the 'armour' in such a way as to avoid incongruity.  It is common knowledge

that the Greeks wrestled naked; our very word gymnasium is derived from the

Greek gymnos, 'naked'.  Before we can go any further therefore, it is

incumbent upon us to ascertain what 'armour' symbolizes in the teaching of

'The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off

the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light' (Rom.

It will be observed here that 'casting off' is parallel with 'putting

on', and 'works of darkness' with 'armour of light'; 'works' on the one hand

and 'armour' on the other.  Let us read on, watching for any military terms

and any further parallel with the armour, endeavouring to discover the

battleground and the opponents:

'Let us walk honestly (decently), as in the day; not in rioting and

drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and

envying.  But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision

for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof' (Rom. 13:13,14).

Instead of exhorting to fight, the apostle drops all reference to

'armour' as such, and speaks of 'walk'.  The opponents are not soldiers or

external foes, but 'the lusts of the flesh' such as drunkenness and

wantonness.  To leave the matter beyond dispute, he returns to the theme and

in place of the exhortation, 'Let us put on the armour of light', we have,

'Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ'.

If this is what 'armour' means to Paul, then it is perfectly fitting

for him to speak of 'wrestling'.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:7,8 he speaks of

armour once more in a very similar context:

'For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are

drunken in the night.

But let us, who are of the day, be sober,

putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the

hope of salvation'.

The context of this passage will be examined in vain for any allusion

to fighting.  The only foes are those of Romans 13, the foes within, the

lusts of the flesh and the works of darkness.

In our next reference the word 'armour' is translated 'weapons'; and

here at last we find the word 'warfare'.  Perhaps, at last, we shall now see

the field of battle and the nature of the conflict:

'For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God

to the pulling down of strong holds' (2 Cor. 10:4).

Here at last are military terms: weapons, warfare, pulling down

strongholds.  The next verse reads:

'Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself

against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought

to the obedience of Christ' (2 Cor. 10:5).

The fortress that is besieged is that of the 'imaginations' or

'reasonings', prompted by the spiritual power called 'height' in Romans 8:39.