Lessons #273 and 274

 

 

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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are       +

+ comments given in the actual exposition not in the note.                                                 +

+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version,         +

+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version,                                  +

+ GWT = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version,                         +

+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible,                               +

+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation,                                           +

+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible,                                        +

+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version.                                           +

+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors.                                                      +

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Breastplate of Righteousness (Eph 6:14)

 

14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,

 

We have indicated that the complete spiritual armor consists of defensive and offensive weapons. We began in our last study to consider the defensive weapons that a believer should have in order to hold his/her ground in the spiritual warfare. However, it is our contention that the best approach of considering what we have as it concerns the defensive weapons is to present them in terms of actions that believers should take to hold their ground in the spiritual warfare. Recall, a first action that is necessary for a believer to hold his/her ground in the spiritual warfare is equipping oneself with the certainty that Christianity contains the ultimate truth of God. In other words, a believer must have the assurance of the Christian faith as expressed in its doctrines is indeed true without any equivocation. So, we consider the second action.

      A second action that is necessary for a believer to hold his/her ground in the spiritual warfare is equipping oneself with righteousness as a protective covering. It is this action that is described in the phrase with the breastplate of righteousness in place of Ephesians 6:14 in the NIV. Reading this phrase does not readily enable one to recognize that there is an action required of the believer but considering the literal translation of the Greek text enables us to recognize that an action is involved. The literal Greek translates as having put on the breastplate of the righteousness.

      The action expected of the spiritual warrior is introduced with the expression having put on of the literal translation. The literal translation “having put on” is rendered from a Greek word (enduō) that may mean to put clothing on someone, as it is used to describe the putting on of clothes on Jesus Christ when the Roman soldiers mocked Him, as we read in Mark 15:20:

And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

 

The Greek word when used in what is known as middle voice in the Greek (i.e. the grammatical voice that signifies that the subject of the verb is being affected by its own action or is acting upon itself) may mean to put any kind of thing on oneself, hence “to put on, to clothe oneself in.” In this meaning, it can be used in a literal sense although what one may put on is not something material, as the word is used in connection with faith and love in 1 Thessalonians 5:8:

But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

 

Figuratively, the word may mean to take on the characteristics of someone or to take on virtues, as the word is used to describe what is expected of believers in relationship to the Lord Jesus in Romans 13:14:

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

 

The instruction clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ is certainly not to be understood in a literal sense but in a figurative sense. The instruction probably refers to putting on the character of the Lord Jesus Christ as well as letting Him be the believer’s armor. This aside, the Greek word is used in Ephesians 6:14 in the literal sense of the believer putting on the intangible object mentioned in the verse. The Greek middle voice associated with the literal expression having put on indicates that the believer should act for himself and for his benefit.

     There is more to the literal translation having put on since it is translated from an aorist participle in the Greek. Ordinarily, an aorist participle may indicate an action that has taken place prior to the main action indicated in the sentence, which in our case would be the command stand firm at the beginning of verse 14. However, as we indicated previously, the command is also in the aorist tense indicating that the action of putting on the thing specified in the verse is also occurring at the same time as the believer stands firm. The implication is that we have a situation where something has happened already but will also take place as the believer takes his firm stand in the spiritual warfare. This complex thought affects the interpretation of what it is the believer should put on in readiness for the spiritual warfare or so as to stand his ground in the spiritual warfare.

      The thing that the spiritual warrior is expected to put on is given in the phrase the breastplate of righteousness of Ephesian 6:14. The Greek syntax permits this phrase to be fully explained in one of two ways. It could be understood as breastplate consisting righteousness or breastplate which is righteousness. While both make sense, it is the second interpretation that was probably in the mind of the apostle since it is the one that removes any difficulty in understanding what breastplate means in the context. In other words, we are saying that the literal phrase of righteousness explains what breastplate in view means. This interpretation is made clearer as we consider the word “breastplate.”

