If you have not read part one or two, jump in right here and check them out later. If you have read the other posts, thank you for coming back to my blog. This post is about my perspective on peace sandals.
Ephesians 6:15NKJV
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Peace. “Shod” is an adjective that means that something is bound to the bottom of your foot, like a horseshoe on a horse. A Roman soldier’s sandal was a high-top thick leather sandal. The bottom had metal nails with a nob at the end that possibly provided some type of grip into the ground, kind of like an ancient soccer spike. The heavy, metal-bottomed sandal was also believed to be used for crushing an enemy underfoot after the enemy was on the ground. The sound of a Roman army marching in unison with these sandals probably caused quite stir.
What I believe Paul is saying is that we need to bind peace to our feet. Why our feet? Because wherever we go, peace should be with us. It’s very difficult for a person to take up a one-sided fight, and refusing to fight can immediately squash an enemy in his tracks.
One of my favorite peace scriptures, and I believe it’s key in strengthening your peace, is Psalm 119:165 NKJV
Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
To me, this is one of the hardest sayings in the Bible. What does that mean, “love thy law?” We are not under the law anymore, but grace! Before you shout “woohoo,” Jesus said in John 13:34-35 34 NKJV
34A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Jesus answered a lawyer’s question about which is the greatest commandment in Matthew 22:36-40. He said the first was to love the Lord, second to love your neighbor; all the LAW and prophets hang on the love commandments. Our peace most certainly hangs on love. While the law has been fulfilled by Jesus, love is still an ongoing commandment. This verse can be read, Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. Do you feel offended by someone or something? Not walking in love by letting offense in your life will most certainly kick your peace sandals right off your feet.
Personally, I grew up with no peace sandals on my feet. I was taught by family how to be offended, fight back, and don’t quit until you win. Even after the fight was long over, keep bringing up the offense. This is a typical Italian response. For me, learning to forgive, not hold offense and forget was very difficult. Quoting Psalm 119:165 over and over in my own way helped me find a pair of peace sandals. I constantly reminded myself, “Great peace have they which love… great peace have they which love God’s Word… Great peace have they which love Jesus… If I’m offended, I don’t love God… If I’m offended, I don’t really love Jesus… If I’m offended, I don’t really love the Word…” While that may sound harsh to some people, that’s what I was inspired to do by the Holy Spirit. If you come from a family where forgiveness is a huge problem, ask the Holy Spirit which Scriptures and declarations you should say to remind yourself to forgive.
Let’s look at offense briefly. There are three types of people:
– those that know they’re offended
– those that don’t know they’re offended
– those that closely monitor their heart
Only the Holy Spirit can confirm with us which type of person we are. I’m sure we all remember what Peter asked Jesus in Matthew 18:21 NKJV…
21Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”
*Jesus’ entire parable will be at the end of the post translated from a Hebrew manuscript version. I highly recommend reading it.
Jesus goes on to tell the parable of a man who had a debt that wasn’t ever possible to be repaid by a servant. After he asks for mercy and receives it, he immediately goes to a fellow servant and wants him in jail for a small, payable debt. Jesus is trying to explain to us that He paid our debt of sin that can never, ever be repaid. When it comes to our turn to cancel a fellow servant’s debt/sin, we are expected to show the same forgiveness as the Lord showed us. Jesus shared this parable so we can come up to a higher way of thinking, and to start thinking His thoughts about offense and forgiveness. We must remember that while we were still sinners, Christ loved us and died for us. He didn’t wait until we loved Him, He showed us His love first. Christ is our ultimate example.
The three walks of forgiveness
– “I’ll never forgive them! You don’t know what they did to me.” This is a brother or sister offended and they know it.
– “I forgave them already, but…” But you’ll never speak to them again? But you’re waiting for an apology? But you’re waiting for them to return your money? But you’re waiting for them to admit they’ve wronged you? But you can’t forget? This is a brother or sister that is offended and doesn’t realize it. They started the process, but they’re waiting on some type of avengement to satisfy their emotions before it’s fully settled in their heart.
– “I forgave them a long time ago. I barely remember.” A brother or sister that can truly let an offense go has a strong understanding of God’s love. These type of people practice love and forgiveness regularly.
Overcoming offense is a huge topic, and far too much for this post. I would like to encourage everyone reading to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to your heart if there is someone you feel offended with, or a situation where you are carrying an offense. Holding onto offense will gradually make your heart hard. When you let go of an offense, the offense will let go of you. Forgiving others for offending you doesn’t necessarily make their life right before the Lord, but it will most certainly detach them from your soul (your soul is your mind, will and emotions). It will tear down the wall built up in your heart that stands between you and the Lord.
Offense is always a heavy topic to get through, but the more you practice forgiveness the easier this topic will become for you. Once you put your peace sandals back on your feet, you won’t want to allow anyone’s sin to steal your peace again. That brings us to upgrading our peace sandals and increasing their strength to dig your ancient spikes into the ground and crush the enemy underfoot. James 3:17 NKJV
17But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
This is James 3:17 translated from a Hebrew manuscript
But the wisdom from above is firstly (at the first) pure, and afterwards shalom (peace), and with rest, and is able to reconcile, and quick to listen full of mercy, and lastly it is to goodness (that which is good) and not to partiality or flattery (without partiality and flattery). But the righteous fruits are sown in shalom by those who establish (preform) the shalom.
