed with Christ and with Christlike character.
A word about sources is in order, because it governs what this study can and cannot claim. Definitions of Greek words are taken from scholarly lexicons — Liddell-Scott-Jones, Abbott-Smith’s Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, and Mounce’s Concise Greek-English Dictionary — and not from Strong’s Concordance, which is a numbering system and index rather than a lexicon and is not an authority for the meaning of a word. Strong’s numbers appear here only so that a reader can look the lemma up. The standard modern lexicon for New Testament Greek, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (BDAG), together with TDNT and NIDNTTE, is in print or behind a paywall and could not be consulted directly this session; where those works carry the authoritative entry, the footnote says so plainly rather than inventing a page number. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon is used only where nothing better is available, with the caution that it predates the discovery and publication of the Koine papyri and therefore reflects an older stage of lexicography. Commentary is quoted from Albert Barnes and David Guzik, both freely and independently verifiable. Where an approved source’s exact wording on this passage could not be located and verified, that gap is stated honestly rather than filled, consistent with this project’s hallucination policy.
Overview
“Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” (Ephesians 6:14-20)
The passage opens exactly where the previous study left off: “Stand therefore” (v. 14) picks up the imperative already established in verses 11 and 13, and everything that follows — six pieces of equipment plus a call to prayer — is subordinate to that one command. The grammar of the Greek text is worth noting for teaching purposes: verses 14-16 use participles (“having girded,” “having put on,” “having shod,” “taking”) that describe the means by which one stands, not additional, separate commands.[1] Paul is not issuing seven imperatives; he is issuing one imperative — stand — and describing what standing, fully equipped, actually looks like.
The armor Paul describes closely follows the equipment of a Roman soldier, plausibly the very soldier chained to Paul as he dictated this letter from custody (compare Acts 28:16, 20, and Ephesians 6:20’s own reference to being “an ambassador in chains”). That connection is an attractive and widely repeated inference, but it is an inference from circumstance rather than a statement Paul makes, and it should be presented to a class as a likely background rather than as an established fact.[2]
A second background is far more certain, and more important. Paul is not inventing the imagery. He is drawing it from Isaiah, where the armor belongs first to God Himself: “For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, And was clad with zeal as a cloak” (Isaiah 59:17). The belt echoes the Messianic description of Isaiah 11:5 — “Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist” — and the gospel-shod feet echo Isaiah 52:7: “How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” This is why Paul calls it “the armor of God” (6:11, 13). It is not merely armor God issues; it is armor God wears.
Word Studies
περιζώννυμι — to gird, to buckle a belt around
The first item is the soldier’s belt: “having girded your waist with truth” (v. 14). The verb is περιζώννυμι (#G4024), a compound of περί (“around”) and ζώννυμι (“to gird”). Liddell-Scott-Jones treats it in two branches — the active, “gird upon a person,” and the far more common middle and passive, “gird oneself with,” “fasten on one’s belt” — with citations describing athletes, dancers, and cooks belting themselves for work.[3] Mounce’s Concise Greek-English Dictionary gives the sense compactly: “to buckle a belt around, gird, dress for service.”[4]
Mounce’s last phrase — dress for service — captures the point. The belt is not decorative. In practical terms it gathered the loose tunic so it would not entangle the legs, and it carried the weight of the sword. Albert Barnes, commenting on this clause, quotes Grotius approvingly: “Great,” says Grotius, “is the laxity of falsehood; truth binds the man.” Barnes then draws out the application: settled truth produces a consistency of conduct that preserves a believer from “lax views of morals, of duty and of religion.”[5] The image is precise. A life without internalized truth is loose and unanchored, the way an ungirded tunic would trip a soldier at exactly the moment he most needed his footing.
“Having put on the breastplate of righteousness” (v. 14). The noun is θώραξ (#G2382). Liddell-Scott-Jones documents it first as a corslet in Homer — θώραξ χάλκεος, a bronze corslet (Iliad 23.560) — then as a coat of mail or scale armour, and secondarily as the part of the body that the corslet covers, the trunk.[6] Abbott-Smith’s Manual Greek Lexicon gives simply “a breastplate,” listing Revelation 9:9, Revelation 9:17, and θ. τῆς δικαιοσύνης at Ephesians 6:14.[7] Mounce defines it as “a breast-plate, armor for the body, consisting of two parts, one covering the breast” and the other the back.[8] Thayer’s adds the anatomical detail that the armor consists of two parts and protects the body on both sides from the neck to the middle.[9]
Two parts, front and back, covering the vital organs — this is the piece that guards the heart and lungs. Barnes draws the natural application: “The breast-plate defended the vital parts of the body; and the idea here may be that the integrity of life, and righteousness of character, is as necessary to defend us from the assaults of Satan.”[10]
The same Greek word reappears in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 — “But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation” — a parallel this study returns to below. And behind both stands Isaiah 59:17, where God Himself “put on righteousness as a breastplate.”
ἑτοιμασία — readiness, preparation, firm footing
“And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (v. 15). The noun ἑτοιμασία (#G2091) occurs only this once in the entire New Testament. Liddell-Scott-Jones divides the entry between “readiness” — as in readiness for service — and “preparation,” listing under the second sense both the Septuagint usage and this very verse, ἐν ἑτοιμασίᾳ εὐαγγελίου, Ephesians 6:15.[11] Mounce gives “preparation; preparedness, readiness, Eph. 6:15.”[12]
Abbott-Smith contributes something the other entries do not, and it matters for the image Paul is using. Alongside “(a) readiness” and “(b) preparation,” he records a further sense attested in the Septuagint — “foundation, firm footing,” citing Psalm 89:14 — and lists Ephesians 6:15 under it as well.[13] Thayer’s, for its part, glosses the phrase in this verse as describing “the promptitude and alacrity which the gospel produces.”[14]
Both senses serve the passage, and Barnes reads it in exactly this double way. Describing the Roman soldier’s footwear as “sandals, or shoes, which were probably made so as to cover the foot, and which often were fitted with nails, or armed with spikes, to make the hold firm in the ground,” he concludes that the gospel does for the believer what the greaves and iron-spiked sandals did for the soldier — “to make them ready for the march, to make them firm in their foot-tread, and to be a part of their defense against their foes.”[15] Guzik puts the same point negatively: “However powerful the rest of your body is, if you are wounded in your feet you are easy prey for the enemy.”[16]
θυρεός — the large, door-shaped shield
“Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (v. 16). Paul’s word is θυρεός (#G2375), and his choice is deliberate.
