Daily Butter 8/7: Shoddy what?

My little addition to Our Daily Bread (8/7/11):

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. … and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;” (Ephesians 6:13, 15 NKJV)

Not a lot of inspired thinking or answers in this morning’s musings. Mainly more questions. While I appreciate the reminder of Anne Cetas in today’s ODB to bring out this passage reminding us to grow beyond a childish reading of this popular passage, her reminder to “take the spiritual armor of the Word of God with us” might be misread. I hope she intended it to mean the WHOLE armor that is described in the Word of God and not to imply that the Word is the only part we need to take. No doubt important, but the Word itself is merely one portion of the armor (the “Sword of the Spirit” - v 17) given to us for the battles. It is also the most thoroughly described and most “material” piece making it the easiest to wrap our minds around. Which brings me to my morning wrestling match:

Since this armor is for a spiritual rather than physical battle, the parts of the armor are also things without a concrete existence: righteousness, faith, truth, salvation, and my quandary of the day, “readiness” or “preparation” of the gospel of peace. My usual reading version, the Holman Christian Standard Bible, has a footnote on verse 15 describing it as “Ready to go tell others about the gospel.” That sounds to me more like track shoes than military boots and only helps muddle my thinking. So I’ve been wrestling this morning through how being “ready to go and tell” fits with the rest to add up to being “able to stand your ground.” The best thing I can muster focuses on the peace: With the knowledge of the Gospel and the certainty that my future is with Him, I can have peace that I am prepared for that future and face the battles come what may.

I don’t mean to imply that taking the Gospel to others isn’t important, but that seems to fit Paul’s analogy better in conjunction with the Sword of the Spirit (as offensive AND defensive weapon) and should be reliant on the Word.

And while that is not my “final answer,” He is my final answer and I’m at peace with that. J

(Speaking of the Gospel, pardon the pun in today’s title. I do understand that “shod” is the past tense of the verb “shoe” – which is only used these days about nailing horseshoes to hooves so please let the only nails used be those He already took on my behalf.)

Andy Jentes