I really like the original Hebrew manuscript of James, or Ya’acob as his real name is in Hebrew. James teaches us something very interesting about peace. Wisdom from the Lord brings peace, peace with rest. Take a moment to think about peace with rest. There have been so many times in my life where I didn’t even understand what the Lord’s peace truly meant. Saying peace can give you the idea of being quiet or alone. Some people imagine a hippie flashing a peace sign after he passed something to the left. If you search pictures of peace of on the internet, it’s normally depicted by scenes in nature and often features a human trying to contact the spiritual realm. When you think about why, you realize it’s because the closest an unsaved person can get to the peace of the Lord is drugs and/or nature. While we can and should enjoy the peace that exists in nature (His creation), we can have so much more from the Lord! True peace from the Lord is being completely unaffected by negative emotions no matter what the circumstance is surrounding you and still holding on to your joy.
The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, means nothing missing, and nothing broken (this includes your mind, health and prosperity). Peace with rest means you don’t need a massage for your tense muscles. Peace with rest means that when your head hits your pillow, you will sleep. James goes on the explain that the effects of wisdom from the Lord will teach us how to react in situations. Reacting with wisdom from the Lord will give us morally right fruits (as opposed to the evil ones in previous verses) sown in peace when we act on peace. And what are those fruits that James is probably speaking of, Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
These are the fruits Christians are supposed to be growing and cultivating. We can’t pray and ask the Lord to give us these fruits, believe me I tried. Growing up in mainstream denominational church I learned we were supposed to pray and ask God to give us these fruits. I asked and I asked, but the Lord never gave me one fruit. I’ll be willing to bet you know someone who tried the same approach! Ever hear someone say about longsuffering, “Don’t pray for patience! You’ll be very miserable!” These types of comments are always followed up with a list of frustrating stories. I know because I was one of these people. But why?
These fruits are a choice. They are growing pains. Making decisions in favor of these fruits will cause us to grow. My prayers to the Lord were actually being answered by the enemy. The Lord wasn’t sending people to make me miserable, to teach me lessons to grow, the enemy was behind it. There are no stories in the Bible where the Lord places a call on a man’s life to act like the devil or cause someone to sin to “expose your weaknesses to teach you a lesson.” If that were true, sin would be the work of the Lord. The Lord wouldn’t be a just Lord using humans against each other. In the end, fruit was never produced in my life from those prayers. I always ended up being the failure in the funny-frustrating don’t-do-it story. Paul said in Romans 5:3
NKJV
And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;
Webster’s Bible Translation
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
When you make the choice in everyday life to not allow an angry person to affect your happy day, then the next time you’re faced with that choice, it will be easier. It’s as simple as that. It works the same way with all the fruit, including peace. We have to choose peace at all times, especially when it’s easy. When the day comes where we’re thrust into a difficult situation, if we haven’t been practicing peace and pursing it, we won’t be ready to choose peace with rest. Peter found pursuing peace to be so important that he quoted Psalm 34:13-14 when he wrote 1 Peter 3:11, “seek peace and pursue it.”
Our peace is so very important to the Lord. Jesus said in John 14:27 NKJV, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Not only do we have the fruit of peace with rest available to choose and cultivate, but Jesus also left us with His peace from the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17 NKJV
“for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Peace is coming from the Holy Spirit again in Romans 15:13 NKJV
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
I truly believe when we do our part in the natural, and believe the Lord is faithful to perform His word and fill us with His peace, that is when we will see miraculous results manifested in our lives. That’s exactly the testimony Paul is talking about us having as Christians, “having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” More simply said bind peace to yourself wherever you go, be ready with good news of peace. Not just good news to yourself, but to those around you. Our world today is filled with fear. People are always searching for peace, or as we most often hear, “de-stressing.” A Christian with a solid foundation of peace is a true testimony of the gospel.
I hope you enjoyed searching the scriptures with me. Next week we’ll go through the remaining pieces of the armor. If you’re interested in Jesus’ parable translated from a Hebrew manuscript, keep reading below.
Let the peace of God be upon you.
Hebrew Matthew 18:21-35
21Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me seven times?” 22 Yeshua said to him, “I, I do not say to you seven times, but I say to you seventy times. 23 And therefore the kingdom of heavens is like a man, a king, who wanted to hear a report from his servants. 24 And when they began to relate (recite) the report, they brought one man who owed him ten thousand [golden coins]. 25 And when he did not have anything to repay, the master commanded that they should sell him and his wife and his sons, and whatever he might have, and that it should be repaid. 26 Then that servant knelt down on the ground, pleading for grace, and saying, ‘Master, have mercy on me, and I will repay you your debt.’ 27 Then the master had compassion on the servant, and let him go, and forgave him all the debt. 28 But when that servant had gone out, he found one of his fellows who owed him one hundred plain coins, and he grabbed hold of him and strangled (or choked) him, saying to him, ‘Repay what you owe!’ 29 Then he pleaded with him for grace, and said, ‘Have mercy on me and I will repay you.’ 30 But he did not want to give attention to him but went and placed him in prison until he would pay the debt. 31 And when the servants of the master saw this, they were very dismayed. So they went unto the master and reported to him all that he did to him. 32 Then the master commanded that they should bring him to him (typical Hebrew writing). And he said to him, ‘Evil servant, did I not forgive the debt that you owed me because you pleaded with me for grace? 33 Therefore, should you not have done the same (or acted the same way) – by having compassion on that other servant like I had on you?’ 34 And the master was grieved, and delivered him to oppression until he should return (or repay) all the debt. 35 Just so will my Father who is in the heavens do to you, if you do not forgive from a good heart your fellows.
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