“True Religion” (James 1:26-27)

This coming October more than four thousand exhibitors and nearly a quarter million visitors from fifty-five countries will gather for an event that you’ve probably never heard of. It’s the annual Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany. And it is not only the world’s largest book fair. It is also the oldest, dating back to 1478—which is barely a generation after Johannes Gutenberg first began to crank the gears of his printing press.

The book fair had been running for fewer than fifty years, when in 1522 a young scholar exhibited a book that would trigger a spiritual and political upheaval that would transform the world forever. The young man’s name—and perhaps you’ve guessed it already—was Martin Luther. And the book was the first edition of his freshly minted translation of the New Testament into the German language.

In addition to the text of the New Testament itself, Luther also wrote a brief introduction to each of its twenty-seven books. And here is what he wrote about the Letter of James, which has been the focus of our sermons since the beginning of the year: “St James’s epistle is really a right strawy epistle, compared to the others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it.”

It is clear that, initially at least, Luther was no great fan of this book of the Bible. Yet I hasten to add that he never questioned its divine inspiration. In fact he later deleted his rather dismissive comment from all subsequent editions of his translation of the New Testament.

James’s letter may not contain the gospel message in so many words. But that’s because it is the gospel in action. Rather than giving us an explanation of the gospel, James gives us its application. Perhaps we could summarize James’s message by another quotation ascribed to Martin Luther: “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.”

What I love about James is that he shoots straight from the hip. And that was perfectly natural, as James was not a scholar like Paul, who could speak the language of philosophers and theologians. But he was a man with a heart for prayer and a passionate desire to see the life of discipleship put into action amid the practicalities of everyday living.

And that was only natural, as James had grown up all his life around Jesus, his older brother. I sometimes wonder, Was James there listening as Jesus taught the crowds, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…”? Did he share Jesus’ sorrow as that rich young man turned his back and walked away after being challenged to give his possessions to the poor? Was he looking on when Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers in the Temple? We’ll never know. But we do know for certain that he was one of those to whom Jesus made a point of appearing following his resurrection. (1 Corinthians 15:7)

In later life James became known for his passion for justice, so that he is honoured to this day as “James the Just”. And he was so often found on his knees in worship before God and in prayer for his people that they affectionately dubbed him with the nickname “Camel Knees”, as it was said that his knees became as hard and callused as those of a camel.

In the two verses we’re focusing on this morning, James challenges us to concentrate our attention on three things: our words, our deeds and our thoughts.

Words – Bridling the Tongue

So first: our words. James is not alone in the Bible in giving a warning about how we use our tongues. Indeed what we read here is just one line in a whole chorus that can be found throughout the Bible:

·  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:4)

·  The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is of little worth. (Proverbs 10:20)

·  A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit. (Proverbs 15:4)

·  The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint… Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues. (Proverbs 17:27-28)

·  A false witness will not go unpunished, and whoever pours out lies will not escape. (Proverbs 19:5)

·  Do you see someone who is hasty in their words? There is more hope for a fool than for someone like that. (Proverbs 29:20)

·  Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. (Ephesians 4:29)

·  Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let them keep their tongue from evil and their lips from speaking deceit. (1 Peter 3:10)

And from our Lord Jesus himself:

·  It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person. (Matthew 15:11)

·  For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. (Matthew 12:37)

James will go on at some length about the dangers of the tongue in chapter 3, using some very vivid and colourful imagery. But at this point he limits himself to a single sentence: “If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues …,” he warns us, “their religion is worthless.”

A secure bridle is what gives a riders control over their horses, ensuring the safety both of themselves and of their animal. And the word our Bibles translate as “worthless” can be used to mean “empty”, “fruitless”, “useless”, “futile”.

So it is that negative words can be destructive and crushing. How many times have I wished that a word had not left my mouth, that I had paused for just a moment to consider the possible consequences of my hasty and ill-thought remarks! Positive words, on the other hand, words that build up, words that give heart, can make a difference to another person that lasts a lifetime. One of my junior high school teachers used to have a sign posted above the blackboard at the front of the classroom that read something to the effect, “Caution: Be sure mind is engaged before putting mouth in gear.” I can think of more than one occasion when I wish I’d heeded that advice. And I am also grateful for the words of encouragement, support—and sometimes gentle challenge—that people have shared with me from time to time over the years.

