the
weapons which we are to wield. A Christian man fights against evil in
himself by putting on good. The true way to empty the heart of sin is
to fill the heart with righteousness. The lances of the light,
according to the significant old Greek myth, slew pythons. The armour
is 'righteousness on the right hand and on the left.' Stick to plain,
simple, homely duties, and you will find that they will defend your
heart against many a temptation. A flask that is full of rich wine
may be plunged into the saltest ocean, and not a drop will find its
way in. Fill your heart with righteousness; your lives--let them
glisten in the light, and the light will be your armour. God is
light, wherefore God cannot be tempted with evil. 'Walk in the light,
as He is in the light' ... and 'the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth
from all sin.'

But there is another side to that thought, for if you will look, at
your leisure, to the closing words of the chapter, you will find the
Apostle's own exposition of what putting on the armour of light
means. 'Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ'--that is his explanation of
putting on 'the armour of light.' For 'once ye were darkness, but now
are ye light in the Lord,' and it is in the measure in which we are
united to Him, by the faith which binds us to Him, and by the love
which works obedience and conformity, that we wear the invulnerable
armour of light. Christ Himself is, and He supplies to all, the
separate graces which Christian men can wear. We may say that He is
'the panoply of God,' as Paul calls it in Ephesians, and when we wear
Him, and only in the measure in which we do wear Him, in that measure
are we clothed with it. And so the last thing that I would point out
here is that the obedience to these commands requires continual
effort.

The Christians in Rome, to whom Paul was writing, were no novices in
the Christian life. Long ago many of them had been brought to Him.
But the oldest Christian amongst them needed the exhortation as much
as the rawest recruit in the ranks. Continual renewal day by day is
what we need, and it will not be secured without a great deal of
work. Seeing that there is a 'putting off' to go along with the
'putting on,' the process is a very long one. ''Tis a lifelong task
till the lump be leavened.' It is a lifelong task till we strip off
all the rags of this old self; and 'being clothed,' are not 'found
naked.' It takes a lifetime to fathom Jesus; it takes a lifetime