Liddell-Scott-Jones traces the noun from θύρα, “door”: first “a stone put against a door to keep it shut” (Homer, Odyssey 9.240, 313), then “oblong shield (shaped like a door),” and “hence, of the Roman scutum,” explicitly set in opposition to ἀσπίς — the Greek round shield, corresponding to the Latin clipeus — with Ephesians 6:16 cited among the references.[17] Abbott-Smith agrees: in later Greek the word denotes “the scutum, a large oblong shield,” and he cites Ephesians 6:16.[18] Mounce gives the gloss “(long, oblong) shield” and the definition “a stone, or other material employed to close a doorway; later, a large oblong shield, Eph. 6:16.”[19] Thayer’s describes it as “a shield (Latin scutum); it was large, oblong, and four-cornered.”[20]
The contrast the lexicons draw is the exegetical point. The ἀσπίς, by LSJ’s account, was round — εὔκυκλος, κυκλοτερής — and bossed at the center; it was carried on the arm and protected a portion of the body.[21] The θυρεός was a full-body shield, tall enough that a soldier could crouch behind it entirely. Paul does not name the smaller shield. Faith, in his image, is not partial cover that leaves the rest exposed; it is large enough to cover the whole person.
Barnes places faith accordingly among the graces: it “bears, to the whole Christian character, the same relation which the shield does to the other parts of the armor of a soldier. It protects all, and is indispensable to the security of all.”[22] As for the “fiery darts,” these were a genuine Roman-era weapon — Barnes describes them as “small, slender pieces of cane, which were filled with combustible materials, and set on fire,” or darts wound with combustible material, ignited, and then shot. Figuratively he identifies them as “blasphemous thoughts, unbelief, sudden temptation to do wrong, or thoughts that wound and torment the soul,” noting that they arrive suddenly and unexpectedly, as if from ambush, and that their aim is to “set the soul on fire, and enkindle the worst passions.”[23] Guzik’s summary is compatible and pastorally useful: “Thoughts, feelings, imaginations, fears, and lies — all of these can be hurled at us by Satan as fiery darts. Faith turns them back.”[24]
“And take the helmet of salvation” (v. 17). The noun περικεφαλαία (#G4030) is transparently formed from περί (“around”) and κεφαλή (“head”) — literally, the thing that goes around the head. Liddell and Scott’s Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon defines it as “a covering for the head, a helmet, cap,” citing Polybius.[25] Abbott-Smith gives “a helmet,” listing its two New Testament occurrences, 1 Thessalonians 5:8 and Ephesians 6:17.[26] Mounce gives “a helmet, Eph. 6:17; 1 Thess. 5:8,” and marks the entry with an asterisk indicating that these two verses exhaust its New Testament usage.[27]
Thayer’s supplies the detail that ties the verse to its source: the phrase in Ephesians 6:17 is drawn “from Isaiah 59:17,” and the sense, dropping the figure, is “the protection of soul which consists in (the hope of) salvation.”[28] The Greek behind “of salvation” here is not the ordinary noun σωτηρία but the substantive adjective σωτήριος (#G4992) — τὴν περικεφαλαίαν τοῦ σωτηρίου — matching the Septuagint phrasing of Isaiah 59:17.[29]
Barnes reads “salvation” in this clause as shorthand for the hope of salvation: “The idea is, that a well-founded hope of salvation will preserve us in the day of spiritual conflict, and will guard us from the blows which an enemy would strike” at the mind directly.[30] That reading does not rest on Barnes alone. Paul’s only other use of the word makes it explicit: 1 Thessalonians 5:8 names the piece “a helmet, the hope of salvation.” The protective function belongs to a settled, forward-looking confidence, not merely to a past decision. Guzik draws the pastoral consequence: “One of Satan’s most effective weapons against us is discouragement. When we are properly equipped with the helmet of salvation, it’s hard to stay discouraged.”[31]
“And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (v. 17). This is the only piece in the list that is explicitly offensive rather than defensive, and it is the only piece Paul stops to define.
μάχαιρα (#G3162) is not the large broadsword. Liddell-Scott-Jones records it first as “a large knife or dirk” in Homer, then as a weapon — “short sword” or “dagger” — and notes that in later usage it denotes a sabre, contrasted with the straight sword ξίφος; LSJ lists Ephesians 6:17 under its metaphorical use, the sword of the Spirit.[32] Abbott-Smith is precise about the comparisons: “a short sword or dagger (as disting. from ῥομφαία, a large broad sword and ξίφος, a straight sword for thrusting).”[33] Mounce gives the gloss “(short) sword” and the definition “a large knife, dagger; a sword.”[34]
One correction is needed here, because it is easy to get backwards. It is sometimes said that the μάχαιρα was a stabbing weapon. The lexicons consulted for this study say the opposite where they speak to the question at all: Thayer’s distinguishes the μάχαιρα as “curved, for a cutting stroke,” expressly “distinct also from ξίφος, a straight sword, for thrusting,” and Abbott-Smith likewise reserves thrusting for the ξίφος.[35] The point that survives — and it is the point that actually matters for the passage — is one of scale, not of technique. The μάχαιρα is a short-range weapon, not a long one. It fits the close, hand-to-hand πάλη (“wrestling”) of verse 12, studied in the companion document on Ephesians 6:10-13.[36] A believer meets this enemy at close quarters, not at a distance.
Guzik adds a needed caution about the wielding of it: effective use of this sword “takes practice,” and the Spirit who authored the Scriptures is also the one who “equips us with the right thrust of the sword at the right time.”[37]
ῥῆμα and λόγος — the word of God
Paul identifies the sword as “the word of God,” and the Greek noun he uses is ῥῆμα (#G4487) rather than the more common λόγος (#G3056).[38] It is very commonly taught that this choice carries a sharp distinction: that λόγος denotes the whole body of God’s revealed truth while ῥῆμα denotes a specific utterance brought to bear at a particular moment. That teaching should be handled carefully, because the lexicons do not carry it.
Liddell-Scott-Jones defines ῥῆμα as “that which is said or that which is spoken, word, saying,” covering utterances and discourse generally, along with the senses “phrase” (as opposed to the single word, ὄνομα), “subject matter of speech,” and, grammatically, “verb.”[39] Abbott-Smith gives, first, “of that which is said or spoken, a word,” and second, following the Hebrew idiom, “of that which is the subject of speech, a thing, matter.”[40] Mounce glosses it “word, saying; matter; thing,” expanding to “that which is spoken; declaration, saying, speech, word.”[41]
Now set the entries for λόγος beside them. Abbott-Smith arranges λόγος under three heads, of which the first is speech and expression — “that by which the inward thought is expressed” — subdivided into a word embodying a conception, a saying or statement, speech or discourse, teaching and doctrine, a narrative, and a matter or affair; the second head is reason or account; the third is the Divine Word of John 1:1.[42] Mounce gives “word, spoken or written, often with a focus on the content of a communication; matter, thing.”[43] LSJ’s entry for λόγος is one of the longest in the lexicon, running from computation and reckoning through proportion, explanation, inward reasoning, and the cosmic principle of the Stoics.[44]
Compare the glosses honestly. Mounce renders ῥῆμα “word, saying; matter; thing” and λόγος “word… matter, thing.” Abbott-Smith gives “a word” for one and “a word” for the other, and gives “a thing, matter” for both. λόγος has by far the wider range — no one would call Christ the ῥῆμα of God — but that is a difference of breadth, not the neat two-column contrast the popular teaching assumes. Neither lexicon restricts ῥῆμα to a momentary utterance, and neither restricts λόγος to a corpus of revealed truth.
Paul’s own usage settles the matter more firmly than any lexical argument could, and it is worth putting before a class because it is checkable in an English Bible. Two verses after calling Scripture the ῥῆμα of God, Paul asks the Ephesians to pray “that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19). “Utterance” there — the very thing the popular scheme assigns to ῥῆμα — is λόγος.[45] And earlier in the same letter, where Christ sanctifies and cleanses the church “with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26), the noun for the gospel word in its broadest sense — the thing the popular scheme assigns to λόγος — is ῥῆμα.[46] Within one short letter, Paul uses each word in the role the supposed distinction reserves for the other.
So the pastoral point should rest where Paul rests it, not on a lexical contrast the sources will not carry. What makes this sword effective is not that Paul selected a rare word for a momentary utterance. It is that the sword is short-range and specific — a definite word of God, brought to bear on a definite moment. Barnes’ comment captures precisely that quality: “A single text of Scripture is better to meet a temptation, than all the philosophy which the world contains.”[47] The definitive demonstration is Christ’s own in the wilderness, where each of three temptations was met not with a general theological argument but with one aimed sentence of Deuteronomy: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4); “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God’” (Matthew 4:7); “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve’” (Matthew 4:10). The lesson holds whichever Greek noun Paul had chosen.
Paul closes the list not with an eighth piece of equipment but with a shift in mode entirely: “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (v. 18). The noun is προσευχή (#G4335), which Mounce defines as “prayer; place of prayer,” noting that the word can denote either the act itself or, by metonymy, the place where prayer is offered.[48]
Prayer is not another item to put on; it is the atmosphere in which all six pieces function. Barnes states this directly: prayer “crowns all lawful efforts with success and gives a victory when nothing else would.”[49] Guzik reads the piled-up phrasing of the verse — all prayer, all supplication, all perseverance — as deliberate comprehensiveness: “The idea is all kinds of prayer or prayer upon prayer. We should use every kind of prayer we can think of.”[50]
Notably, Paul’s own personal prayer request that follows (vv. 19-20) is not for release from prison or relief from suffering, but for boldness to keep proclaiming the gospel despite his chains. Guzik observes that Paul wanted his readers to pray that he might speak the gospel both clearly and with fearless power.[51] The request models exactly the kind of confident, forward-facing courage the whole armor is meant to produce, in the least comfortable circumstances imaginable.
The Wider “Put On” Theme
Verse 11’s ἐνδύω (“put on”), studied in the companion document on Ephesians 6:10-13, connects this passage to a cluster of parallel texts worth reading alongside it. Liddell-Scott-Jones documents the verb’s figurative reach well beyond clothing — assuming a character or role, taking on an abstract quality — and cites this very letter, τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον, “the new man,” at Ephesians 4:24.[52] Read together, these texts show that the armor of God is one specific application of a much broader New Testament pattern: believers are repeatedly commanded to put on a new identity, not merely to receive one passively.
“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” (Romans 13:14)
“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:27)
“…and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:24)
“…and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him… Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering…” (Colossians 3:10, 12)
“But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.” (1 Thessalonians 5:8)
Reading these five texts together with Ephesians 6:11-17 shows a consistent pattern. Galatians 3:27 describes a once-for-all putting on of Christ at baptism — a settled, completed fact of identity. Romans 13:14, Ephesians 4:24, and Colossians 3:10, 12 describe an ongoing, repeated putting on of that same Christlike character in daily practice — righteousness, holiness, tender mercies, kindness, humility. And 1 Thessalonians 5:8 shows Paul reaching for the identical military image used in Ephesians 6 — breastplate and helmet — but pairing them with different virtues: faith and love for the breastplate, and the hope of salvation for the helmet, which matches Ephesians 6:17 as Barnes and the parallel together read it.
The flexibility is itself instructive. Paul is not working from a fixed allegorical key in which each piece of equipment has one and only one correct spiritual referent. He assigns the breastplate to righteousness in one letter and to faith and love in another. The armor of God, in other words, is not a separate spiritual category from the “new man” Paul describes elsewhere in this same letter; it is that same Christlike character, described in the specific vocabulary of military readiness because the context has shifted from character formation in general (Ephesians 4-5) to active conflict in particular (Ephesians 6).
Commentary Survey
Commentary from Albert Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament and David Guzik’s Enduring Word Bible Commentary is quoted directly, verse by verse, in the Word Studies section above; both were retrieved and read this session.[53]
Barnes’ distinctive contributions are three. On the belt he preserves Grotius’ epigram — the laxity of falsehood against truth that binds the man — and reads truth as producing consistency of conduct.[54] On the shield he ranks faith above the other graces functionally, not because it is a greater virtue but because it protects the rest.[55] On the sword he supplies the sentence this study’s application section builds on, that one text of Scripture outweighs all the world’s philosophy against a temptation.[56]
Guzik’s contributions run in a complementary direction, consistently locating the armor’s source outside the believer. On the breastplate he insists the righteousness in view is “not our own earned righteousness, not a feeling of righteousness, but a righteousness received by faith in Jesus.”[57] On the belt he identifies truth with the objective content of Christian belief, “what other passages call the faith,” rather than with sincerity.[58] Both emphases guard against a moralistic reading in which the believer manufactures his own equipment.
Searches this session for a specific, page-numbered treatment of Ephesians 6:14-20 from John MacArthur’s, Wayne Grudem’s, or Charles Ryrie’s published works, or from the New International Commentary or Pillar series, did not turn up independently verifiable, quotable text. These are legitimate, standard evangelical sources on this project’s approved list; the gap reflects a limit of this session’s research rather than an absence of material, and any specific claim attributed to them on this passage should be independently confirmed against the physical volumes before use in teaching.[59]
Synthesis
Ephesians 6:14-20 answers the question the previous passage leaves open: what, specifically, does it mean to “put on the whole armor of God”? The answer is not exotic or mysterious. Truth, righteousness, gospel-readiness, faith, the hope of salvation, and the word of God — every piece of armor Paul names is a virtue or reality this same letter has already described at length as belonging to ordinary Christian character (compare, for instance, Ephesians 4:24-25’s own pairing of “truth” and the “new man”). What changes in chapter 6 is not the substance of what believers are called to be, but the specific purpose for which that same character is now named: not merely to walk worthy of one’s calling in general (4:1), but to stand firm against a specific, organized spiritual assault. The armor is Christian character, worn for battle.
Two further observations from the lexical work bear on the whole. First, the equipment is God’s own before it is the believer’s. Isaiah 59:17 puts the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation on God Himself, and Isaiah 11:5 puts the belt on the Messiah. When Paul calls this “the armor of God,” the genitive is doing more than identifying a supplier. What the believer wears into conflict is what God wears. Second, the shield Paul names is the door-sized θυρεός rather than the round ἀσπίς, and the sword is the short-range μάχαιρα rather than a long blade — a pairing that says something about the shape of this conflict. The protection is total; the engagement is close.
And the whole list closes, deliberately, not with a weapon but with prayer — the reminder that even a fully-armored believer stands and fights only in dependence on God, never by the armor’s own inherent power apart from Him.
Practical and Devotional Application
Barnes’ comment on the sword of the Spirit — that “a single text of Scripture is better to meet a temptation, than all the philosophy which the world contains” — offers a direct, teachable pattern for personal devotion. Rather than treating Scripture memorization as a generic spiritual discipline, a believer can deliberately identify the specific temptations most likely to recur in his own life and memorize specific verses aimed precisely at those points, following Christ’s own pattern in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). Guzik’s caution belongs alongside it: skill with this weapon “takes practice.” A verse learned during the assault is learned too late.
The Isaiah background carries its own devotional weight. A believer who reads Ephesians 6 as a list of virtues he must generate will find the passage exhausting. A believer who reads Isaiah 59:17 first will recognize that the righteousness and salvation he is told to put on are God’s own, extended to him — which is why Guzik insists the righteousness in view is “received by faith in Jesus,” not earned.
Likewise, Paul’s own prayer request in verses 19-20 — for boldness rather than comfort — models a shape for intercession that a class can be challenged to imitate: praying not chiefly for relief from difficult circumstances, but for courage to keep speaking and living faithfully within them.
Discussion Questions
- Every piece of armor Paul names (truth, righteousness, gospel-readiness, faith, salvation’s hope, the word of God) has already appeared elsewhere in Ephesians as ordinary Christian character, not exotic spiritual weaponry. What difference does it make to realize the armor of God is not something separate from the character you are already called to grow in?
- The whole armor list is grammatically one long description of how to fulfill a single command — “stand” — rather than seven separate commands. Why might this grammatical detail matter for how a believer thinks about spiritual preparedness?
- Isaiah 59:17 puts the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation on God Himself before Paul ever puts them on the believer. How does knowing that the armor is God’s own equipment, shared with His people, change the way you hear the command to put it on?
- Paul’s own prayer request in verses 19-20 asks for boldness to keep preaching despite being in chains, not for release from prison. What does this reveal about what “victory” in spiritual warfare actually looks like, as opposed to how our culture typically pictures winning a battle?