Deeds – Caring for the afflicted

James has spent the first of our couplet of verses with a warning about false religion. Indeed the word he uses can be translated “empty”, “fruitless”, “useless”, “powerless”, “vain”, “deceptive”, “pointless”, “futile”. But what does real religion, genuine devotion to God look like? That is the subject of our second verse. And for James it is simple. It’s not a matter of merely going to church or even praying or reading the Bible. It’s this: looking after widows and orphans in distress and keeping oneself unstained (unblemished, untarnished) by the world.

Perhaps it was statements like this that bothered Luther. James doesn’t mention anything about faith, about prayer, about participating in a Christian community, about reading the Scriptures…

But that’s because he assumes all that. After all, he is writing to believers, to people who have been blown away by God’s grace and have fallen in love with Jesus, to people who pray, to people who are serious about conforming their lives to the principles of Scripture. But that inner change of heart has no real usefulness unless it is directed outwards. And that is the point of two of Jesus’ most arresting parables—the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and the parable of the sheep and the goats. The rich man was condemned because he had ignored the message of Moses and the prophets to love and to care for the poor and the alien. And do you remember how Jesus answers those privileged to take the place of honour at his right-hand side, when they wondered how they had fed and welcomed and clothed him? “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40) So it is that James chooses to focus on two things.

The first of them is to care for orphans and widows in their affliction. In biblical times women were totally dependent on their husbands for their welfare. Think of the story of Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi in the Old Testament. When their husbands died, they were left entirely on their own without any property or means. Their only option was to eke out a meagre existence by picking up the leftovers from the farmers’ fields.

Sadly, we have more than our share of widows in this congregation. But I want to take a moment to think on a world scale.

·  According to United Nations statistics there are more than a quarter of a billion widows worldwide.

·  Widowed women are twice as likely as the general population to be food insecure.

·  In many parts of the world, a widow will lose her land rights following her husband’s death and end up being evicted from her home.

·  Approximately one in ten are living in extreme poverty or destitution, in many cases without any assets at all.

James’s concern for children, which was shared by the Christian community, was unique in the ancient world. In contrast, children were often regarded as property rather than individuals with rights. Fathers had almost absolute power over their children, including the right to sell, abandon or even kill them without any legal repercussions, and it was not unknown for infants to be left to die of exposure.

Today it is estimated that there are at least 147 million orphans in the world (that is, children who have lost either one parent or both), while an additional 240 million children live in extreme poverty—and the actual number could be even higher. These youngsters face multiple stumbling blocks as they deal with grief, poverty, hunger, unpredictability, and a bleak future. Their vulnerability and proneness to various challenges, such as being forced into slave labour or prostitution or recruited as child soldiers, put them in need of extra care and support.

So how do we respond to all of this? I’m glad to say that there are dozens of Christian organizations doing that work strategically and compassionately on your and my behalf both locally and around the world. Let me challenge you, if you are not doing so already, to pick out one or two and then to be generous in supporting them—both in prayer and financially. No doubt there is more that we can do—and more than we can do—but at the very least we can start there.

Thoughts – Keeping unstained

James has challenged us about how we use our tongues. He has set before us the plight of the needy. Now he moves on to a third topic. And in our day and age I suspect that for many of us this may be the biggest challenge of all: in James’s words, keeping ourselves unstained from the world.

Some years ago Karen and I had the privilege of spending a day touring Lepsis Magna on the Libyan coast. In its day Lepsis was a city of a quarter of a million people and was the administrative capital of the Roman Empire. It was fascinating, and for me deeply moving, to walk around its ruins and be met by ichthus (fish), chi-rhos, crosses and other Christian symbols etched into its ancient stones by our ancestors in the faith. But far more prominent were the phalluses and other sexual symbols prominently displayed along the sides of its commercial streets. It was a reminder to me that ancient Rome was a deeply and shamelessly immoral society.

This was the context into which James was addressing his words. And it should cause us to take a good, hard look at our own situation today. Temptations are all around us and it is so easy to fall into thinking, “Why not?” or “Just this once…,” or, “Everybody’s doing it, so it can’t be that bad.”

