Ephesians 6:17

Ephesians 6:17. And receive, as offered to you by the Lord.

The helmet of salvation. The protection for the head of the ancient soldier, and his chief ornament, was the helmet. The Christian's helmet is ‘salvation,' i.e., the fact that he is saved, salvation appropriated by faith. In 1 Thessalonians 5:8, we have a similar, but not an identical figure. Here the helmet is not, as there, ‘the hope of salvation,' but the fact of being saved. This protects the head, and enables the Christian to face the adversary.

And the sword of the Spirit. This too is to be received, as offered. It is the one offensive weapon, the short sword for close combat. It is from the Spirit, made by the Spirit. It is also the weapon which the Spirit uses, but that is not asserted here.

Which is the word of God, i.e., the gospel. There is no immediate reference to the written word of God, but we must thus apply it. Then the inspired preachers spake the gospel: now it has been written for us. The Bible, especially the New Testament, has been the one great weapon of attack in the Christian warfare for centuries; hence we may believe that, so far as we are concerned, it is the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, here proffered as our weapon. On the Christian armor, see Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, especially the scenes at the Interpreter's house, and in the Valley of Humiliation. Too many practical writers have overdone the exposition of the passage by frivolous analogies.