“For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.” Ephesians 6:15 NLT
No matter how solid the breastplate of a Roman soldier was, and no matter how tightly he cinched his belt, those pieces of armor would be of little use if he slipped and fell in the heat of battle. So, in the apostle Paul’s list of the pieces that make up the armor of God, he says, “For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared” (Ephesians 6:15 NLT). The shoe of a Roman soldier was called a caligae. It was a sandal-boot hybrid designed for maximum comfort and protection. The straps of the caligae were held firmly at the sole. The bottom of the sole was studded with thick nails, providing the soldier with sure footing, thus preventing him from slipping and sliding on the terrain. Sporting cleats are the footwear descendants of the Roman caligae. The shoes were an essential part of the Roman soldier’s armor because one of the common battlefield tactics of ancient times was to place sharpened sticks in the ground at an angle. A soldier whose feet were not protected by shoes was vulnerable to serious injury—and even death if the puncture wound became infected. What a terrible battlefield irony it would have been for a soldier armored to the teeth with a belt, breastplate, shield, and sword to die because he cut his foot.
Of course, in the heat of battle, the greatest protection the shoes offered was solid footing. With solid footing comes leverage. With leverage comes advantage. With advantage comes victory. That explains why one of the favorite tactics of our enemy is to throw us off-balance, to keep us from getting solid spiritual footing. Look at the serpent’s question to Eve in the Garden of Eden. “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” (Genesis 3:1 NLT). Did. God. Really. Say. If our enemy can get us to question the bedrock of our faith, then everything becomes negotiable. If we cannot trust what the Lord really said about the trees in the Garden, how can we trust what He says about salvation? Or forgiveness? Or eternal life? Without shoes in our armor, we start to lose our spiritual footing. We start to lose our boldness. We start to lose our joy. We start to lose our peace. We start to lose our desire to share our faith with others.
In his parable of the wise and foolish builders, Jesus said, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock” (Matthew 7:24 NLT). Paul’s reference to the shoes of the armor of God builds on the same principle. In spiritual warfare, solid grounding is essential. We stand firm by studying the Lord’s teaching and following it in the way we live. If we do that, we will always have leverage against our enemy.
