In my youth, I
had a very brief romance with motorcycles. Oh, I still love to look at sick choppers and big bad hogs,
but my Honda Trail 70 and I had a falling out which permanently diminished my
desire to ever again ride a bike. One of the things I really love about biker
culture is the seemingly endless assortment of helmets
available. You can create any aesthetic by simply changing from a simple open-faced
helmet to a sci-fi themed full-face modular
model. Or perhaps you want a more military look: you can choose from simple kaiser helmets
or something that resembles special
ops gear. The possibilities are endless!
A helmet’s
primary purpose is to protect the brain, which is both the biological control
center of the body and home to our minds, or thought processes. However, the
helmet can protect more than just the brain; the helmets mentioned above
provide various levels of protection for the eyes, ears, and mouth as well. The eyes and ears are vital to our experience
of the world around us. What we see and
hear has a huge effect on what we think.
The mouth is very important with regard to how we affect the world
(specifically, people) around us. The Biblical
Helmet of Salvation has much to do with both how we perceive the world, and how
the world perceives us.
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| Image by Steven Iodice from Pixabay |
Let’s turn our
focus toward the Roman military helmets which first-century Christians would
have been familiar with. Some types leave the ears open, while others cover the
ears completely. The advantage to having
your ears covered is enhanced protection of the sides of the skull, but it
brings with it a serious disadvantage:
you can’t hear as well.
What about
protection for the eyes? Most versions
protect the face only with hinged cheek guards, providing good protection on
each side, but leaving the eyes open and vulnerable. Some helmets covered the entire face,
leaving just the eyeholes open, which would provide much greater protection. Only
small objects that could fit through those eyeholes would pose a threat to the
eyes, but along with that protection comes the hindrance of a restricted field
of vision.
Various helmets
were worn for different divisions of troops, depending on what those particular
soldiers would be doing. In many cases, the need for added protection
outweighed the disadvantages of impaired hearing or vision while wearing the
helmet. Regarding motorcycle helmets, the same kind of impairments have led to
numerous states repealing helmet laws for motorcyclists. I know from personal
experience that while a full-face helmet with a flip-down visor does a fine job
of protecting the head, it makes it many times harder to see and hear, and thus
to react to the environment around you. Riding without a helmet does allow for greater
awareness, freedom, and flexibility, though the rider does so at their own
risk.
So what does this
mean for us, spiritually? The result is
counter-intuitive. The physical helmet
brings protection, but can impair the wearer’s ability to perceive the
surrounding environment. You might now
ask, “If the same is true of the Helmet
of Salvation, wouldn’t that mean that God wishes to hinder our ability to
observe and interact with the world around us?”
The answer to
this question lies in properly understanding how to interpret the symbolism:
A person who isn’t spiritual
doesn’t accept the teachings of God’s Spirit. He thinks they’re nonsense. He
can’t understand them because a person must be spiritual to evaluate them.
~1 Corinthians
2:14 (GW)
Our question above
is flawed. It reveals a non-spiritual way of trying (and failing) to understand
the teachings found in God’s Word. Even
so, the answer to it is still a resounding, “No.”
Where the
physical helmet impairs vision and hearing, God’s Helmet of Salvation narrows
our focus down to what God wants us to allow into our minds. Indeed, this is central to the idea of “bringing
every thought into captivity.”
If we accept the truth that all actions begin with a thought (James
1:14-15), and also that our thoughts must be protected (2 Cor 10:5),
we must then ask, “Where do our thoughts come from?”
Nobody thinks in
a vacuum: our thoughts are influenced greatly by what we learn from observing
(seeing and hearing) the world around us. Consider how a baby learns to
talk. When my son was quite young, my
wife and I were overjoyed to hear his first word. Our joy continued to grow as he learned more
and more words, and finally he could begin to speak in complete sentences.
My son didn’t
just pick up on words and sentence structure out of thin air. He learned to speak because he heard other
people speak to him. What went into his
mind changed him in a profound way. He
heard the words spoken by others, and his brain came to associate these strange
sounds with people, objects, and actions.
After a while, his brain figured out how to make similar sounds (words)
come out of his mouth. Later on, his
brain learned to put these words together in a way which allowed him to
communicate his thoughts to others in complete sentences. Let’s put a fine point on this: what went
into his mind affected his thoughts, and those thoughts eventually led to
actions.
Each one of us
goes through much the same process every day.