      A breastplate is a coat of armor that covers a soldier’s thorax, abdomen, and back to protect the heart and other vital organs from deadly wounds in battle as a result of blows or arrows delivered on a soldier. It consists of small, interlocking rings of metals such as bronze or iron. Consequently, it is a part of the dress worn by a soldier into battle. It is this piece of clothing that Goliath was dressed in when he went into battle against the Israelites, as mentioned in 1 Samuel 17:5:

He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels;

 

The phrase scale armor refers to breastplate since it is the Greek word (thōrax) used in our passage of Ephesians 6:14 that is used in the Septuagint of 1 Samuel 17:5 for the Hebrew word (širyôn) translated scale armor. The breastplate or scale armor does not provide an absolute protection in that it is not impregnable. This we know from the fact that King Ahab was fatally wounded because an arrow pierced through his breastplate or scale armor, as stated in 1 Kings 22:34:

But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. The king told his chariot driver, “Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.”

 

The phrase between the sections of his armor of the NIV is more literally between the armor scales and the breastplate so there is the indication that the breastplate was pierced by the arrow that was fired through a bow.

      A breastplate as we have indicated, is literally an armor plate for protecting the chest during ancient warfare but it is also used figuratively in the Scripture. It is likely that the Holy Spirit brought into the mind of the apostle the figurative usage of breastplate in connection with the divine attribute of righteousness that the Lord employs in bringing salvation to His community and the nations as He destroys evil will that withstands Him, as we read in Isaiah 59:17:

He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.

 

It is also in a figurative sense that the apostle used breastplate in connection with faith and love in  the passage we cited previously, that is, 1 Thessalonians 5:8:

But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

 

Here breastplate is described in terms of faith and love. You see, the phrase faith and love as a breastplate is more literally breastplate of faith and love. We could fully expand the translation of the phrase as breastplate consisting of faith and love so that it is clearer that breastplate here is used in a figurative sense since faith and love are not tangible items that could be used in construction of a literal breastplate. Thus, breastplate is a picture of faith and love. In addition, breastplate is used figuratively to convey the concept of invincibility in Revelation 9:9:

They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.

 

In any event, it is in the figurative sense that the word “breastplate” is used in our passage of Ephesians 6:14 with the breastplate of righteousness in place or literally having put on the breastplate of the righteousness. It is because of this usage that we stated that a second action that is necessary for a believer to hold his/her ground in the spiritual warfare is equipping oneself with righteousness as a protective covering. Of course, we have already indicated that the word “righteousness” explains “breastplate” in our passage. This means that the breastplate is a picture of righteousness that serves as a covering for a believer during spiritual warfare. In effect, righteousness is a defensive weapon that a believer has and should continue to keep on himself during the spiritual warfare. The implication is that righteousness is an important spiritual armor and so we need to explore it.

      What is this righteousness, we should ask, that is a part of the believer’s defensive weapon? To answer this question, we should examine the term “righteousness” as presented in the Scripture. This is because if we do not have a grasp of how the word is used in the Scripture, we could not truly understand its usage in our passage. Furthermore, failure to understand it could lead someone to think that the Scripture contradicts itself. To illustrate my point; consider the fact that the Holy Spirit through Luke called Simeon, that was involved in dedication ceremony of the baby Jesus, a righteous man in Luke 2:25:

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

 

Similarly, the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Peter called Lot a righteous man, as recorded in 2 Peter 2:7-8:

7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—

 

These two men are described as righteous in the sense they complied to God’s instruction as revealed in their respective times. However, the same Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul tells us that there is no righteous man on earth in Romans 3:10:

As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;

 

Does the Holy Spirit contradict Himself in the Scripture? No! This apparent conflict is one that is easily resolved if we understand how the word “righteousness” is used in the Scripture and so we need to explore the term “righteousness” as used in the Scripture. 