I can’t speak for the women in the congregation. But I do know that for men pornography is a huge issue. I grew up in the days when boys would hide girlie magazines under their mattresses. But with the advent of the internet and now Computer-Generated Imaging (CGI) the landscape has completely changed. Allow me to give you one example:

In 2020, Pornhub [headquartered in Montreal] averaged over 4 million unique user sessions per day in Canada—more than 10% of the Canadian population used the site on a daily basis. A 2020 survey asked participants which big tech companies they think have the biggest impact on society. Pornhub ranked third on the list, behind only Facebook and Google. A majority (56%) also voted Pornhub the company with the most negative impact on society.[1]

This is the world in which we live today—a world of ever more powerful adversaries seeking to gain control over our minds and hearts. And Pornhub is only one of thousands.

In the face of all this, let me say that spiritual integrity is not a finite achievement but a lifelong journey. It requires perseverance, humility, and trust. And I would add that it is a journey that is best undertaken in community—in partnership with other believers (ideally men with men and women with women) whom we can trust and with whom we can truly level.

Whew! What a challenge James has packed into just two little verses! And he was not alone. His contemporary Paul laid down the same challenge, and I want to conclude by reading his words:

And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.
But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! … Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. (Ephesians 4:17-24, The Message)

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[1]     https://arpacanada.ca/publication/pornography-2/

“Eternity In Our Hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-15)

Kris Kristofferson (who died last year at the age of 88) was one of the greatest performers of the twentieth century. He achieved the distinction of having written a number one hit that made it into the Billboard Hot 100 and that was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. But Kris Kristofferson was not the only one to achieve that amazing success. There was another. And that leads me to my question for you this morning: Who was that other one?

The answer may surprise you. It was none other than King Solomon. And the hit that made it to the top of the charts is the Bible passage we have read in this morning’s service, as it is found in the old King James Version: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven…”

Those words became the lyrics of a song composed in 1959 by Pete Seeger and that became popularly known as “Turn, turn, turn”. The initial release was sung by Seeger himself, later to be followed successively by the Limeliters, the Byrds, and Judy Collins—and each one a top hit in its own right. There was even a German translation sung by film legend Marlene Dietrich and accompanied by Burt Bacharach.

It seemed to me that this passage, with its repeated references to time, is one that we might do well to read this morning, as we stand on the cusp of another year. This is a point where many of us are especially aware of the passage of time, as we look back over the past twelve months and attempt to peer ahead into the next.

What were some of the high points of this past year for you? Some of its lows? What did you do that was different? What remained pretty much unchanged? From a world point of view, here are some of the events that have dominated the headlines this year:

·  Donald Trump radiates chaos and turmoil in the first year of his second presidency in the United States

·  A new Liberal minority government under Mark Carney is elected in our own country of Canada

·  Civil war continues in Sudan, with over twelve million people forced to abandon their homes—the largest and fastest displacement crisis in the world

·  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has now claimed more than a million lives

·  In Burma’s civil war, more than 400,000 people have been displaced, with more than a million in need of humanitarian assistance

·  The Roman Catholic Church appoints its first American pope in the person of Leo XIV

·  The Toronto Bluejays come within a hair’s breadth of winning the World Series

·  A ceasefire is proclaimed in Gaza, but only after claiming more than 70,000 lives, mainly of innocent people

·  Over $100 million worth in jewels are stolen from the Louvre in Paris

·  Sixteen people are shot dead on Bondi Beach while celebrating Hannukah, including a Holocaust survivor and a ten year-old child

Day by day

Now all of those events I’ve listed are on a national or international scale. But Solomon’s interests in the verses we have before us are on a very different level. They are not headline-grabbing affairs. They have a much more personal, human focus. By and large they are all events that you and I can relate to in the course of daily life—the kind of things some might think about posting on their Facebook page: birth and death, planting and uprooting, building and taking down, weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, finding and losing, seeking and giving up, tearing and mending, speaking and keeping silent…

And while it may all seem very ordinary and unspectacular, there is a beauty to this rhythm of life, to this predictability that makes so much of everyday living possible. Even though winter has hardly begun, I look forward to the coming of spring, when the bulbs I planted in the fall will poke through the earth and come into bloom. I look forward to celebrating birthdays with members of my family. I look forward to next Christmas, even though the current Christmas season won’t be officially over for another eight days!

