The Vulnerable Soldier, 04 – The Shoes of Peace (Eph 6:15)

Posted on 2022-11-21 by thelittleman

I’ve been working through the whole armor of God in Ephesians 6 for this study on “The Vulnerable Soldier,” and this fourth installment had me a bit stumped. Paul’s metaphor sounds a bit convoluted, in that it involves one piece of armor (shoes) yet with three applications (readiness, Gospel, and peace). In this study, we’ll break this idea down and see how it applies to the vulnerable soldier, that is: What if a soldier wears every piece of armor except these shoes?

The Shoes

Paul dwelt within the lands of Roman occupation his whole life and was constantly surrounded by the Roman soldiers who policed the regions. While he may not have paid much attention to them during his life of freedom, he was afforded plenty of time to study them and their armor while he sat under guard in a Roman prison. That’s his situation here as he writes this letter to the Ephesians, so it’s likely that he’s got a particular Roman soldier in mind as he writes this lesson on spiritual armor.

So far, he’s worked himself through the soldier’s belt and his breastplate, and he’s now reached the man’s shoes. What made this soldier’s shoes different from a normal person’s during that time period? Why would they stand out?

The soldier’s shoes were (like most footwear) made of comfortable leather, yet also contained both extra support (perhaps with a firmer sole than common sandals or thongs and with nails that would prevent slippage) and protection (perhaps small iron plates tied above the feet). A soldier with cut or sore feet could not march and therefore could not perform the basic requirement of a soldier, being ready to move and fight at a moment’s notice.

Paul uses this minor yet important piece of armor as a spiritual metaphor with three tangents: readiness, Gospel, and peace. We’ll look briefly at each.

Readiness

Just as a soldier needs to be ready at all times (whether for battle, for assembly, or for mere obedience to his officer), so the Christian solider needs to be ready always to fight and serve. The New Testament uses other terms for this readiness, like “always prepared” (1Peter 3:15; see also Col 4:6), “sober-minded” (1Tim 3:2, 11; 2Tim 4:5; Titus 2:2; 1Peter 1:13; 4:7) and “watchful” (IPeter 5:8). We could go way deeper into this, but the key idea is to keep oneself free from distractions and focused on serving the Captain of our souls. Easier said than done!

Gospel

Scripture ties together both feet and the Gospel (either of salvation or of good news in general), because foot-messengers were the most common means of spreading important news fast. Isaiah writes: “How beautiful…are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation” (Isaiah 52:7; see also Nahum 1:15). Paul quotes this verse in his most beautiful missionary passage of Romans 10:13-17. Tying this to readiness, it’s clear that a Christian soldier needs to be ready always to share the Good News of peace with God through the work of Christ.

Peace

As Paul eyed these soldiers, he might have noted the nails protruding from the soles which gave their shoes a firmer, steadier grip on the turf. This prevention of slippage may be what best ties shoes to peace. A Christian soldier cannot “stand firm” (v.13-14) without this firm grip, and spiritually speaking that may refer to his relationship to God, his peace with God. Paul tells the Romans elsewhere: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1), and “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31)

The Solider without these Shoes

With these applications in mind, then, we need to look at that Vulnerable Soldier and ask ourselves: What would happen if he were to take up every other piece of armor and yet forget his shoes? We’ll try to tackle them in all three directions.

Truth

  • The Soldier who maintains integrity and good doctrine yet lacks readiness is the soldier who knows the right things yet is constantly distracted from them. The cream hasn’t risen to the top. He might be ready to answer a specific question, but he’s not ready to just utter Truth. In all honesty, this soldier is me most of the time! I juggle so many things, that if I were asked to just drop everything and preach something personal, I’d have a hard time doing it. This is the great danger to those of us who love learning: we like to store up knowledge (Ecc 12:12), yet we can be really weak in recall…because we’re not ready!
  • The Soldier who maintains integrity and good doctrine yet lacks the Gospel is like most believers in our pews today. They’re here to learn, to build up their own selves and knowledge, to find answers to questions…and yet are either unwilling or incapable of sharing the Gospel of Christ with anyone! Paul says in a different context: that so-called “knowledge” puffs up, while love builds up (1Cor 8:1). We need to stop needling doctrinal variations in our little cloisters and start looking up to the fields ready for harvest! (John 4:35)
  • The Soldier who maintains integrity and good doctrine yet lacks peace with God is the person who’s 100% head and 0% heart. This is the person who’s either still lost or in desperate need of some quiet time with the Savior! “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”! (1Thess 5:23).