      Examination of the Scriptural data with respect to the word “righteousness” reveals there are two kinds of righteousness described in the Scripture. There is the righteousness that has to do with a person’s standing before God and there is one that has to do with obeying God’s commands. We like to call the first “faith righteousness” and the second “works righteousness.” The Holy Spirit makes a reference to these two through the Apostle Paul in Romans 10:5-7:

5 Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: "The man who does these things will live by them."  6 But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 "or 'Who will descend into the deep?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

 

This passage indicates that there is righteousness that is to be attained by obeying the law and there is one that is to be obtained by faith. Therefore, when a person does what God required such a person would be described as righteous but that righteousness is not that which establishes a right standing with God unless a person has never sinned. This point is underscored with the narrative that involved Cornelius who is described as righteous but was not in the right standing with God so that the Apostle Peter was sent to him to give him the gospel message so he could obtain the faith righteousness, that is, the second kind of righteousness mentioned in this passage of Romans 10, as we read in Acts 10:22:

The men replied, "We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say."

 

If you read the context of Acts 10 you will understand that God recognized Cornelius as one who followed the instructions of the Law with respect to being kind to the poor, but that in and of itself did not put him in the right relationship with God; otherwise, there would have been no need for the Lord to send Peter to preach the gospel to him and the other Gentiles associated with him. Furthermore, his example shows that a person may be good to the poor but die and go to hell because he does not have the right kind of relationship with God. Anyway, the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul in Romans 10 introduced us to the two kinds of righteousness in the Scripture that we have described as “faith righteousness” and “works righteousness.”

      The righteousness that is concerned with right standing with God is obtained by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ or simply in the Lord in the OT times. This can be seen as far back as God’s dealing with Abraham, for we read in Genesis 15:6:

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

 

Please note that what is credited to Abraham is righteousness but it is not because of his works, but because of his faith in believing what God said to be true. The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ is concerned with the righteousness that is by faith, as we read in Romans 1:17:

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

 

To say, in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed means that the gospel reveals to us how a person obtains right standing with God. In effect, when the gospel is preached its intent is to show a person how the individual can have right standing before God. This right standing or righteousness that is through faith is obtained the same way for everyone who gets it; it is through faith in Jesus Christ, according to Romans 3:22:

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,

 

Thus, it should be clear that there is only one way to obtain faith righteousness or right standing with God which is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

     Works righteousness is concerned with obedience to the commands of the Law or the Scripture. If you obey the word of God you are considered righteous, as stated in Romans 2:13:

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.

 

It is this works righteousness that is also defined in Deuteronomy 6:25:

And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness."

 

Of course, the works righteousness is perceived by some as being capable of providing right standing with God because of what is stated in Leviticus 18:5:

Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.

 

This passage should not be understood as referring to obtaining eternal life, rather it refers to living a way of life that is according to God’s standard. It is doubtful that God ever meant for obedience to the law to result in eternal life since no one is capable of doing perfectly what the law says. Even if one could do so from a certain point of the individual’s life, there is still the problem of sins committed before such an effort. Thus, we do not accept the interpretation of Leviticus 18:5 that implies that works righteousness has the potential of leading to the right standing with God that will be necessary to spend eternity with Him.

    Faith righteousness and works righteousness should never be confused. So, let me provide few points of differentiation between the two. Faith righteousness is concerned with a person’s eternal relationship with God while works righteousness is concerned with this life. The implication is that in the order of things, faith righteousness should exist before works righteousness. This is illustrated with Abraham. He had faith righteousness before he had works righteousness, as implied in James 2:21:

Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

 

There can be no doubt that Abraham was considered righteous in the sense of works righteousness much later after he received faith righteousness since Isaac was not born when he received his faith righteousness that defined his right standing with the Lord which is mentioned in Genesis 15:6 that we previously cited. Faith righteousness is a gift, according to Romans 5:17:

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

 

But, works righteousness is dependent on obedience to the requirements of God in His word. It is in this sense that the Apostle Paul could say that before he became saved he had the righteousness that is from the law in Philippians 3:6:

as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

 

The phrase as for legalistic righteousness is more literally as to righteousness, under the law.

