Ephesians 6:15

Note

At the close of Ephesians Paul pictures the Christian's struggle as putting on the armor of God. After the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness come the feet, and what the feet wear is the gospel of peace.

The word that governs the passage is "stand." Put on the full armor "so that you can make your stand against the devil's schemes" (Ephesians 6:11); take it up so that "having done everything, to stand" (Ephesians 6:13); "Stand firm then" (Ephesians 6:14), and the pieces follow one by one. The struggle is "not against flesh and blood" (Ephesians 6:12) but against powers in the heavenly realms. The verb in verse 15, hupodēsamenoi, is an aorist middle participle: having bound on your own feet.

The noun euangelion is in the genitive after hetoimasia, "readiness" or "preparation," and the gospel is in turn "of peace," tēs eirēnēs. The gospel of peace is the good news whose content is peace, the peace that Christ "came and preached" to those far and near (Ephesians 2:17). Hetoimasia means preparedness, and in the Septuagint it can also mean a prepared base or foundation. So the verse has been read in two ways. One hears the readiness to go and tell. Behind it stands Isaiah's herald: "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace" (Isaiah 52:7), a verse Paul quotes elsewhere of those who preach the gospel (Romans 10:15). The other hears firm footing: in a passage that says "stand" four times, the gospel of peace is what keeps a soldier from sliding. The two readings do not exclude each other. One who stands on peace with God is the one who can carry that peace to others.

The versions show the range of the word. The KJV and the LSV say "preparation": "your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." The BSB says "readiness," a state rather than an act. "Shod" and "fitted" both translate the picture of binding on a sandal. Only the LSV turns "gospel" into "good news" here: "the good news of peace."

Matthew Henry notes that the armor described is that of "heavy-armed soldiers, who had to sustain the fiercest assaults of the enemy," and adds that "There is none for the back" Matthew Henry. For the feet, he says, "to stand their ground or to march forward in rugged paths, the feet must be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace" Matthew Henry. Wesley asks that it "be always ready to direct and confirm you in every step," for "By this only can we tread the rough ways, surmount our difficulties, and hold out to the end" Wesley.

The verse puts the gospel on the feet. It is not only news held in the mind: it is ground to stand on in an evil day, and the shoes for walking toward someone else with the same peace.