We read books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, Facebook posts, tweets, and
so on. We look at pictures posted on Instagram,
watch TV shows, movies, documentaries, and news programs. We listen to music, talk radio, and
(obviously) other people. If you want
proof that what you look at and listen to affects what you think about, and
consequently influences your behavior, look no further than your nearest
screen! Whether it’s a smart phone,
computer screen, or TV, we endure (and are even sometimes entertained by) the
ever-present advertisements. Ads appear
in printed media like newspapers and magazines, and are featured prominently on
giant billboards. They’re
everywhere! Companies spend billions of
dollars every year on commercials and ads in order to influence you to buy their
products or services. And guess what? IT
WORKS!
The Bible
recognizes and addresses the fact that we are greatly affected by the things
that we see and hear – especially by the things which we regularly allow into
our minds because they are somehow attractive to us. This phenomenon is not unique to the digital
era, the age of information. In fact,
the Book of Job, possibly the oldest book of the Bible, touches on this very
point…
“I have
made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look upon a young woman?”
~ Job 31:1 (NKJV)
Job knew that if
he kept his eyes and mind focused on a young woman, lustful thoughts were virtually
certain to enter his mind. He made a
conscious and purposeful decision to control what went into his mind; he
surrendered his eyes to God’s will; he brought his thoughts into captivity
under God. In this very brief scripture,
Job gives us a perfect example to follow.
He put on the Helmet of Salvation.
Take away my foolish desires, and
let me find life by walking with you.
~ Psalm 119:37 (CEV)
Making the
decision to let God guide what we see and hear is the very essence of the Helm
of Salvation. You might now ask, “How do I do this? How do I know what God wants me to allow into
my mind by what I see and hear?” It
takes work. It takes discipline. Fortunately, there is a process which you can
follow: evaluate the content (the actual
message) that is being communicated, and compare it to the word of God. There is a saying which was quite popular
several years back, and it applies to this process perfectly: “What
would Jesus do?”
If Jesus were
walking about with us on the earth today, what movies or TV shows would He
watch? What music would He listen
to? What books would He read? I firmly believe that Jesus could look upon
and listen to any kind of media available today, no matter how vulgar, vile, or
repugnant it may be, and He would not be led to sin. But I am not Jesus. You are not Jesus. We do not have the strength of character that
Jesus has. Scripture makes this clear:
Indeed,
I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
~Psalm 51:5 (HCSB)
…for
he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
~ Psalm 103:14 (NIV)
I
don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do
it. Instead, I do what I hate.
~Romans
7:15 (NLT)
We must be
careful when we watch movies and TV, when we listen to music, when we read
books, and so on, because we can easily be tempted into sin by what the world
displays before us. The solution to our
dilemma is always the same: compare what
you are seeing or hearing with what the Bible teaches. If the message contained within it is
contrary to the word of God, then run!
Flee sexual immorality…
~1
Corinthians 6:18 (NKJV)
… flee from idolatry.
~1
Corinthians 10:14 (NKJV)
… flee these things and pursue
righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.
~1
Timothy 6:11 (NKJV)
Flee also youthful lusts;
but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord
out of a pure heart.
~2
Timothy 2:22 (NKJV)
Notice that the last two scriptures
listed above present first the removal of a temptation and then the replacement
of it with something good. This is the
heart of what the Helm of Salvation does within our hearts and minds when we
consciously, purposefully, and deliberately make the choice to put it on.
------------------------
Do be careful when evaluating the
various forms of media available today that you judge them based on content,
not on style. While this idea is
important in every area which has been discussed, it seems to be particularly
important in regard to music. Always
keep our primary mission in mind: to
reach out to the lost and point them toward Jesus. In many cases, the music we use to praise and
worship God in church or to edify (to build up or strengthen) our congregations
of believers will not touch the heart of a lost person. While you may not personally like or enjoy
the way a piece of music sounds, keep in mind that different styles of music
speak to different people. Jesus met
sinners where they were at, and we should make every effort to do the same.
Exploring the topic of music fully
would require a book of its own, but the Bible once again gives us guidance,
whether the question is about music, movies, books, or whatever other form of
media might be in question. Please
consult the following scriptures for further study: Romans
chapters 14-15; 1
Corinthians 13:12. Note the use of
the words “new
song” in all of the following scriptures:
Psalm 33:3; Psalm 40:3; Psalm 96:1; Psalm 98:1; Psalm 144:9; Psalm 149;
Isaiah 42:10; Revelation 5:9; Revelation 14:3.
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MORE IN THIS SERIES
The Final Cut (The Armor, part 18)
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