     Faith righteousness is a permanent possession of the believer while works righteousness is temporary in that it depends on obedience. We can see this difference as implied in various passages of the Scripture. The permanency of faith righteousness may be deduced from the fact that Jesus is eternal and so permanent. However, the Scripture says that Jesus is our righteousness in 1 Corinthians 1:30:

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

 

If Jesus is unchanging and He is our righteousness then our faith righteousness is permanent, that is, unchanging. To consider Jesus our righteousness implies also that He is God in that He fulfilled in part the words of Prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 33:16:

In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.'

 

     In any case, the fact that works righteousness is temporary in the sense that one moment you are righteous but the next you are not, may be deduced in at least three ways from the Scripture. Warning is issued against abandoning works righteousness in Ezekiel 33:18:

If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it.

 

This passage becomes unintelligible if one does not accept the temporary nature of works righteousness. Another way to see the temporary nature of the works righteousness is the command to pursue righteousness in 2 Timothy 2:22:

Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

 

The righteousness we are to pursue could not possibly be the faith righteousness since there is no indication that anyone does anything to get it other than exercising faith in Christ. Besides, the instruction is addressed to those who already have right standing with God, that is, believers, implying they already have faith righteousness. So, it must be works righteousness that we are commanded to pursue. We would not be commanded to pursue this righteousness if we have it permanently. Still, another manner to see the temporary nature of works righteousness is that we are to be trained in this kind of righteousness by practice, as implied in 2 Timothy 3:16:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

 

     Be that as it may, it is works righteousness that involves obedience to God’s word that a believer can speak of carrying out. David was able to speak of God dealing with him according to his righteousness in 2 Samuel 22:21:

"The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.

 

Anyone who knows anything about the history of David might be puzzled by what David said here in light of his famous adultery and murder. David did not ignore these sins because he repented of them and recognized that such sins were out of character for him. For the most part of his life, David sought to follow God’s word. Therefore, the phrase according to my righteousness should be understood, as suggested in the UBS Handbook of the OT, as “because I obey God completely.” David strived to obey the word of God in that during his days in the desert, when Saul pursued him, he did not ignore God’s instruction. He did not get involved in idolatry. He obeyed God’s word that demands respect for the leader of His people. This is why when God provided him the opportunity to kill Saul he did not act on it. Therefore, David was not boasting in this passage; he was merely thanking God for enabling him to obey His law as completely as he could. The point is that David could speak of his righteousness because he knew he conducted his life in accordance with the word of God.

     David is not the only believer in the Scripture to speak of his righteousness in the sense of works righteousness; so did the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2:10:

You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed.

 

The apostle spoke of being righteous here in the sense that he conducted his life in accordance with the word of God. He treated others in light of the word of God so that he could speak of his righteous conduct. It does not mean that everyone was pleased with the apostle, but he knew that he acted according to the divine standard; that is what matters.

      We have considered the word “righteousness” as used in the Scripture so we understand there is a faith righteousness and a works righteousness. Therefore, we return to answer the question: What is righteousness that is part of the believer’s defensive weapon? The answer is that righteousness here involves both faith righteousness and works righteousness. It is not a matter of one or the other. There are those who take the righteousness only as a reference to faith righteousness, that is, the right standing with God that comes by way of faith. They do so on the ground that it is the only thing that is objective or reliable that a believer could put on as part of his defensive weapon. It does not seem to be that the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul wanted us to focus only on righteousness that is by faith in Ephesians 6:14. We say this for at least two reasons. First, within the context of the epistle the apostle had addressed works righteousness as what is expected of believers, as indicated in Ephesians 5:8–9:   

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)

 

