and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
Ephesians 6:15 NIVUK
For some completely unfathomable reason, an artist decided to make a pair of solid gold Air Jordan trainers. If the idea of owning a pair excites you, I would save up your pocket money.
They cost $2 million a pair.
What’s more, as well as being pretty uncomfortable to wear, they are actually useless – each shoe weighs 22kg!
So if you wear them, it will be more than white men that can’t jump...
Here’s the thing, though. For a dying person, I’m sure the beaten-up shoes of the emergency workers that saved their life would be much, much more valuable. In fact, to both them and their family, I believe they would be priceless.
This is what Paul is talking about. He is talking about the readiness to take the life-saving, eternity-altering truths of the Gospel to a needy world.
So let me ask you, Christian: what do you have on your feet right now?
Ah, but we are so good at making excuses!
‘This is a sinful generation. They won’t listen.’
‘I don’t know what to say.’
‘I could lose my career/family/comfortable life over this.’
Paul is asking the Ephesians to take the Gospel to their neighbourhood in one of the most dangerous, the most combustible situations possible. Acts 19 tells us plainly that there were Jews hostile to Paul, there were pagans hostile to Paul and there was a Roman governor, who seems to be thoroughly indifferent, but doesn’t want any trouble so he gets to keep his job.
That was hardly paradise.
Yet Paul is encouraging them to be ready to share the Gospel!
You see, evangelism isn’t an option for the particularly skilled and inclined. It’s a command.
For all of us.
Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’
Matthew 28:18-20 NIVUK
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
Acts 1:8 NIVUK
Neither Matthew nor Luke record Jesus as providing us with get-out clauses or small print.
So we have to go.
Moreover, the word translated as ‘readiness’ also means ‘preparedness’. That is, not just in willingness to go, but the training and preparation to go.
On other words, Paul wants the Ephesians to have both the desire to take the Gospel to their people, but also the knowledge and ability to do it properly. Paul is not looking to send them out unprepared, but He does want them to go out.
Jesus followed this principle. As part of His three year training programme for the disciples, He both provided theoretical and practical elements – He sent them out to serve Him on mission. In fact, He did it twice (Matthew 10:5-42; Mark 6:7-13; Luke 9:1-6 and Luke 12:1-23).
And both times, He prepared them thoroughly for the job.
This is what we should do. We should all have the over-riding desire to obey Jesus. That must mean that we want to tell others about Him. But we will recognise that we need training in how to do it. So we will seek to prepare ourselves – both in prayer and in knowledge – in how to do so.
These are the feet shod with readiness.
There is, however more to it than that. You see, when I was a missionary, I saw this part of the Armour of God as being incontrovertibly connected to mission and evangelism.
But that is only part of the truth.
Peter explains it further, in a section of his letter dedicated to teaching Christians how to suffer well:
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
1 Peter 3:15-16 NIVUK
So in the midst of suffering and hardship, when we feel the pain just as much as everyone else – if not more – Peter is saying that we should have an unmistakable and unshakeable hope. This hope ought to be so obvious, and so unusual, to those around us that they have to ask us about it. And when they do, we should be prepared and ready (both verses use the same root word in Greek) to share the hope that we have, with gentleness and respect.
In other words, what should attract people to the Gospel is not just the brilliance of our presentation, but the glory of our faith under fire.
The feet shod with readiness symbolise a heart and mind ready to share the Gospel with those who are drawn to it.
Now, this is where things get complicated. Christians are prone to find excuses to not do just about anything. Missions and evangelism are probably number one of them things they want to avoid. I even heard of an elderly woman who deliberately avoided any missionary prayer meetings because she was so afraid she would receive a calling from God.
Christians will hide behind the idea of ‘preparedness’ and ‘readiness’ and will claim they are neither prepared nor ready, so they won’t share the Gospel. I have even met church leaders who have prevented teams leaving on mission from their church because they are concerned about their lack of preparedness.
Preparedness is never an insurmountable obstacle. It should never be used as an excuse to avoid evangelism and mission. There is so much material available nowadays, so many training courses, so many books, that saying you are not prepared is exactly the same as saying ‘I just don’t want to do it’. And that is nothing more than disobedience.
Soldiers in Paul’s day had to be ready to run. There were no radio or telephones or even telegraph. There was certainly no internet or email. Information on battles won, or loss, was passed by messengers who ran.
This is our calling. We are to be prepared to run with the message of the Gospel – of Christ’s victory on the cross and the sure and certain hope this gives us.
The question is: do we have our running shoes on?
Questions
1. How do you react when the call to evangelism, mission and making disciples goes out? Do you see it as necessary or an option?
2. When you suffer, do you feel you have a sure and certain hope? Do others see it?
3. How ready are you to share the Gospel with other people?
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