The Shield of Faith

The shield of faith

            The Roman Soldiers carried a shield with them into battle.  The shield existed as a crucial role in war.  It protected the soldier from enemy projectiles.  The Roman soldier used the shield as an offensive weapon against the enemy by running with his shoulder behind the shield and ramming his enemy in order to knock them down.

            God distributed shields to His soldiers.  God’s shield is composed of faith…our faith and the amount of faith that the believer possesses that belongs to Jesus Christ.  The shield belongs to the believer and the believer’s faith is the composition of their shield.

            What is faith?  The author of Hebrews defined faith for the believers.  Hebrews 11:1 states, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Faith exists as the glue that holds one together.  It is that which, even though one may never see with their eyes, they know without a shadow of a doubt that it is truth.  The believer may need for God to grant them a vision of Christ on the throne to know that He is there because they already know that He is there from God’s Word.  Faith is the first step to receiving salvation.  Knowing that God pardoned their sin and accepting that their sins are forgiven without any physical piece of evidence is faith.  The person may feel a difference but that feeling wanes as time progresses, yet the individual knows that they received Christ as their Savior, not on feeling, but on the knowledge that their sins were forgiven.  The believer knows that their sins were forgiven because God proved His Word true on other occasions.  Because God proved his Word true, the believer presses forward knowing that God only speaks truth.  Therefore, faith exists as the fundamental component to the believer’s armor because without it, the believer already lost the battle and, possibly, the war.

            Paul emphasized the importance of the shield of faith.  He wrote that “Above all” the believer should never lay down the shield of faith.  The shield provides the believer’s protection against the darts of the enemy.  The darts are not just any darts but they exist as fiery darts.  The devil uses the strongest, most potent darts possible.

            The enemy attempts to destroy the believer’s shield of faith with the fiery darts.  These fiery darts fly in many different shapes and sizes and vary from believer to believer.  These darts range from pride, grief, sickness, doubt, division, strife, contention, variance, lust, and etc. He attempts and performs every tactic imaginable to destroy the believer’s faith.[1] 

            One of the most famous fiery darts is greed.  Matthew 27:3 states,

“Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,  Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.  And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.”

The devil attacked Judas with the fiery dart of greed.  Judas was the bag holder.[2]  This indicates that Judas resided as Christ’s treasurer.  He handled the money every day.  Somewhere in the three and a half years of the ministry of Christ, the enemy successfully hit Judas with the fiery dart of greed.  Judas apparently developed a love for money.  He wanted some for himself.  As a result, the enemy used greed to defeat Judas.  Judas tried to fix the damage himself but he was unsuccessful.  Judas could have defeated the enemy by repenting of his sins but he handled the situation himself and committed suicide.[3]  In the end, the enemy triumphed over Judas.  Judas lost faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah for the forgiveness of his sins—betrayal, greed, etc.  Judas was not the only apostle to lose faith.

            The women and Thomas lost faith for a period of time.  The women came to the tomb to place spices  upon the body of Christ.  These spices were to preserve the DEAD body of Christ.  Christ told His disciples on several occasions that He was going to rise from the dead on several occasions but they forgot.  The situation overtook them and they believed that Christ was gone forever.  However, Christ proved them wrong when He revealed Himself to Mary Magdalene and the remainder of the disciples were informed that Christ was no longer in the grave.  Thomas lost his faith in Christ as well because he had to see the wounds of Christ in order to believe.  A lack of faith defeats every doubter but true faith empowers the believer.

            Faith in God and His gifts to men defeats the enemy.  If the believer knows the truth than his or her faith increases and cannot be broken as easily.  However, if the believer loses faith, the devil launches fiery darts of doubt to defeat the person.  If the believer doubts, then their faith decreases and their protection—their shield—wanes.  Not only does a lack of faith decreases the protection of the believer, but it displays a regression on the part of the believer and will ultimately lead to displeasing and/or rejecting God.[4]

           

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[1] Note:  Other “fiery darts” are: 

Ephesians 5:3-5 “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;  Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.  For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”

Galatians 5:19-21 “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Revelations 22:5 “For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”

[2] John 13:29 “For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor.”

[3] Matthew 27:5 “And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.”

[4] Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”