Got Fruit ?

A continued train of thought from today’s previous post…

With a friend, there comes a certain amount of trust and faith,an expectation given that they’ll be there for you through the highs and the lows. Coincidentally or not and loosely connected, the devotional readings from the past two evenings have dealt specifically on the subject of faith. From last night’s devotional, The Shield of Faith coming from Ephesians 6:16 was read.

Ephesians 6:16
16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

The devotional’s author Rick Renner, provides some imagery from Greek and Roman culture to represent the shield and our God given faith(Romans 12:3). Paraphrasing Renner: The word “shield” is derived from the Greek word THUREOS, which described an oblong door that was wide in width and long in length. The mental image of a shield that I normally have is something slightly wider than a forearm and long enough to cover most of the torso when held up at chest height. According to the description of THUREOS however, this “shield” that Paul Renner speaks of is massive; large enough to completely cover a soldier. This shield offers maximum protection!

Attributes of the Roman soldier’s shield:

• composed of multiple layers of animal hide tightly woven together (normally 6 layers)
• very strong
• very durable (provided it was maintained daily by rubbing it down with oil to keep the hides conditioned [soft, supple & pliable])

Now, if the Roman soldier failed to go about his daily duty to maintain his shield, it would become hardened, liable to crack under pressure. This in turn would put the soldier’s life in danger, his life depended on his equipment functioning as designed. In a like manner Paul uses the shield as a metaphor of our faith to express the point that daily maintenance is required of our faith. Which segues nicely into the devotional from Tuesday.

As the Roman soldier’s shield required oil rubbed into it daily to stay conditioned, this thought of spiritual conditioning is expressed, again by Renner in his reflections of anointing in Psalm 92:10.

Psalm 92:10
10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

CHRIO the Greek word for “anoint”,is a a word often used to describe the smearing or rubbing of oil or perfume on a person. The visual here would be of a physician in ancient times deeply rubbing oil into the sore muscles of someone. Since oil was very expensive in those times, it was common for the physician to have someone pour oil into his hands for application versus liberally pouring it directly onto the patient’s body. Renner’s point here is not the oil itself but rather the one applying the oil, the act as he describes is a hand’s on procedure. Renner’s illustration is to make the point that it is the hands of The Father (The Great Anointer) that are laid upon us when we seek a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Shields up!

Grace and peace be with you.