At the same time there is also a sadness. We are forced to recognize that it is an unavoidable part of life in this world that good things will come to an end. And, as much as we might want to, it is beyond your power or mine to extend them. In a few days’ time we’ll be dragging our Christmas trees out to the side of the road and our neighbour’s inflatable reindeer will lie collapsed on the frozen ground. More seriously, Solomon reminds us that there is a time to weep and a time to mourn—that family and friends who are with us this Christmas may not be here to gather around our table when Christmas rolls around next year.

Now I don’t want to put you on a downer during this festive season or ruin your Christmas by making you think about sad things. So let me ask you, what are some positive lessons we can glean from these verses? Allow me to offer a couple of suggestions: We can seek to embrace each of the seasons of life in faith, with the assurance that somehow—and as often as not mysteriously—God has a purpose behind them all. Moreover we can trust that through all of life’s ups and downs, our gracious Lord holds each of us firmly in his all-powerful hand.

But far more importantly we need to recognize that, as stirringly eloquent and timeless as Solomon’s words may be, they do not tell the whole story. Ecclesiastes opens with the doleful cry, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity…” And repeatedly Solomon confesses that he is looking at life from a perspective “under the sun”. Over the course of the eleven chapters of Ecclesiastes we are confronted by this expression no fewer than twenty-seven times. And so we need to take warning: that what Solomon is giving us in these verses is only a partial picture. It offers us only a purely earthly perspective. And for the full story we need to look elsewhere in Scripture…

The day everything changed

So let me read to you now from those famous opening words of John’s gospel, words often read at this time of year:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

I cannot read those words without a sense of amazement, without feeling chills tingling down my spine. John invites us to gaze not just around us like Solomon, but upwards into the vast and limitless expanse of the heavens—and with awe and amazement to ponder the God who created it all. And then to realize that God, who holds the universe in the palm of his hand, whom the Psalms describe as riding across the highest heavens and thundering with a mighty voice, has set his love on the likes of you and me.

This love is nothing like Solomon’s cool observation, musing on his subjects from the lofty security of his throne. While Solomon looks downwards from the aloofness of his palace to observe the everyday affairs of his kingdom, the Son of God fully embraces our human experience. He takes upon himself our very flesh—becomes a helpless fetus in a mother’s womb, experiences hunger and thirst, temptation and sorrow, misunderstanding, betrayal, suffering, abandonment and finally even death itself.

Years before, on the bank of the Jordan River, John the Baptist had pointed to Jesus with the words, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Those words may have seemed puzzling at the time. But it would be on the cross that Jesus would experience even death itself. Indeed he would experience not only our physical death, but he would take upon himself our spiritual deadness, our deadness to God.

And so it was, that a generation later, looking back on the cross the apostle Paul could write, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) What Paul recognized was that, when Jesus hung dying on the cross, he was not dying for any sin that he had committed, but for your sins and for mine and for those of all who turn to him in faith. He was taking upon himself our death, so that you and I might share fully in his life.

The day we await

All of which brings me to a third passage of Scripture, this time from the vision that the Lord gave to John in the Book of Revelation:

Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’

He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’

He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children…’ (Revelation 21:1-7)

When Jesus died on the cross and rose again, he broke the endless cycle of birth and death, planting and uprooting, searching and giving up, keeping and throwing away. The eternity that God has set in our hearts has become for us a reality, a real and ever-present hope as we open our lives to him.

I’m no prophet and I don’t dare predict what we’ll have to look back on a year from now. On the other hand, I have little doubt that, much as Solomon has described it, over the course of this coming year of 2026, we will see its share of births and deaths, planting and uprooting, killing and healing. Yet I want to challenge you to put it into its larger context, the full picture of God’s eternal and glorious purpose for this world. May your goal for 2026 be that of the apostle Paul:

I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in^[ Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:8-16)

So amid all the round of life allow me to challenge you keep your eyes fixed on our glorious Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit to press on in the unshakeable hope that God has placed before us in him!