Second, the complexity of thought involved in the literal sentence having put requires an understanding that involves work righteousness. For one thing, we have indicated that the Greek used a middle voice where the subject acts on himself and for his benefit. This means that the believer who puts on the breastplate of righteousness does something for himself with respect to righteousness. However, it is difficult to understand how a believer could act with respect to faith righteousness he already has. There is more. Recall we indicated that because of the Greek tense used and because of the context, the idea of putting on something is complex. The aorist tense involved in the Greek in this particular usage demands that the putting on of the breastplate of the righteousness be an action that has taken place sometimes in the past. This will fit well with the understanding of righteousness as faith righteousness since no one is a believer without it. In other words, it is when God gives this faith righteousness to an individual that we can say the person is saved and so in right standing with Him, which also implies that the person has been enlisted as a soldier in the spiritual warfare. This right standing with God is of eternal nature that it does not have to be repeated. Thus, when a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, the person already has the faith righteousness so that we can say the person has already put on the breastplate of the righteousness and so is ready for the spiritual warfare. Nevertheless, the rule of Greek grammar and the context, as we indicated previously, demand that the putting on the breastplate of the righteousness be an action that takes place the same time that a believer obeys the command stand firm given at the beginning of verse 14. Because faith righteousness is not something that can be repeated once it is given then there is no way for a believer who has it to repeat putting it on at the same time the person stands firm.  Therefore, it seems that the Holy Spirit through the apostle intended to say to us that when we stand firm we already have the faith righteousness but we also need to put on the work righteousness. It is for this reason we gave the answer that the righteousness that a believer is expected to put on as a breastplate in the spiritual warfare consists of both faith righteousness and works righteousness that we have considered.

      We have explained the phrase the breastplate of the righteousness as a reference to both faith righteousness and work righteousness. Our next concern is to understand how a believer puts these on to be ready for spiritual warfare. In effect, our concern is to understand how the putting on of righteousness serves as a protective covering in the spiritual warfare or how it works out in practice during spiritual warfare. Because we have indicated that righteousness in view in our passage consists of both faith righteousness and works righteousness, we will consider how each of these works out in the spiritual warfare so that the believer could stand his/her grounds in the midst of the assaults or bombardment of satanic forces during spiritual warfare. 

      Spiritual warfare plays out in different ways but there is one particular area of spiritual warfare we want to focus in order to understand how both faith righteousness and works righteousness apply in holding one’s ground during the bombardment of satanic forces. This area is with accusation. In other words, we are saying that spiritual warfare involves accusation that is brought to bear on the believer. This accusation that a believer has to contend with may be classified as both internal and external. The internal accusation involves first that brought by Satan to God against the believer. This kind of accusation is revealed in what happened with Joshua the high priest, as stated in Zechariah 3:1:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.

 

This is not the only passage that makes us aware of satanic accusation against believers. The fact that the Holy Spirit through Apostle John speaks of Jesus Christ being our defense attorney before the Father in heaven implies there must be an accusation against us, as we can gather from 1 John 2:1:

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

 

It is through the same apostle that the Holy Spirit states clearly that Satan is involved in continual accusation of believers before our God, as we read in Revelation 12:10:

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.

 

The clause who accuses them before our God day and night leaves no doubt that in the spiritual warfare, Satan is continually accusing believers. We will not be aware of this accusation were it not for the Scripture telling us. However, there is an internal accusation that no doubt is related to the accusation of Satan, it is the accusation of the conscience which believers are aware. This accusation is implied in Romans 2:15:

since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.

 

Scholars are not in agreement as to how to interpret this passage but one thing is clear; it is concerned with the conscience. The situation Apostle Paul had in mind is probably the internal debate that goes on inside a person as part of the spiritual warfare. There is, of course, the condemning of the conscience for wrongdoing that is involved in the passage. Nonetheless, the point is that there is an internal accusation of believers that takes place as part of the spiritual warfare especially when believers fail. The external accusation involves primarily unbelievers who accuse believers of wrong doings, as indicated, for example, in what Apostle Peter stated in 1 Peter 2:12:

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

 

Anyway, the internal and external accusations involved in the spiritual warfare demand the use of the defensive weapon of faith righteousness and works righteousness. Therefore, we need to show how this works out in the life of a believer.