- 1 Thessalonians 5:8 uses the same breastplate-and-helmet imagery as Ephesians 6 but pairs them with different virtues (faith and love; the hope of salvation). What does this tell you about how flexible or fixed Paul’s own use of this metaphor is meant to be?
Analysis Questions
- Of the six pieces of armor named in this passage, which one do you most consistently neglect to actively “put on” in your own daily life? Be specific about what putting it on would look like this week.
- Barnes says faith “protects all, and is indispensable to the security of all” the other pieces. Where in your recent experience has a lapse in faith left other areas of your character — your integrity, your hope, your handling of Scripture — more exposed than they would otherwise have been?
- Identify one specific, recurring temptation in your own life. What is one specific verse of Scripture — a definite text, not a general biblical principle — that you could memorize and deploy against that exact temptation, following the pattern of Christ’s own wilderness responses?
- Paul asks the Ephesians to pray specifically for his boldness, not his comfort. Who in your life is currently in a difficult circumstance for whom you could pray this same kind of prayer — for courage and faithfulness within the trial, rather than only for its removal?
- This passage closes the armor list with prayer rather than a final weapon, implying that armor without prayer is incomplete. Where in your own spiritual life have you relied on discipline, knowledge, or good habits without a corresponding, dependent prayer life to go with them?
Personal Evaluation Question
Looking honestly at your own life this week, which single piece of the armor described in this passage — truth, righteousness, gospel-readiness, faith, the hope of salvation, or the word of God — is currently the least “put on,” the most neglected or threadbare? What is one specific, concrete step you will take in the next seven days to put that piece on more deliberately, rather than simply agreeing in principle that you should?
Sources Consulted
Directly Retrieved and Verified This Session
Every quotation attributed to the following works was fetched and read from the site named this session; nothing below is quoted from memory.
Abbott-Smith, G. A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament. Entries for θώραξ, ἑτοιμασία, θυρεός, περικεφαλαία, μάχαιρα, ῥῆμα, and λόγος. Public domain; consulted at studylight.org.
Barnes, Albert. Notes on the New Testament: Ephesians. Comments on Ephesians 6:14, 6:15, 6:16, 6:17, and 6:18. Public domain; consulted at biblehub.com.
Guzik, David. Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Ephesians 6. Comments on Ephesians 6:14-20. Consulted at enduringword.com.
Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon (“Middle Liddell”). Entry for περικεφαλαία, consulted at lsj.gr, the full LSJ entry for that headword not being displayed there.
Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones. A Greek-English Lexicon. Entries for περιζώννυμι, θώραξ, ἑτοιμασία, θυρεός, ἀσπίς, μάχαιρα, ῥῆμα, λόγος, and ἐνδύω. Consulted at lsj.gr; the Perseus Digital Library copy of LSJ is closed to automated retrieval by its robots.txt.
Mounce, William D. Mounce’s Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament. Entries for περιζώννυμι, θώραξ, ἑτοιμασία, θυρεός, περικεφαλαία, μάχαιρα, ῥῆμα, λόγος, and προσευχή. Consulted at billmounce.com.
Novum Testamentum Graece, with morphological parsing and Strong’s indexing. Consulted at biblehub.com for the Greek text and parsing of Ephesians 5:26, 6:14, 6:17, and 6:19.
Thayer, Joseph Henry. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Entries for θώραξ, ἑτοιμασία, θυρεός, περικεφαλαία, and μάχαιρα. Consulted at studylight.org. Thayer’s is used here only where no better accessible lexicon speaks to the point; it predates the publication of the Koine papyri and reflects an older stage of lexicography.
The New King James Version. All Scripture quotations verified at biblegateway.com.
[1] Novum Testamentum Graece, Ephesians 6:14-16, with morphological parsing, consulted at biblehub.com. The finite imperative in verse 14 is στῆτε (“stand”); the clauses that follow it in verses 14-16 are carried by participles, so the six pieces of equipment describe the manner and means of standing rather than constituting separate commands.
[2] The identification of each piece with a specific item of Roman legionary kit, and the suggestion that Paul was looking at his guard as he dictated, is a commonplace of preaching on this passage and is consistent with Acts 28:16, 20 and Ephesians 6:20. It is nevertheless an inference. The specialist background treatment usually named here is Clinton E. Arnold’s work on Ephesians; it was not consulted this session, and no claim in this document is attributed to it. The details of Roman military equipment asserted in this study are limited to those the cited lexicons and Barnes state directly.
[3] Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “περιζώννυμι,” consulted at lsj.gr. LSJ divides the entry between the active, “gird upon a person,” and the more frequent middle and passive, “gird oneself with,” “fasten on one’s belt,” citing Aristophanes, Pax 687, along with Plutarch and Pausanias for athletes, dancers, and cooks. The Perseus Digital Library copy of LSJ is closed to automated retrieval by its robots.txt, so lsj.gr was used. BDAG carries the authoritative modern entry for the New Testament usage of this verb; it is print/paywalled and was not retrieved. The BDAG entry for this term should be independently confirmed before use in teaching.
[4] William D. Mounce, Mounce’s Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament, s.v. “περιζώννυμι” (Strong’s #G4024; Goodrick-Kohlenberger #4322), consulted at billmounce.com: “to buckle a belt around, gird, dress for service,” noting that the New Testament usage is chiefly middle.
[5] Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: Ephesians, on Ephesians 6:14, consulted at biblehub.com. Barnes quotes Grotius — “‘Great,’ says Grotius, ‘is the laxity of falsehood; truth binds the man’” — and applies the image to a consistency of conduct that preserves a believer from “lax views of morals, of duty and of religion.” The epigram is Grotius’, reported by Barnes, not Barnes’ own.
