THE CHRISTIAN IN MODERN TIMES – THE LAST DAYS, AND HOW TO LIVE IN THEM – THE BREASTPLATE AND HELMET - PART 3
We continue to look at living in these current days, one of turmoil and declining values and increasing opposition to godliness.
[C]. ARMING OURSELVES FOR LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS
[10]. THE CHILDREN OF LIGHT MUST WEAR THE BREASTPLATE AND THE HELMET
We return to Thessalonians. {{1Thessalonians 5:4 “but YOU, BRETHREN, ARE NOT IN DARKNESS, that the day should overtake you like a thief.”}} Paul assures his readers that that terrible day (the Day of the LORD), “that the day” will not break upon them like a marauding thief, and he tells them why. They do not belong to the darkness. That is so definite. We are sons of light, not of darkness. Light has nothing to do with darkness. The thief belongs to the night.
Then we come to the next 4 verses which make the distinction of light and darkness even stronger. Paul has just said that the day of the Lord will not overtake us as a thief, and continues – {{1Thessalonians 5:5-8 for you are all SONS OF LIGHT AND SONS OF DAY. We are not of (the) night nor of darkness, so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober for those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night, but since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on THE BREASTPLATE OF FAITH AND LOVE, AND AS A HELMET, THE HOPE OF SALVATION.”}}
Light and darkness, is one of the great themes of the Bible and represents good and evil; Christ and Satan; right and wrong. In Genesis 1:1 God created the whole universe, and it would have been in glorious light, but in the next verse we find the earth was in darkness, having entered that state almost certainly through a judgement. Darkness never represents good or God. We were all children of darkness once, but God called us out of darkness into light through His new creation of redemption.
You know in the light of the sun, the breastplate and the helmet of the soldiers in the Roman army shone with a brilliance. It was in the light the sun they shone and sparkled. Jesus is our sun and we should shine in brilliance in His presence. There is another reason why these items shone. They received attention as the soldiers polished them, so they gleamed in the sun. Do we gleam in the light of the Son, or are our helmets and breastplates showing corrosion because we have neglected them?
The breastplate of faith and love, two of the greatest words in the Christian vocabulary. Have we been neglecting faith and love? I believe these qualities are not something that we suddenly determine we are going to do/have like determining we will go out and wash the car. These qualities are aspects of growth. They grow and develop as they are fed. How are they fed? It is by the word of God, the bible. It always comes down to the bible. Faith and love will be the product of the Holy Spirit in us applying the word of God to us – {{Galatians 5:22-23 “but the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.”}} Faith is strengthened by knowing the bible and trusting what it says. Salvation, associated with the helmet is another great word in the Christian vocabulary.
Returning to sons of light. John could say – {{John 1:4-5 “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it, and Jesus was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”}} The Word became flesh and His light was seen in grace and truth. {{The true light had come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil,”}} so they shunned the light as do cockroaches, and hated the light. {{“Everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed.”}} Jesus told the people, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.” The Apostle John is very clear in his letters about the light and darkness, and delivers this truth for us – {{1John 1:5-7 “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that GOD IS LIGHT, AND IN HIM THERE IS NO DARKNESS AT ALL. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not practise the truth, but if we WALK IN THE LIGHT as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”}}
When Jesus said “He who is not with Me is against Me,” He drew the line of division very clearly. There are only two sides, either a follower of the Lord, or one against Jesus. If you are not a Christian, then you are an enemy of Jesus. It is that simple. The broad way is peopled with the enemies of Jesus. There is no neutrality in faith as there are only two camps. To move from one camp to the other you need a transformation; from Satan to the Lord Jesus, to be born again.
