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 firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
Ephesians 6:13-18a
So far in this series on Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God, we have learned how to put on the Belt of Truth, by filtering everything through the lens of Christ, and the Breastplate of Righteousness, as we guard our hearts against sinful passions and temptations. Now we turn our attention to the shoes of our spiritual armor, which is “the readiness of the gospel of peace.”
As the commandment given by the Apostle Paul in this passage is to “stand firm,” we must be very careful to understand this piece of the armor. After all, it is our shoes which give us the ability to stand. If your shoes are slippery or do not fit well, you will surely fall.
Mixed Understanding
To be honest, this piece of armor may be the most misunderstood. A quick survey of other materials on the “shoes of the gospel of peace” leads in various directions. The most common is to say that to put on the “shoes of the gospel” is a call to evangelism. Some writers will allude to Romans 10:15, where Paul quotes from Isaiah 52:7, “As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”
While I do believe that part of our spiritual warfare in this life includes sharing the gospel with others, I do not believe that is what the armor of God passage of scripture is referencing. To understand the shoes we will put on, we must first truly understand the definition of this “peace.”
Understanding Peace
The Greek word used in this verse is “eirēnē,” (or “Irene”) which is the New Testament equivalent of the Hebrew, “shalom.” In fact, the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament used by Jesus) usually translates the Hebrew word “shalom” as “eirēnē.”
The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible says that this word means:
Total well-being, prosperity, and security associated with God’s presence among his people.
Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “Peace,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 1634.
To fully grasp the understanding of this peace, we should not be thinking of person-to-person peacemaking, such as a treaty to end a war. That would typically be spoken of using the Latin word “pax,” which is legislated peace by treaty or law. (The Pax Romana was “the peace of Rome” granted by citizenship under Roman law.)
While the Latin pax “in the first instance denotes a reciprocal legal relationship between two parties,” eirēnē is “primarily no more than the passionately asserted, emotionally felt and palpable opposite of polemos (war, battle).”
Werner Foerster, “Εἰρήνη, Εἰρηνεύω, Εἰρηνικός, Εἰρηνοποιός, Εἰρηνοποιέω,” ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 401.
We should, therefore, understand eirēnē in Ephesians to mean the existence of peace itself, rather than the act of bringing peace. In Jesus, we have peace. We live in peace, even if there is war outside.
The Gospel of Peace
Another Bible dictionary says the definition of peace includes the idea of:
prosperity, success; welfare, state of health; friendliness; deliverance, salvation…
The Lexham Analytical Lexicon of the Septuagint (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).
When we truly understand the Gospel of Peace, we come to know that all of these are gifts from God to His children. These are not just promises which await us in eternity, but they are realities we can and should live in now, by faith!
The Baker Encyclopedia goes on:
In prophetic material, true peace is part of the end-time hope of God’s salvation. In the NT, this longed-for peace is understood as having come in Christ and able to be experienced by faith.
(emphasis mine)
We must understand then, that the gospel of peace is this: through Jesus Christ, God has not only forgiven our sins, but He has already established His Kingdom (His reign) in us, which grants us His peace, now!
As believers, we should be living in this peace of God (shalom/eirēnē), right now, even though the war over the rest of creation is still raging! On the final judgment day, when God defeats all of His enemies, then the pax (legislated peace) of God will be established over all creation for eternity.
How Does Peace Become Shoes?
Take note that Ephesians does not tell us that it is the “Gospel of Peace” itself which is the shoes for our armor. It is “the readiness of the Gospel of Peace.” Not to make things more difficult than they need to be, we must take a look at this word readiness, since the English use of the word may be slightly different than the Greek author’s intention.
In English, the simple reading sounds like it is saying, “for shoes, make yourself ready with the Gospel of Peace.” Although this might be considered technically true, it does not give the proper understanding.
The root word does not mean “get yourself ready,” but rather implies that something “is already made ready.” The Septuagint writers used this same Greek word as they translated Old Testament words like “foundation” and “support.”
It does not imply that you need to get yourself at peace so that you may stand. Rather it means that your peace, protection, provision, and well-being is ALREADY established in Jesus Christ, as the foundation upon which you must choose, daily, to stand! It literally says that for shoes, put on the solid foundation which has been laid for you by the Prince of Peace.
Standing on a Stable Foundation
As I said in the beginning, it is our shoes which give us the ability to “stand firm” or cause us to fall. Paul is telling us that our standing is all about our foundation; our support — The Gospel of Peace.
The shoes given by the Lord, as part of our armor, give us stability as we stand on the foundation of God’s peace in our lives. When we are grounded in the Lord as the one who fulfills His promises to us — to be our provider, our protector, our healer, etc — then our well-being will be secure, and we will have the resilience to “stand firm.”
If, however, we do not stand on the foundation of the gospel of peace, we will never be secure when opposition comes. If Jesus isn’t our security, then we will build false idols to protect ourselves. (How many times did Israel fall because they trusted other nations to protect them, rather than God?) If Jesus isn’t our provider, then we will stumble in our calling, as we struggle to find resources outside of His plan. If Jesus isn’t our healer, the enemy can use any form of sickness to shake our stability. (COVID19 anyone?)
We must remove any counterfeit shoes, given to us by the world or the enemy, which do not give true peace. Although they may offer temporary comfort and stability, they will not be able to stand up on the day of testing!
The Gospel of Peace is our only solid foundation, as we have an assurance that Jesus cares about our total wellbeing, and will do whatever it takes to give us His security, even when the world around us is at war.
Jesus’ Plan for Us is Peace
This is one of the toughest lessons of the Christian life, but it is one we must learn quickly if we are to overcome “the evil day.” Jesus is the Prince of Peace and He promises us His peace, if we will receive it, and stand on it!
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
John 14:27
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Matthew 6:25-34
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Anthony Scott Ingram
Featured Image by Srinivas Reddy on Unsplash
[…] to “stand firm.” These included the Belt of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, and the Shoes of the Gospel of Peace. Then, with the Shield of Faith, we turned our attention to those pieces of armor which Paul […]