[6] Liddell, Scott, and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “θώραξ,” consulted at lsj.gr: a corslet, θώραξ χάλκεος (Homer, Iliad 23.560), παναίολος (11.374), πολυδαίδαλος (4.136); sense 2, “coat of mail, scale armour,” citing Herodotus 9.22, 74; sense II, the part of the body covered by the corslet, the trunk, citing Hippocrates and Aristotle, Historia Animalium 493a5. BDAG is print/paywalled and was not retrieved; the BDAG entry for this term should be independently confirmed before use in teaching.
[7] G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. “θώραξ,” consulted at studylight.org: “a breastplate: Revelation 9:9; Revelation 9:17; θ. τ. δικαιοσύνης, Ephesians 6:14.”
[8] Mounce, Concise Greek-English Dictionary, s.v. “θώραξ” (Strong’s #G2382; GK #2606), consulted at billmounce.com: “a breast-plate, armor for the body, consisting of two parts, one covering the breast and” the other the back, with occurrences in Ephesians, 1 Thessalonians, and Revelation.
[9] Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. “θώραξ,” consulted at studylight.org: (1) “the breast, the part of the body from the neck to the navel, where the ribs end”; (2) “a breast-plate or corselet consisting of two parts and protecting the body on both sides from the neck to the middle.” Thayer’s predates the publication of the Koine papyri; it is cited here only for the anatomical description, on which it is not controversial.
[10] Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: Ephesians, on Ephesians 6:14: “The breast-plate defended the vital parts of the body; and the idea here may be that the integrity of life, and righteousness of character, is as necessary to defend us from the assaults of Satan.”
[11] Liddell, Scott, and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “ἑτοιμασία,” consulted at lsj.gr: sense I, “readiness,” citing Hippocrates, De Decenti Habitu 12, and Josephus, Antiquities 10.1.2; sense II, “preparation,” citing Aeneas Tacticus 21.1 and the Septuagint at Psalm 9:38 (10:17) and Wisdom 13:12, and “equipment, ἐν ἑτοιμασίᾳ εὐαγγελίου,” Ephesians 6:15. BDAG is print/paywalled and was not retrieved; the BDAG entry for this term should be independently confirmed before use in teaching.
[12] Mounce, Concise Greek-English Dictionary, s.v. “ἑτοιμασία” (Strong’s #G2091; GK #2288), consulted at billmounce.com: “preparation; preparedness, readiness, Eph. 6:15.”
[13] Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon, s.v. “ἑτοιμασία,” consulted at studylight.org: “(a) readiness”; “(b) preparation,” citing the Septuagint, e.g. ἑ. τ. καρδίας at Psalm 10:17, and Ephesians 6:15; and, further, “foundation, firm footing,” citing Psalm 89:14 and listing Ephesians 6:15 there as well.
[14] Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “ἑτοιμασία,” consulted at studylight.org: (1) “the act of preparing,” citing Wisdom 13:12; (2) “the condition of a person or thing so far forth as prepared, preparedness, readiness,” and, on Ephesians 6:15, “with the promptitude and alacrity which the gospel produces.” Thayer’s predates the Koine papyri discoveries and is cited here only where LSJ, Abbott-Smith, and Mounce do not address the phrase directly.
[15] Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: Ephesians, on Ephesians 6:15, consulted at biblehub.com. Barnes describes the soldier’s footwear as “sandals, or shoes, which were probably made so as to cover the foot, and which often were fitted with nails, or armed with spikes, to make the hold firm in the ground,” and says the gospel does for the believer what the greaves and iron-spiked sandals did for the soldier — “to make them ready for the march, to make them firm in their foot-tread, and to be a part of their defense against their foes.”
[16] David Guzik, Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Ephesians 6, on Ephesians 6:15, consulted at enduringword.com: “The gospel provides the footing for everything we do. However powerful the rest of your body is, if you are wounded in your feet you are easy prey for the enemy.”
[17] Liddell, Scott, and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “θυρεός,” consulted at lsj.gr. LSJ derives the noun from θύρα and gives: sense A, “a stone put against a door to keep it shut,” citing Homer, Odyssey 9.240, 313; sense II, “oblong shield (shaped like a door),” citing a third-century B.C. papyrus and Plutarch, Pyrrhus 26, “hence, of the Roman scutum (opp. ἀσπίς, = clipeus),” citing Polybius 2.30.3 and 6.23.2, Dionysius of Halicarnassus 4.16, and Ephesians 6:16. BDAG is print/paywalled and was not retrieved; the BDAG entry for this term should be independently confirmed before use in teaching.
[18] Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon, s.v. “θυρεός,” consulted at studylight.org: in later Greek, “the scutum, a large oblong shield,” citing Ephesians 6:16.
[19] Mounce, Concise Greek-English Dictionary, s.v. “θυρεός” (Strong’s #G2375; GK #2599), consulted at billmounce.com: gloss “(long, oblong) shield”; definition, “a stone, or other material employed to close a doorway; later, a large oblong shield, Eph. 6:16.”
[20] Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “θυρεός,” consulted at studylight.org: “a shield (Latin scutum); it was large, oblong, and four-cornered,” as distinguished from the smaller, circular ἀσπίς. Thayer’s predates the Koine papyri discoveries; on this point it agrees with LSJ, Abbott-Smith, and Mounce.
[21] Liddell, Scott, and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “ἀσπίς,” consulted at lsj.gr: “a shield,” described as εὔκυκλος (Homer, Iliad 14.428), κυκλοτερής (Herodotus 1.194), and ὀμφαλόεσσα, “with a central boss” (Iliad 4.448); LSJ also records the collective sense, “body of men-at-arms,” and a wholly separate sense II, the Egyptian cobra or asp.
[22] Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: Ephesians, on Ephesians 6:16, consulted at biblehub.com: faith “bears, to the whole Christian character, the same relation which the shield does to the other parts of the armor of a soldier. It protects all, and is indispensable to the security of all.”
