Ephesians 6:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For this reason the Gospel becomes the Gospel of peace. War with the devil ends another war, the war against God. We are at enmity with the devil; this means that we are at peace with God. Therefore, beloved, do not fear this war. The Gospel of peace already shows the victory.

Faith without works of righteousness is insufficient for salvation. Likewise, righteousness of life is not secure for salvation by itself, unless it is joined with faith. Therefore, as though weaving faith and righteousness as materials in this weapon, the Apostle brings the vessel of the soldier's heart into safety. For by the breastplate the heart is meant. He secures the head of the valiant man with hope. By this he shows that a good soldier should have hope in things above, like a plume upon a helmet. The shield, the protective weapon, is unbreakable faith, which the point of a spear cannot pierce. By the spears which the enemies hurl at us, we should understand the manifold assaults of the passions. But the saving weapon that arms the right hand of those who contend valiantly against the enemies is the Holy Spirit. He is terrible when He resists, and saving when He is communicated to those who receive Him. And every evangelical teaching gives safety to the feet, so that no part of the body is found naked and exposed to receive a blow.

Therefore, let him who is still walking put on footwear. But he who has crossed the Jordan and already entered the land of promise, let him bare his feet. "Loose," He says, "the shoe from your foot, for the place on which you stand is holy ground" (Josh 5:15). If someone is neither Joshua nor an Apostle, let him shod his feet with readiness for the preaching of the Gospel of peace. But if he is an Apostle and may be counted among the Twelve, let him remove his shoes on the way. Let him not cover his sole against scorpions and serpents. Rather, as one fully perfect, let him stand on holy ground, live in Christ, and follow the Lamb wherever He steps. One may ask: did he now say "the Gospel of peace" in distinction from some other Gospel? Or is it the property of the Gospel to be called the Gospel of peace? Therefore, he who has peace is shod for the Gospel of Christ. When he is shod, he is ready. Yet let the ready man not think himself perfect. He is prepared so that he may continue, and by continuing come to the end.

Having said, “Stand,” he immediately adds, “having girded your loins with truth.” Earthly soldiers gird themselves with material belts, so that, tightening their clothing, they may run unhindered, hang the sword upon them, and keep their loins covered and unharmed.

With what belt, then, does Paul command us to be girded? With the belt of truth. In the loins are the kidneys, and in the kidneys the material of carnal desires is born.

Therefore the Prophet David asked God, saying: “Burn my inward parts and my heart” (Ps 25:2). That is, burn up in my kidneys the material of carnal desires, so that it may not cast defiled desires into my heart.

Therefore chastity is that belt with which Paul commands us to arm ourselves. He teaches us to be chaste, but in truth and not in pretense.

This means not appearing chaste before men while secretly doing the work of lust. Chaste in truth means being perfectly chaste.

We are truly chaste when we keep away not only from committing carnal sins, but also from the evil desires of passionate sensuality. For not only the act, but also carnal desire corrupts the chastity of the soul.

“For everyone who looks at a woman in order to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:28).

Soldiers also wear an iron breastplate, that is, a cuirass, to protect their chest. But Paul, instead of an iron breastplate, clothes Christians in the breastplate of righteousness to protect their heart.

As sharp arrows, striking an iron breastplate, are blunted and fall to the ground without effect, so demonic temptations weaken when they attack a heart guarded by righteousness. They become idle and ineffective, causing no harm.

Soldiers also put suitable boots on their feet, so that they may easily run through the roughest and most impassable places.

Paul shods our feet “with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.” By these words he commands us to have readiness to fulfill all the commandments of the Gospel.

As a soldier with well-shod feet runs easily to every place, so a Christian made ready leaps over all temptations encountered on the path of virtue. He walks unhindered along the path of the Gospel’s ordinances.

Since he is speaking of war, lest anyone think that he commands war against all, he said, “of the Gospel of peace.” He thereby shows that the Gospel teaches us to have peace with God and with all men.

For the sake of eternal peace it teaches us to wage war against the passions and demons.

Notice these three weapons: truth, righteousness, and readiness for good works. They are truly strong weapons. Whoever establishes his thoughts by truth, arms his will with righteousness, and has readiness for virtue in his heart cannot be harmed in any way by the wiles of the devil.

