we can go any further it is incumbent upon us to ascertain what armour

symbolizes in the teaching of Paul:

`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. 13:12).

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

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 strongholds' (2 Cor. 10:4).

Here are military terms: weapons, warfare, pulling down strongholds.

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.

The captives taken are the `thoughts' brought into obedience to Christ.  There

is nothing here approaching warfare in the military sense.  The words of

Proverbs 16:32 are still true and can be applied to our present theme: