Ephesians 6:17

take Lit., receive, as from the hands of Another, who presents it to all His soldiers.

the helmet Cp. Isaiah 59:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:8. See also Psalms 140:7. The head needs protection not only as a vital part, but as the seat of sight. The believer "looks up, and lifts up his head, as his redemption draweth nigh" (Luke 21:28).

salvation The Gr. is not the common word so rendered, sôtêria, (which is used 1 Thessalonians 5:8), but sôtêrion, which occurs Luke 2:30; Luke 3:6; Acts 28:28. It is frequent in the LXX.; occurring e.g.Psalms 51 (LXX. 50) 12, 91. (LXX. 90) 16; Isaiah 26:1; Isaiah 59:17; Isaiah 61:10. If the difference between the two forms is to be pressed, it may be suggested that sôtêriatends to denote "salvation" (deliverance from judgment and sin) as it is in the Divine Person who saves; sôtêria, "salvation" as it is applied and received. But the difference often vanishes.

In Isaiah 59 the Divine Warrior wears this helmet; doubtless in the sense of His being the Worker of deliverance, clothed and armed, as it were, with His great purpose. The Christian warrior here wears it in the sense of his being the receiver and possessor of deliverance, clothed and armed in the victory of his Head. In 1 Thessalonians 5 "the hope ofsalvation" is the helmet: the sure prospect of the final and absolute deliverance (cp. Romans 13:11), a deliverance of which the present peace and victory of faith is but the outline or prelude, "covers the head" of the soldier. The two passages supplement each other; the hope is based on the actual possession of the thing in its present phase; the sense of possession is vivified by the hope.

the sword The one offensive weapon in the picture. The fight is stationary and defensive, but it continually requires the thrust and cut of the defender. The assailant is himself to be assailed; the accusing tempter to be silenced. Cp. Hebrews 4:12 for the only other N.T. passage where the "sword" appears in spiritual imagery. There, as well as here, the "Word" is the sword-like thing. In the O.T., cp. Psalms 64:3; Isaiah 49:2.

of the Spirit The great Conveyer of the "word of God," as the Inspirer of the Prophets, under both O.T. and N.T. (above Ephesians 3:5; Hebrews 3:7; Hebrews 9:8; Heb 10:15; 1 Peter 1:11; 2 Peter 1:21) Thus the sword is of His forging; and as He works in the believer as the Spirit of truth (John 14:17), and faith (2 Corinthians 4:13), He puts the sword into his grasp and enables him to use it. See next note.

the word of God The sure utteranceof Revealed Truth. The Gr. word (as in ch. Ephesians 5:26, where see note,) is not logosbut rhéma. Doubtless the reference is not to be limited to the very words of Scripture; for true conclusions from them, in the Creeds for example, are "utterances" of Divine truth. But the evidence of Scripture itself, as it indicates historically the principles and practice of the Lord and the Apostles in regard of the Written Word, is altogether in favour of interpreting the phrase here, as to its main and permanent meaning, of the believing use, in spiritual conflict, of the Scriptures; the Written Word, revealing the Living Word. It is true that when this Epistle was written, the Spirit, Whose work in producing Scripture was still in progress, was also speaking direct to the Church in other modes (see e.g.Acts 11:28; 1 Corinthians 14; &c.). But that this was a great passingphase of the Church's experience is indicated by 1 Corinthians 13:8, and by the broad facts of history. And meanwhile both Christ and the Apostles appeal to the Written Word for proof and certainty in a manner altogether peculiar, and which calls for the close personal study of the Christian disciple.

Above all, observe that the Lord Himself, in His Temptation, the history of which should be compared carefully with this whole passage, uses exclusively verbal citations, written "utterances," from the Scriptures, as His sword; and this immediately after His Baptism and the Descent of the Holy Spirit(Matthew 3:16 to Matthew 4:11; Luke 4:1-13). No suggestion could be more pregnant than this as to the abiding position of the Written Word under the Dispensation of the Spirit.

With this verse the imagery of the passage gives way to unfigurative spiritual precepts. The writer is careless of literary symmetry, in favour of a higher order and beauty.