The Armor Of God: The Gospel Of Peace

Alba 7-23-2023

THE ARMOR OF GOD: THE GOSPEL OF PEACE

Ephesians 6:15

Today we are going to talk about shoes. Over the years, I have had a variety of styles of shoes. I want to show some of them to you.

*Here are the Nike shoes that I bought probably 20 years ago. I wear them when we go to Silver Dollar City.

*Here is a pair of nice looking dress boots.

*I have a pair of work boots.

*I even have a pair of cowboy boots.

*But these take the prize. (Red and blue non-leather lace up shoes with a two inch heel.) I actually wore these shoes in the 1970's. I even wore them to church. And I was the preacher!

I have a history with shoes. When I was in high school at the end of my sophomore year, I began my place in the workforce. I applied at several stores. There was one where I thought I would like to work, but they didn't hire me. But another store did. It was a shoe store, Corbaley Shoe Store, in the Benson district of Omaha. I was just 15 years old.

My first responsibility was to carry big boxes of shoes that had arrived and take them down the stairs to the basement. My second responsibility was to bring the shoes back up and stock them on the shelves in the order of their size. I worked there most of that first summer before I was allowed to begin as a salesperson.

Among serveral things we had in order to make sure that the shoe fit (you know, if the shoe fits – wear it), we had an x-ray device. You stood on it and inserted your foot into the opening at the bottom. You could peer through a place at the top for your eyes and see your foot through the shoe to determine if it did fit your foot well. It was fun to do. Of course, x-rays can cause cancer. Now they tell us!

But I found that people did not want a shoe if it did not fit properly. And for good reason. Feet can hurt if wearing the wrong shoe. That's why when selling shoes we were careful to be sure that the person buying the shoes was comfortable with their shoe and their decision.

One man, Robert Leroe a minister and former soldier, said, “I can tell you that comfortable boots are an indispensable item of equipment. In Desert Storm I was initially issued boots that made my feet ache; I was hardly fit for battle! Fortunately I managed to exchange them for ones that fit properly.”

Walking or even standing in the wrong shoes will leave feet hurting and blistered. Having the right shoe is important. If you’re going to climb Mount Everest you don’t wear high heels. You wear boots with cramp-ons that provide warmth and sure-footedness as you climb through the snow and ice. Marathon runners don’t wear flip-flops in a race. They wear running shoes that give them comfort and good support as they run 26.2 miles.

There are shoes for different times, different occupations and activities. It is important to wear the right kind of shoes as we navigate life. Likewise, it is important that we wear the right kind of shoes as we navigate our spiritual life.

Ephesians 6:15 tells us that we need to wear the right shoes to be effective Christians. It says that as Christian soldiers we need to stand against the wiles of the devil, “having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”

The shoes we are told to wear are the good news of peace, yet many choose to go barefoot. Anyone who has walked outside without shoes knows that there are some places you simply cannot go – a Cactus garden for example.

And the devil has plenty of those kinds of things lying in our way as we walk this road of life. We need our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace or we won't be able to fight the battles that come our way.

Lehman Strauss, speaking of “the shoes of peace”, once said; “The soldier’s shoes are not the dancing slippers of this world or the lounging slippers of the slothful, but the shoes of the Christian warrior who knows Christ and makes Him known.”

As we continue to put on the armor of God, the various parts are taken from the image of the Roman soldier. He wore a belt, a breastplate and shoes made specifically for doing battle.

A Roman soldier's shoes were a very important part of the armor. They often had to march upwards of 30 miles in a single day, and if they didn’t have good shoes they would be unable to make the journey and unable to enter into the battle.