[23] Barnes, on Ephesians 6:16. On the literal weapon: “small, slender pieces of cane, which were filled with combustible materials, and set on fire,” or darts around which combustible material was wound, ignited, and then shot. Figuratively: “blasphemous thoughts, unbelief, sudden temptation to do wrong, or thoughts that wound and torment the soul,” which come suddenly and unexpectedly, as from ambush, and “set the soul on fire, and enkindle the worst passions.”
[24] Guzik, Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Ephesians 6, on Ephesians 6:16: “Thoughts, feelings, imaginations, fears, and lies — all of these can be hurled at us by Satan as fiery darts. Faith turns them back.”
[25] Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon (“Middle Liddell”), s.v. “περικεφαλαία,” consulted at lsj.gr: “a covering for the head, a helmet, cap,” citing Polybius; also the neuter form περικεφάλαιον. The lsj.gr page for this headword displayed the Middle Liddell entry rather than the full LSJ entry, and it is cited here as Middle Liddell accordingly. BDAG is print/paywalled and was not retrieved; the BDAG entry for this term should be independently confirmed before use in teaching.
[26] Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon, s.v. “περικεφαλαία,” consulted at studylight.org: “a helmet: fig., 1 Thessalonians 5:8; c. gen. explic., τ. σωτηρίου, Ephesians 6:17.”
[27] Mounce, Concise Greek-English Dictionary, s.v. “περικεφαλαία” (Strong’s #G4030; GK #4330), consulted at billmounce.com: “a helmet, Eph. 6:17; 1 Thess. 5:8*,” the asterisk marking that these two verses exhaust the New Testament occurrences.
[28] Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “περικεφαλαία,” consulted at studylight.org: “περικεφαλαία, περικεφαλαίας, (περί and κεφαλή), a helmet: 1 Thessalonians 5:8; τοῦ σωτηρίου (from Isaiah 59:17), i.e. dropping the figure, the protection of soul which consists in (the hope of) salvation, Ephesians 6:17.” Thayer’s predates the Koine papyri discoveries; it is cited here for the Isaiah 59:17 derivation, which is a matter of textual parallel rather than lexical judgment.
[29] Novum Testamentum Graece, Ephesians 6:17, with morphological parsing, consulted at biblehub.com. The verse reads καὶ τὴν περικεφαλαίαν τοῦ σωτηρίου δέξασθε καὶ τὴν μάχαιραν τοῦ Πνεύματος, ὅ ἐστιν ῥῆμα Θεοῦ. “Of salvation” is τοῦ σωτηρίου, the substantive adjective σωτήριος (Strong’s #G4992), not the noun σωτηρία.
[30] Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: Ephesians, on Ephesians 6:17, consulted at biblehub.com: “The idea is, that a well-founded hope of salvation will preserve us in the day of spiritual conflict, and will guard us from the blows which an enemy would strike.”
[31] Guzik, Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Ephesians 6, on Ephesians 6:17: “One of Satan’s most effective weapons against us is discouragement. When we are properly equipped with the helmet of salvation, it’s hard to stay discouraged.”
[32] Liddell, Scott, and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “μάχαιρα,” consulted at lsj.gr: “a large knife or dirk,” citing Homer, Iliad 11.844, 18.597, 19.252, and the sense “carving-knife” in Pindar, Herodotus, and Aristophanes; as a weapon, “short sword” or “dagger,” citing Herodotus 6.75, 7.225, and Pindar, Nemean 4.59, with the later sense “sabre” contrasted with the straight sword ξίφος; and, among the metaphorical uses, the sword of the Spirit at Ephesians 6:17. BDAG is print/paywalled and was not retrieved; the BDAG entry for this term should be independently confirmed before use in teaching.
[33] Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon, s.v. “μάχαιρα,” consulted at studylight.org: “a short sword or dagger (as disting. from ῥομφαία, a large broad sword and ξίφος, a straight sword for thrusting).”
[34] Mounce, Concise Greek-English Dictionary, s.v. “μάχαιρα” (Strong’s #G3162; GK #3479), consulted at billmounce.com: gloss “(short) sword”; definition, “a large knife, dagger; a sword,” with the extended senses of the executioner’s sword and, figuratively, war.
[35] Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “μάχαιρα,” consulted at studylight.org: “a small sword, distinguished from the large sword, the ῥομφαία… and curved, for a cutting stroke; distinct also from ξίφος, a straight sword, for thrusting.” Thayer’s predates the Koine papyri discoveries and its account of the blade’s curvature is a statement about ancient realia rather than about Koine usage; it is cited here only to correct the reverse claim, and it agrees with Abbott-Smith in reserving thrusting for the ξίφος. An earlier draft of this study attributed to Thayer’s the statement that the μάχαιρα was “mainly used for stabbing”; that attribution was mistaken and has been removed.
[36] On πάλη (Strong’s #G3823) at Ephesians 6:12 — the rare noun for a wrestling match, occurring only there in the New Testament — see the companion document in this series, Spiritual Battle: An Exegetical Study — Ephesians 6:10-13, where the lexical entries are set out in full.
[37] Guzik, Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Ephesians 6, on Ephesians 6:17. Guzik notes that effective use of this sword “takes practice,” and that the Spirit who gave the Scriptures also “equips us with the right thrust of the sword at the right time.”
[38] Novum Testamentum Graece, Ephesians 6:17, with parsing, consulted at biblehub.com: the noun rendered “word” in the phrase “the word of God” is ῥῆμα (lemma ῥῆμα, Strong’s #G4487).