“It’s a Battleground Out There” (Ephesians 6:10-17)

 We preachers are always looking for good illustrations for our sermons. I went online recently and it took me hardly a second before I was confronted by a whole boatload of collections of sermon illustrations. They came with titles like The Preacher’s Sourcebook of Creative Sermon Illustrations, Hot Sermon Illustrations, Encyclopedia of Sermon Illustrations, The Ultimate Book of Illustrations and Quotes, 500 Sermon Illustrations for Busy Pastors, 1000 Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching… And if those weren’t enough, there was the blockbuster: 6000 Sermon Illustrations. At a sermon a week, you’d have enough illustrations to see you through more than a century!

 Of course Jesus was the master of the illustration. Who doesn’t remember his parables of the farmer scattering his seed over the various types of soil, of the shepherd who searches high and low for his lost sheep until he finds it, or of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus at his gate?

In our passage from the sixth chapter of Ephesians this morning I can picture the apostle Paul pacing back and forth in his prison cell as he draws towards the conclusion of his letter to the young community of believers living in Ephesus. And I imagine him scratching his brain for an illustration to conclude all that he has been writing—something that would stick in the minds of his readers, something that they would carry away with them, perhaps for the rest of their lives.

In the previous five chapters he has covered a vast expanse of ground. The great nineteenth-century biblical teacher Handley Moule summed it up like this:

He has been telling them, from the beginning onward, of the secrets of eternal grace and love, of the wonder of their salvation from spiritual death, of their peace and life through faith, of their sealing by the Blessed Spirit, of their union with Christ their Head, of his blissful indwelling in their hearts, and then of the resultant life of humility, purity, love, truth, and every gracious duty of social holiness…[1]

When you look back on it, he has given them a whole wagonload of vital truths to consider and challenges to act upon. Now Paul needs to draw all that he has been writing to a conclusion. What can he offer them that will help his readers to retain all this in their minds—and, more importantly, to put into practical action in their daily lives?

I can imagine Paul pacing back and forth in his cell. Then, deep in his thoughts, he pauses for a moment and glances around. And suddenly it comes to him. It was one of those head-slapper moments. Of course! How could he have missed it? The perfect illustration! There it was, staring right at him! It had been within feet of him all along: the Roman soldier standing guard at the door of his cell! As Paul’s eyes rest on the guard, it all becomes clear…

Paul lists six pieces of armour in all: the belt, the breastplate, the boots, the shield, the helmet and the sword. We don’t have time in the space of one sermon to examine them all, so this morning I want us to focus on just three of them: the breastplate, the helmet, and the sword.

The breastplate: protecting the heart

So first, the breastplate. This piece of armour covered the chest and shoulders, and was constructed out of a horizontal series of circular strips of iron fastened together with leather straps. The breastplate was designed to protect all the vital organs. But the most important one, and the one I want to focus on this morning, was the heart.

Were you aware that the word “heart” occurs more than eight hundred times in the Bible? And in almost every occurrence it is referring to something much deeper, and much more vital in many ways, than the physical organ that pumps blood through our bodies. For in the Bible the heart is the seat of the will. In biblical terms, it is the core of your inner being, the source of your emotions, your morals, your sentiments, your courage, your convictions and your resolve. The heart is what makes you “you”.

For this reason the Bible places enormous emphasis on what goes on inside our hearts. Here are just a few of the hundreds of examples you can find if you take the time to look for them:

·    “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)

·    “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

·    “With my whole heart I seek you…! I have stored up your word in my heart,  that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:10,11)

·    “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind …” (Jeremiah 17:10)

·    “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)

·    “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,  “return to me with all your heart … and rend your hearts and not your garments.” (Joel 2:12-13)

·    “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ ” (Psalm 14:1)

The book of Proverbs sums it up well for us when it warns, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23) And so it is that over our hearts we put on the breastplate of righteousness.

Of course the righteousness to which Paul is referring is not our own. That is self-righteousness. That is the righteousness of the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable, who stood in the temple apart from everybody else and prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” (Luke 18:11).

No, like the breastplate that is put on from without, the righteousness that Paul was writing about is a righteousness that does not come from within, but is conferred upon us. It is not my righteousness; it is Jesus’ righteousness, by which he and he alone protects us from all the evil that can so easily strike to the core of our being. So it is that in the words of John Wesley we are able proclaim,

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness,
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.

The helmet: protecting the mind

We move on, then, from the breastplate, which protects our heart, to the helmet, which protects our head. Like the breastplate, the helmet is a vitally important piece of our spiritual armour. And as with our hearts, the Bible has a good deal to say about what goes on inside our heads.