      When a believer is faced with the internal accusation of failure by satanic forces that is intended to weaken or demoralize a believer in the spiritual warfare then the believer should immediately deploy the defensive weapon of faith righteousness. The way this works is that the believer who is being demoralized because of true failure begins with confessing his/her failure before God. With that done, then the believer takes on the defensive weapon of faith righteousness to defend himself/herself before the internal accusation that satanic forces bring. It goes something like this. The believer says to Satan, “Yes, I know I have failed but I have admitted my sins before my God and I have received forgiveness. Furthermore, I am righteous before God not because of my own righteousness but because I have received Christ’s righteousness and so I am accepted by God.” To bolster this position, the believer would then refer to the fact that Christ is his/her righteousness by claiming the declaration of a passage we cited previously, that is, 1 Corinthians 1:30:

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

 

In effect, by appealing to this passage the believer is using his weapon of faith righteousness to defend against any kind of demoralizing activity of the satanic forces in the course of the spiritual warfare. In addition, the believer should also remind Satan that he/she stands purely on Christ’s righteousness that is by faith, using the words of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:9:

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

 

Anyway, we have demonstrated how a believer should deploy his defensive weapon of faith righteousness in dealing with internal accusation of satanic forces with respect to believer’s failure. So, we consider the use of work righteousness in dealing with both internal and external accusations.

      Work righteousness involves conduct or lifestyle of believer. A believer who has work righteousness is able to use his/her righteous living to defend both the gospel message and self. It is this kind of use of work righteousness that is certainly involved in the weapon of righteousness Apostle Paul mentioned in 2 Corinthians 6:7:

in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;

 

The phrase weapons of righteousness although subject to various interpretations is probably to be understood as “righteousness as our weapon”; in this way, we can recognize that it is works righteousness the apostle means, implying that righteous living is a weapon he and his apostolic team use to defend themselves against anything thrown against them including false accusations.  It is not only here that apostle implies that righteous living, that is, works righteousness serves as his defensive weapon for the faith but also in his epistle to the Thessalonians in a passage we have also previously cited, in 1 Thessalonians 2:10:

You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed.

 

We should be aware that it is not easy to deal with the accusation of the conscience but righteous living will quell down the internal accusation of living contrary to the truth. We mean that if you are going to quell down the internal accusation you should not only point to faith righteousness but you should also point to the work righteousness that is part of your life. It is this kind of thing that the Holy Spirit meant to convey through the Apostle John when he wrote in 1 John 3:19:

This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence.

 

The demonstrative pronoun “this” is referring back to 1 John 3:18, where the emphasis is the demonstration of love by action.  Loving others that is the result of the filling of the Spirit is indeed a demonstration of works righteousness. John tells us that through such we can quell the accusation of the conscience. Thus, if you have works righteousness you should point to it to give rest to your soul in the spiritual warfare. You will argue with the enemy that in addition to the faith righteousness that you have, that your work righteousness is a further indication of your right standing with God and so that whatever accusation Satan brings could not demoralize you. You will ask Satan to explain to you how you could love someone who hate you or someone who is unlovable, apart from the empowerment of the Spirit on you as one who is in right standing with God. So based on this reason, you hold your ground in the midst of spiritual warfare. By the way, it is certainly the works righteousness that Job used to satisfy his conscience or in his defense during his spiritual warfare, as referenced in Job 27:6:

I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.

 

In any event, we emphasize that the believer’s defensive weapon of righteousness consists of both faith righteousness and work righteousness. You should strive to have work righteousness as it is also necessary for defending yourself during satanic forces’ assault in your spiritual warfare.