10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints."
Ephesians 6:10-18
Up to this point we have been dealing with the defensive parts of the Christian armour; we come now to its attacking aspects, in the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and the weapon of All-prayer. We look first at the sword of the Spirit. There is a twofold implication in this: on the one hand, we are to think in terms of attack being the best form of defence, that is to say, hitting back at the enemy when he has been attacking us in the ways we have already described in previous Notes. On the other hand, we are to think of attack in terms of, and in the context of, Christian service generally - in preaching, evangelism, testimony and witness.
First of all, by way of introduction, we look at the phrase Paul uses: 'The sword of the Spirit' can hardly be the same kind of phrase as 'the helmet of salvation' or the 'breastplate of righteousness'. 'Salvation' is the helmet, and 'righteousness' is the breastplate, but we can hardly say that the Spirit is the sword in the same way for it is not the Spirit, but the Word of God, that is the sword in this phrase. We must therefore take Paul as meaning 'the sword', given or provided by the Spirit, is the Word of God. Implied in this is that it is when we are controlled and filled by that Spirit that He puts this sword in our hand, as a weapon that is mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:5). We should not forget, in this connection, Peter's words in Acts 5:32 that God gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. A Spirit-filled man is a mighty warrior when he wields the sword which is the Word of God. That is the first consideration; and the second is this: we should note that the original Greek for 'Word of God' here is not the usual 'logos', but 'rema'. There must be some significance in this differentiation, and we will give some consideration to this in the next Note.