One thing I see in the Bible is that we can not walk in a grey area. The word is so clear that only two states exist – light and darkness. We belong to one or the other. And we walk according to one or the other. There is no blend. If you think so, go and read all John’s writings. It is essential to understand this clear line of demarcation that exists between these two states. Now back to 1Thessalonians 5 verses 5 and 6 – Paul confirms they are all sons of the light and of the day, and they do not belong to the night or to the darkness. That is the STATE they are in, because they belong to the One who is the Light of the World, BUT then he talks about the state of their walk, and sadly Christians can walk in darkness. It is a dishonourable thing to do, but too many walk in darkness. It is betraying the Lord, but worldly Christians walk according to their own desires, not those of the Lord. Paul makes another contrast of sleep and alertness and sobriety. We are to be on our guard and awake in the word of God, sober in our walk because our Saviour died for us. Verse 7 relates the sleeping when on duty as a Christian, with the activity of the night which is associated with darkness; and the drunkards are drunk at night (though in our culture we have drunks day and night), but drunkenness is a sin, and associated with darkness.
Look at verse 8. It begins with a “but” and your version should have that. What Paul has just written in the previous verses, belongs to the night and what he now writes, belongs to the day. We are of the day, and therefore we must be sober. We shall look at this word “sober” from the original Greek. The word is ??f? and it means to act properly; to be sober (not drunk); not intoxicated with unreality - (figuratively) free from illusion, i.e. from the intoxicating influences of sin (like the impact of selfish passion, greed, self-importance, etc.); calm and circumspect; having presence of mind (clear judgment); enabling someone to be temperate (self-controlled); uninfluenced by intoxicants; to have "one's wits (faculties) about him or her," which is the opposite of being irrational.
Paul then abruptly moves to the image of a soldier. He selects two pieces of equipment and three godly qualities given to a Christian. We will look at those verses again - {{1Thessalonians 5:5-8 “for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of (the) night nor of darkness, so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober for those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night, but since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the BREASTPLATE of faith and love, and as a HELMET, the hope of salvation.”}} The two items are the breastplate and the helmet. In Ephesians where this armour is more fully developed, the armour is offensive and defensive but here it is only defensive. It is all about the good soldier being sober, that is, being watchful and alert. The breastplate protects his heart, the centre of life and spring of the body’s forces and the helmet protects his head. The fitness of this metaphor lies in the place of the helmet as the crown of the soldier’s armour, its brightest and most conspicuous feature, covering the head, the part of his person that most invites attack from enemies.
The breastplate protects the whole chest but the heart was most vulnerable. In ancient cultures the heart was considered the vitality of the person and the organ that controlled the emotions, and the life. There are so many hymns and songs, Christian and secular, that feature the emotions of the heart, especially love. We have all heard of the words, “Receive the Lord Jesus into your heart”. We know what it means but those words are sometimes used. Paul follows this theme, where in verse 8, he connects the breastplate with faith and love; and the helmet with hope and salvation. These are vital words in our Christian faith and need the protection of the breastplate. The heart is under attack from forces that would weaken and destroy our love. The evil world would turn our devotion away from Christ. Our love might grow cold and we renounce the faith or become ritualistic or useless. The heart needs protection. So too does faith. Faith can easily be attacked and destroyed. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Our breastplate is the word of God. Christian faith and love need protecting by the breastplate of the word, but they in turn will become our breastplate to protect us from all that comes against us. Study to show yourself approved by God, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Take and hold the breastplate tightly.
Then we have the helmet. That affords protection for the head. All our thoughts and ideas, and plans and strategies need the protection of the helmet. OUR THOUGHTS MUST BE REIGNED IN UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE LORD. {{1Corinthians 2:12-13 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.” 2Corinthians 10:5 “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are TAKING EVERY THOUGHT CAPTIVE TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST”}}
You will notice that Paul talks of the helmet as the hope of salvation. That is so vital because it is hope that sustains us, and salvation that marks us out. Specifically, the hope of salvation is the settled assurance that we are saved, and one day, we shall be saved from the very presence of sin. We have that as a certainty but it needs protection. Paul could say in {{Romans 5:5 “and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”}} In 1 Corinthians Paul links all three characters of our essential Christianity, those elements that need the protection of the breastplate and the helmet – {{1Corinthians 13:13 “But now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”}}
Part 4 is next and concludes this study.
