Paul is methodical and precise in equipping the Christian soldier for battle. He tells us to take truth as our belt, righteousness as our breastplate, the readiness of the gospel message as our shoes, faith as our shield and salvation as our helmet. With these elements, we are safe, protected . . . and missing something vital.
A soldier without a weapon isn’t much of a threat. Defensive armor equips us to take a hit, but God didn’t call us onto the battlefield to play the role of a glorified punching bag. He called us here to fight—and not just to fight, but to win. And so, as the final element of the armor of God, Paul tells us to take “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17).
But to truly appreciate the magnitude and the power of this God-given piece of armament, we have to go back to the beginning.
Yeah. That beginning.
In the beginning, “the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2).
Then God spoke.
In the verses that follow, God calls for light, and the darkness is pierced. He calls for land, and the sea gives way. He hangs the sun, moon and all the stars in their places. He fashions complex ecosystems and impossible creatures through His invisible Spirit.
“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).
In six days, God took a planet that was “without form, and void” and transformed it into a blue-green jewel suspended in the ever-expanding vastness of the cosmos. On that jewel, in a paradise He planted, He created the first of a race of beings patterned after His own image, each one formed with the potential to become like Him and to live forever as part of His eternal family.
And that’s just chapter 1. In the opening lines of the Bible, we are brought face-to-face with a small glimpse of the infinite might and majesty of our Creator, made visible to us through His Word and His Spirit.
That’s our sword.
When Paul wrote to the Ephesians, the Roman sword of choice was the gladius—sometimes referred to as “the sword that conquered the world.” You’ve probably seen the sword of the Spirit depicted in the style of a medieval great sword—a huge, intimidating blade with a two-handed grip—but the sword Paul had in mind was nothing of the sort.
The gladius was a short, one-handed blade, designed to be drawn in close quarters. As a small blade, it was easy to swing. Either one of its dual edges could spell disaster for unarmored opponents—and with a well-timed thrust, its sharpened point could pierce through even enemy armor.
Likewise, “the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
That’s a powerful weapon. It has to be: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12, ESV).
Rulers. Authorities. Cosmic powers and spiritual forces of darkness and evil. We are standing our ground against wave after wave of ancient, corrupted beings who are out for blood.
For the most part, every component of the armor of God exists to protect us from the damage these spiritual beings can cause—but the sword is different. After we put on the rest of the armor, God hands us His Word as additional protection and tells us to drive the enemy back.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete” (2 Corinthians 10:4-6, ESV).
The gladius may have been the sword that conquered the world, but God’s Word is a sword that can put demons to flight.
The value of a sword on the battlefield should be fairly obvious. It is the weapon—the only weapon—God gives us in this fight.
Without the Word of God and the Spirit of God, we cannot win.
But first, we have to learn how to use this sword.
Paul calls it “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” So far, the elements of the armor of God have been described by a single spiritual trait. The belt is made of truth. The helmet is made of salvation. The shield is made of faith.
It’s not as clear in our English translations, but Paul made a distinction here in the original Greek. He wasn’t writing about a sword that was made of Spirit, but a sword provided by the Spirit. (Sort of how the armor of God isn’t made of God; it’s provided to us by God.)
The Spirit of God provides the sword, and the sword is the Word of God. That’s what Paul is telling us, and that bit of information is vital as we learn to master this part of the panoply of God.
Living and powerful.
Piercing to the division of soul and spirit.
A discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
That’s your sword. That’s the powerful tool you’ve been given. And if you want to learn how to use it, what better place is there to start than at the feet of the Master?
Nearly 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ was preparing for what may have been the most important spiritual battle ever fought. Immediately after His baptism, the Spirit of God led Him into the wilderness (Mark 1:12), where He spent 40 days and 40 nights fasting, spiritually preparing for what was coming.
