I just realised it has been almost two and a half years since I last preached! Pastorpher asked me if I could preach today, one and a half weeks ago, since they will be away for conference meeting. I agreed and did a sermon to follow up Pastorpher's Spiritual Warfare, basically to follow through Paul's reference to the armour of God (Eph 6:10-20).
The feedback from the congregation were these two:
(1) it was a comfort to know that we stand firm as one church. We are not alone, we are part of the body of Christ. We put on the full armour, protect ourselves as well as each other and extend our prayers and petition as well.
(2) one of the more difficult piece to put on will be the breastplate of righteousness. The holiness of God is not an easy thing to put on, but to put on we must.
pearlie
Source of picture: www.catholicword.org
hi Pearlie,
ReplyDeleteI am interested to know that when you refer to the verses about the armour of God, what is the conclusion of your exegesis. Is the armour for individual Christians as shown in the illustration or for the body of Christ i.e. one armour for all.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteSorry for the delay in this - Eph 6:11's "you" is in the plural and I take that an army of soldier can never be one person and therefore it has to be for the body of Christ. The entire section was addressed to the brethren anyway. WHat do you think?
This is interesting. As the 'you' is plural and addressed to the body of Christ, I take Paul to be using the metaphor of the body of Christ wearing the armour of God. As such, it is not the individual but the whole Church that is involved.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think? Is our understanding of Pauline theology too individualistic?
I didn't realise you got a point there - the many believers as one body wearing on full armour of God. Wow, didn't think of that before. Looks like I've gotta to give another addendum sermon on this! haha
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree we tend to be very individualistic when we look at Paul's teaching sometimes, much to our detriment.
sorry typo-error = the many believers as one body wearing ONE full armour of God.
ReplyDeleteThat's a fascinating thought, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteYour post reminds me of an old hymn that suddenly ran through my head the past few days. Here's the third stanza that may be relevant to your post:
ReplyDelete3. Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
stand in his strength alone;
the arm of flesh will fail you,
ye dare not trust your own.
Put on the gospel armour,
each piece put on with prayer;
when duty calls or danger
be never wanting there.
Thanks for your thoughts and sharing and that is an awesome hymn too :)
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