[39] Liddell, Scott, and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “ῥῆμα,” consulted at lsj.gr: “that which is said or that which is spoken, word, saying,” covering utterances and discourse generally; also “phrase,” as opposed to the single word ὄνομα; “subject matter of speech”; and, in grammar, “verb,” as opposed to noun. Citations include Archilochus 50, Theognis 1152, Pindar, Herodotus 7.162 and 8.83, and Plato, Protagoras 343b and Phaedo 102b. BDAG is print/paywalled and was not retrieved; the BDAG entry for this term should be independently confirmed before use in teaching, and it is the entry that would most directly settle the question discussed in this section.
[40] Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon, s.v. “ῥῆμα,” consulted at studylight.org: “1. prop., of that which is said or spoken, (a) a word”; “2. Like Heb. [dabar] (but perh. also a Gk. colloquialism), of that which is the subject of speech, a thing, matter.”
[41] Mounce, Concise Greek-English Dictionary, s.v. “ῥῆμα” (Strong’s #G4487; GK #4839), consulted at billmounce.com: gloss “word, saying; matter; thing”; definition, “that which is spoken; declaration, saying, speech, word,” used of commands, promises, prophecies, doctrines, accusations, and matters of business.
[42] Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon, s.v. “λόγος,” consulted at studylight.org. Abbott-Smith arranges the entry under three heads: I, speech and expression — “that by which the inward thought is expressed” — subdivided into a word embodying a conception or idea, a saying or statement, speech or discourse, teaching and doctrine, a story or narrative, and a matter or affair including legal disputes; II, the mental faculty and its products (ratio) — reason, account, proportion; III, ὁ λόγος as the Divine Word, citing John 1:1, 1:14, 1 John 1:1, and Revelation 19:13.
[43] Mounce, Concise Greek-English Dictionary, s.v. “λόγος” (Strong’s #G3056; GK #3364), consulted at billmounce.com: “word, spoken or written, often with a focus on the content of a communication; matter, thing,” with a note on “the Word” as a Christological title in John 1:1.
[44] Liddell, Scott, and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “λόγος,” consulted at lsj.gr. LSJ describes the word as the verbal noun of λέγω and divides one of the longest entries in the lexicon across computation and reckoning; relation, correspondence and proportion; explanation, plea, pretext and ground; the inward debate of the soul, thinking and reasoning; logical propositions, rules and formulas; and the cosmic principle of the Stoic and Neoplatonic writers. The breadth of the entry, set beside the comparatively compact entry for ῥῆμα, is the substance of the observation made in the text above.
[45] Novum Testamentum Graece, Ephesians 6:19, with morphological parsing, consulted at biblehub.com. The noun rendered “utterance” in the NKJV is λόγος (Strong’s #G3056), nominative masculine singular.
[46] Novum Testamentum Graece, Ephesians 5:26, with morphological parsing, consulted at biblehub.com. The verse reads ἵνα αὐτὴν ἁγιάσῃ καθαρίσας τῷ λουτρῷ τοῦ ὕδατος ἐν ῥήματι; the noun rendered “the word” is ῥήματι, dative neuter singular of ῥῆμα (Strong’s #G4487). Compare also Romans 10:17, where the word by which faith comes is ῥήματος, the genitive of the same noun.
[47] Barnes, on Ephesians 6:17: “A single text of Scripture is better to meet a temptation, than all the philosophy which the world contains.” Barnes points to Christ’s use of Scripture in the wilderness as the pattern.
[48] Mounce, Concise Greek-English Dictionary, s.v. “προσευχή” (Strong’s #G4335; GK #4666), consulted at billmounce.com: “prayer; place of prayer,” the second sense being metonymic, as of an oratory.
[49] Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: Ephesians, on Ephesians 6:18, consulted at biblehub.com: prayer “crowns all lawful efforts with success and gives a victory when nothing else would.”
[50] Guzik, Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Ephesians 6, on Ephesians 6:18: “The idea is all kinds of prayer or prayer upon prayer. We should use every kind of prayer we can think of.”
[51] Guzik, Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Ephesians 6, on Ephesians 6:19-20. Guzik notes that Paul wanted his readers to pray that he might speak the gospel both clearly and with fearless power.
[52] Liddell, Scott, and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “ἐνδύω,” consulted at lsj.gr. LSJ divides the entry between the intransitive and middle uses — of clothes, “put on,” citing Homer, Iliad 2.42, with the perfect ἐνδέδυκα meaning “wear”; also “enter, press into,” including of an emotion entering the soul, citing Plato, Theaetetus 169c — and the causative, “put on another, clothe in,” with the double accusative. Among the figurative uses LSJ cites τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον, “the new man,” at Ephesians 4:24. The Mounce entry for this headword could not be retrieved this session; see the note in the bibliography. BDAG is print/paywalled and was not retrieved; the BDAG entry for this term should be independently confirmed before use in teaching.
[53] Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament on Ephesians 6 was consulted at biblehub.com, both on the chapter page and on the individual verse pages for 6:15, 6:16, and 6:17. Guzik’s Enduring Word Bible Commentary on Ephesians 6 was consulted at enduringword.com. Both are freely accessible and independently verifiable.
[54] Barnes, on Ephesians 6:14. See the fuller citation above.
[55] Barnes, on Ephesians 6:16. See the fuller citation above.
[56] Barnes, on Ephesians 6:17. See the fuller citation above.
[57] Guzik, Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Ephesians 6, on Ephesians 6:14: “This is not our own earned righteousness, not a feeling of righteousness, but a righteousness received by faith in Jesus.”
[58] Guzik, Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Ephesians 6, on Ephesians 6:14: “The belt of truth puts on the Biblical beliefs of the Christian as a whole, what other passages call the faith.”
[59] Web searches this session did not return independently verifiable, quotable text on Ephesians 6:14-20 from John MacArthur’s MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, Charles Ryrie’s Basic Theology, the New International Commentary on the New Testament, or the Pillar New Testament Commentary. These volumes are listed under “Not Directly Consulted This Session” above. Nothing in this document is attributed to them.