Righteousness

  • The Soldier who maintains right living yet lacks readiness is that soldier who’s “a nice guy” yet unusable for the service of the King. He’s the traditional pew-warmer, ever present yet undependable when a need arises or an opportunity for service needs filling. He’s attractive wallpaper in the church and nothing more. He’s the “80” in the 80/20 Rule.
  • The Soldier who maintains right living yet lacks the Gospel is the Christian who thinks that “evangelism” is just living like Jesus and letting the world ask her why. The problem with this mindset is that Jesus never commanded us to “Wait and let people ask you about the Gospel” but rather to “Make disciples as you go out into all the world”! (see Matt 28:18-20)
  • The Soldier who maintains right living yet lacks peace with God is the unbeliever who just hopes that her goodness is enough to appease God. She’s the one who tries to make sure she does enough good to outweigh her bad. She’s the faithful Catholic, Mormon, and JW. She’s lost, because if she’s not at peace with God, then she’s at war, an enemy of God who needs reconciliation (see Rom 5:6-11).

Faith

  • The Soldier who has faith yet lacks readiness is the “let go and let God” Christian. This person fails to recognize the responsibility we have as believers to daily strive to please our Master. Eph 2:8-10 makes it clear that grace-through-faith (not works) saved us, yet now that we’re saved, good works must be the key identifier of who we are in Christ. This is an active lifestyle now, as we “put to death the deeds of the body” (Rom 8:12-13) and “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 13:14).
  • The Soldier who has faith yet lacks the Gospel is an oxymoron (or maybe just a moron). He trusts his Savior yet is unwilling to tell others about Him? What selfishness! The floodgates are open and the world is being swept away to their deaths, and although he’s found the rope, he lets everyone else float on by without a helping hand or a word that rescue is possible (I think Hebrews 2:1-4 is applicable here).
  • The Soldier who has faith yet lacks peace with God has a faith that’s damnably misplaced, whether in himself or in some other “god.” He needs to go back to the beginning and learn who the True God of the Bible really is.

Salvation

  • The Soldier who has salvation yet lacks readiness is the person who claims Christ for the “fire insurance” He provides (a crass description of salvation from Hell). This person may never go to church or read the Word or pray, because “I’m saved. That’s good enough for me.” One would have to question whether this is salvation at all.
  • The Soldier who maintains salvation yet lacks a Gospel focus is again like the person above in “Faith”, selfishly saved and uncaring about the lost around him.
  • The Soldier who maintains salvation yet lacks peace with God is likely the one who either “prayed a prayer” or “got baptized” long ago and hangs all his hopes for eternity on that. No change in life. No hunger or thirst for the Word. No relationship with God or with other Christians. Probably no church attendance beyond the holidays. But “I’m saved!” How sad…and how sadly common.

Scriptures

  • The Soldier who has the Scriptures yet lacks readiness is the intellectual like that in “Truth” above, knowing much yet using very little. All that she learns from the Scriptures goes inside her heart to die, because there’s no outlet, no sharing.
  • The Soldier who has the Scriptures yet lacks the Gospel is likely the one who has “the Scriptures plus ____.” Again, these would the Catholics and Orthodox folks who certainly have the Word plus their traditions and teachings which overshadow the Truth. Or its the LDS folks who have the Bible plus the other sacred writings of Joseph Smith which twist and contradict the truths of the Bible. Or the JW folks who have a version of the Word yet edited away from the Gospel to fit their own doctrines.
  • The Soldier who has the Scriptures yet lacks peace with God stands at the threshold of something truly amazing. Read it! Inside are the words of life! There’s no better place for an enemy of God to be than that…yet there’s also no worse place for that same person to remain.

The Soldier with these Shoes

This has been a longer study than most, because of Paul’s three-pronged emphases, yet it highlights so many realities of the vulnerable soldier. The vulnerable soldier who lacks these shoes is open to selfishness, uselessness, and lostness. But the one who wears them is ready to serve his Master, ready to fight the enemy, ready to share the Gospel, and standing firm in the peace he has with God in Christ.

I encourage you to check your shoes today. Are they on? Are the laces tied? Is the tread strong? Are you ready?

©2022 E.T.

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