But listen also to what weapon is strongest and higher than all the other weapons.

One might understand the word peace not as an indication of a special virtue, but as a designation of the peacemaking quality of the Gospel. It would then be contained already in the word Gospel.

In that case this one word, Gospel, would be enough to express the thought. One might understand here readiness to live according to the Gospel.

Saint Chrysostom and our other interpreters dwell more on this thought. Thus Saint Chrysostom says: “By the preparation of the Gospel is meant the very best manner of life.”

What this best manner of life is, he explains below: “Let us conduct ourselves worthily of the Gospel. Let us act so that our whole life and our deeds may be pure throughout the whole course of our earthly race.”

Yet a firm resolve for such a life, readiness, is already contained in the exhortation, Stand, and constitutes an essential feature of standing. The particular virtues in which this readiness is manifested are already contained in the breastplate of righteousness.

It remains either to leave undecided what exactly Saint Paul means here, or to devise still another supposition. We resolve on the latter, and take as our guide a word of Saint Chrysostom.

He says: “Or, if this explanation,” that is, the understanding here of readiness for preaching the Gospel, “is not correct, the Apostle wishes to say that they should prepare for departure.”

The remembrance of departure, or death, with careful preparation for it, is considered by all ascetics, the tireless fighters against the enemies of our salvation, to be the most powerful means for repelling the enemy’s arrows.

Is this not precisely what is meant here? Only all the related manifestations of spiritual life that belong to this remembrance must be clarified.

The remembrance of death is not bare memory. It contains the heart’s migration from this life to the other. People remember death not merely to frighten themselves, but so as not to be attached to anything temporal.

For however great something temporal may be, today or tomorrow it must be left behind. A heart attached to nothing here has cast away all earthly tastes and finds taste only in what is not earthly. By this it is sweetened.

The one whose heart is such lives here in the body, but in the heart is in heaven, in the other life.

Such a disposition is the essence of the Gospel. The Lord says that His Kingdom is within us, and also that it is not of this world.

Whoever is in the heart is inwardly present. Whoever lives in another world by the heart is already not of this world.

Is he not then in the Kingdom which the Savior indicated and of which the Gospel proclaims the good tidings?

Let us take a somewhat different course of thought. What does the Lord first command those who resolve to follow Him? Let them deny themselves.

In the flow of the discourse, this word means: love the way of the Lord and resolve to remain faithful to it even to the laying down of life.

It requires readiness for every sacrifice, for every kind of deprivation and suffering, and even for death. Among the holy ascetics one often hears the command: do you wish to run successfully on the way of the Lord? Die beforehand.

Gathering all these thoughts into one, we say that such is the spirit of life according to the Gospel. It requires deadness to everything earthly and the heart’s migration into another life, with readiness for every deprivation and even for death.

Whoever has been so disposed has prepared himself for life according to the Gospel. He has fulfilled what the Apostle teaches when he commands that the feet be shod with the readiness required by the Gospel.

Such a man is beyond the reach of the enemy’s arrows. What arrow can reach a heart that is in heaven? Or what sensitive wound can be inflicted on one who has died and keeps himself in unmoving deadness?

The very structure of the Apostle’s speech compels us to settle on this understanding of his words. Having girded the spiritual warrior with truth, he transformed his mind.

Having clothed him in the breastplate of righteousness, he transformed his will. One expects him to speak of the transformation of the heart.

The disposition indicated by us is its actual transformation. Together with the first two, it is the strongest means for repelling the enemy.

The manner of expression also requires that all three instruments be interpreted so that the concepts placed in them correspond to one another. These are: having girded, having put on, having shod.

Let us apply the indicated disposition of the heart to footwear. Whoever is barefoot or poorly shod steps timidly, fearing pain from the unevenness of the path.

But whoever is well shod steps boldly over hummocks, rocky paths, and trails strewn with thorns. Such is the man who has died to everything earthly and lives in heaven by the heart, with readiness for deprivation and death.

He goes boldly, fearing nothing, for he has already prepared himself for everything. Nothing can be devised for which he is not ready.

But whoever still lives on earth and nourishes earthly tastes, interests, and hopes groans and cries out continually, as though stepping on thorns.