Shoes for your feet

Thirdly, shod feet. In Ephesians 6:15, Paul goes on and tells us about the third piece of the Christian armour: Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. A surprising expression. But you need to understand that a good soldier also in those days, needed proper footwear. And Roman soldiers, as Paul was well acquainted with and no doubt as having their outfit in mind as he wrote these words, wore sandals with strong straps. The sandals were thickly studded with sharp nails. That kept the soldiers from slipping, even over some rather rough terrain. So, footwear is critical for fighting. The soldiers of Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, won many battles, it was said, because of their military shoes that prepared them for battle and allowed them to cover long distances in a short time, and negotiate terrain that their enemies could not negotiate. Well, Paul says, the way to fight against Satan is to be nimble on your feet and to be at peace with God, so that you have confidence in moving forward. He speaks of the preparation of the gospel of peace. He is saying Christians must always be ready and prepared to do battle. They must be vigilant with the forces of Satan. Without the right footwear we will slip and slide to defeat. It is embarrassing. The reason that we can fall is when our feet are not rightly girded.

I flew all the way over to South Korea to speak once to 10,000 people. And fly back. It was sort of surreal: 24 hours on the way, 24 hours to fly back and speak for only 1 hour. But I had these shoes on and they have no soles (I need a new pair of shoes.) At the event, they had me come up on a plank. So, they introduced me, and they make quite a fanfare of it in Korea. That is the Asian style. And I am walking up this plank, and I cannot make it up, because my shoes are too slippery. It is very embarrassing; two Koreans have to come up, like I am an old man, and get on either side of me and carry me up there. But it was only my problem, because I did not have the right footwear. You see, our daily battle is like that all the time. If we are not well grounded in the Scriptures, we are going to slip and slide everywhere, and Satan knows that. So, the gospel of peace: a clear apprehension, a clear realization that we are at peace in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And a conviction that one hundred percent of our salvation is in Christ, through his blood. There is no other ground to stand, is essential for fighting Satan. You need to be able to say with Luther: Here I stand, or like Paul: Stand fast in the faith.

So, there is nothing like fighting Satan compared to a deep persuasion and experience of gospel peace through the blood of Christ that passes all understanding. Our identity, our comfort, our stability depend on knowing the Gospel, both intellectually and experientially. So that we can look Satan in the eye and say, If God be for us, who can be against us? As the old divines used to say, God plus one equals majority to Satan. So, the God of peace shall bruise Satan under my feet shortly, we can say with assurance.¹

Joel Beeke