Earlier in this letter to the Ephesians Paul has called upon his readers to “to be renewed in the spirit of your minds” (4:23). Elsewhere he warns, “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” (Romans 8:5-6) And then he cautions us “not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word” (2 Thessalonians 2:2). He challenges us to “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2). “Who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” he queries. And then he boldly answers, “But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16).

So what does it mean to have the mind of Christ? Many years ago I was helped in this through a book by a lamentably little known author by the name of Harry Blamires. Blamires was both a student and a friend of C.S. Lewis and he wrote a number of books, one of which was entitled The Christian Mind. Here is one of the things he had to say on that topic:

The Christian mind sees human life and human history held in the hands of God. It sees the whole universe sustained by his power and his love. It sees the natural order as dependent upon the supernatural order, time as contained within eternity. It sees this life as an inconclusive experience, preparing us for another, this world as a temporary place of refuge, not our true and final home.[2]

Blamires was writing more than sixty years ago. Yet I dare to say that the principles he was articulating may be more crucial now in the twenty-first century than they have been at any time in the past. We live in a day when false notions and false ideas proliferate more than ever before—and as Christians we are not immune to them.

Our Lord Jesus himself warned that “false messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24)

Today we are being bombarded from every direction with falsehoods dressed up in the guise of truth, immorality purporting to be virtue, reason being drowned out by emotion. Issues of human sexuality, abortion, and euthanasia are just three areas of many where our society is deeply divided, to the point where it is often difficult (if not impossible) to engage in rational dialogue—and that is only the tip of the iceberg.

What I am saying may seem very dreary and pessimistic, so let me cheer you up with another book I’ve been reading. It’s titled The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God. Its author documents how in recent years a number of leading intellectuals have begun seriously questioning the false assumptions that have taken hold of so much of our western thought, and are finding themselves attracted to the Christian faith. He asks whether we might be seeing the first ripples of a new wave of faith. Pray to God that that might be so!

Whatever the case, we need to have the helmet of salvation fitted firmly over our heads and to be actively seeking the mind of Christ. “Do not be conformed to this world,” Paul wrote to the believers living in Rome, “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

The sword: our only offensive weapon

We have looked at the breastplate and the helmet. Both are defensive gear, to protect the soldier from attack. Now we turn to the only offensive weapon in Paul’s list—the sword. The sword that Paul’s guard would have carried was not a long, heavy sword like you might imagine in Robin Hood or Braveheart. Rather, it was a little less than two feet long and weighed less than two pounds. It was ground razor sharp on both edges, with a sharp point; and the soldier carried it not at his hip, but over his shoulder, so that he could whip it out at a moment’s notice.

And that is exactly what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of Jesus’ betrayal. Matthew’s gospel doesn’t tell us who the guilty party was, just that “one of those who were with Jesus” reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear (Matthew 26:50).

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

And here we have the example of our Lord Jesus, who, though he carried no physical weapon, was adept at wielding the sword of the Spirit. When the devil sought to tempt him away from his God-given mission, Jesus’ defence was not with any sophisticated philosophical argument, but with the words of Scripture. Each time his reply began, “It is written…” “It is written…” “It is written…”

Clearly Jesus knew his Bible. And if that was the case for him, how much more for us, as we are confronted with the unnumerable falsehoods and temptations with which life in the modern world confronts us. For this reason I can’t recommend highly enough a practice, not only of reading the Bible daily, but of committing it to memory. In my own Anglican tradition we have a prayer in which we ask that we may “hear, read, mark (that is, pay attention to), learn, and inwardly digest” the Scriptures. That means taking the time and the discipline to allow the message of the Bible to soak into us, to become a part of our very being.

Early in my own Christian life I was encouraged to begin memorizing portions of Scripture. I can’t tell you how many times those verses that I committed to memory have been helpful to me, particularly in times of difficulty—and more than fifty years later many of them are still embedded in my memory.

So much of life today is a spiritual battleground, and the weapons aimed against us grow daily in sophistication and menace. So let me challenge you to put on the spiritual armour with which God supplies us—the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of truth, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God—so that in the end you may shout with all the saints, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” .

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[1] Handley Moule, Ephesian Studies, 321

[2]     The Christian Mind, 67