Jesus’ opponent in this battle was the devil himself. Satan saw this as his opportunity to derail the entire plan of God. If he could tempt Jesus Christ into sinning, it would all be over. The sacrifice for the sins of the world needed to be perfect and blameless. A single misstep from the intended Savior of the world would be enough to ruin millennia of divine planning.
Satan came prepared to do his worst. He threw temptation after temptation at the very human—and very hungry—Son of God.
If You really are the Son of God, You don’t have to go hungry. Use Your power to turn these stones into food. (See Matthew 4:2-3.)
Jump off this building. Prove to everyone who You are as they watch God save Your life. (See verses 5-6.)
There’s an easier way to accomplish Your purpose—just worship me and I’ll give You authority over all the world. (See verses 8-9.)
Satan aimed these three temptations where he hoped they would have the best chance at throwing Jesus off-balance: satisfying His physical hunger, proving His spiritual identity and enabling His desire to save the world.
Satan was offering shortcuts—easy, low-effort solutions that would solve Jesus’ problems.
At a cost.
Satan’s “solutions” would have introduced a hundred new problems, each one worse than the first. He didn’t mention that to Jesus, of course—and he won’t mention that to you, either. That’s how his temptations—his attacks—work. He makes them look like the easy way out, like the perfect answer. He hides the damage those “solutions” will cause, whether that damage comes immediately or somewhere down the line.
Jesus showed us how to parry these attacks. After every temptation, Jesus countered with Scripture—inspired passages from the Word of God. He ignored Satan’s taunt, refusing to give in to His physical hunger because living by every word of God is more important than our physical desire for food (Matthew 4:4). He refused to jump off the temple, because that would be tempting God (verse 7). He refused to worship Satan, because God and God alone is worthy of worship (verse 10).
Jesus relied on the Word of God3 to drive Satan away. It worked. After three counterattacks, Satan “departed from Him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13).
That’s the power of our spiritual sword, the Word of God.
It’s worth noting that, in tempting Jesus, Satan used (or rather, misused) Scripture too. He quoted two passages to justify why Jesus was entitled to throw Himself off the pinnacle of the temple (Matthew 4:6).
There’s a lesson there too.
The Bible can be misused. Verses can be taken out of context and misinterpreted. They can be used to “prove” things that fly in the face of God’s will for us. That’s why we have to be careful. The Bereans set an excellent example for us: when they heard the gospel being preached, they “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).
But our own study is far from enough. Satan is clever, and leaning on our own understanding is a disaster waiting to happen. We can’t do this without divine assistance from God’s Spirit, which “searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10).
It’s also worth noting that after their skirmish, Satan withdrew from Jesus until an opportune time. Not permanently. We can drive Satan away, but he never gives up. He waits for the next opportunity, the next opening, the next weak point to appear in our armor. But when he comes back, the same attack plan works every time:
“Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
The devil fled from Jesus, and when he sees you, clad head to toe in the armor of God, wielding the sword of the Word of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit—when he sees you holding your ground, refusing to budge a single inch—rest assured, he will flee from you too.
And when he runs, we can begin training for our next encounter—and the one after that, and the one after that. In this life, there will always be a next encounter.
But we can win. The weapons of our warfare are mighty. Paul told Timothy, “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called” (1 Timothy 6:11-12).
Remember what you’re fighting for, take up the sword you’ve been given, and fight the good fight.
3 Talking about the Word of God can get confusing here—it’s a title we see given to both the pages of the Bible and to Jesus Christ Himself. In this instance, we’re referring to the written Word of God. In our article “Was Jesus Created?” we explain, “Jesus Christ is described as One who speaks on behalf of the Father. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, He spoke the mind and thoughts of His Father (John 3:34; Hebrews 1:1-2). The Bible is the written Word of God, and Jesus Christ is the living, personified Word of God—a separate Being who was sent to speak the words of God.” Jesus was, in fact, the God who interacted with Israel in the Old Testament (see “Jesus in the Old Testament?” for more on that subject). In His confrontation with Satan, Jesus was technically quoting Himself.
