1 Thessalonians 5:8 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Putting on the breastplate of faith and love, &c.— The breast and head being particularly exposed in battle, and wounds in these parts being extremely dangerous, the ancients carefully defended the breast and the head of their soldiers by armour, to which the Apostle here compares the Christian graces of faith and love. The breastplate of faith and love, being made of more precious materials than any metal, and being of a truly heavenly fabric, will render the heart, the seat of the affections, invulnerable. The Apostle's meaning, stripped of the metaphor, is this; that to defend our affections against the impression of outward and sensible objects, nothing is so effectual as faith in the promises of Christ, and love to God and man. St. Paul had the skilful and happy address of using figures and similitudes, which would be well understood, nay, and be emphatical, in the country and among the persons to whom he was writing. Thus, in his Epistle to the Romans, he compares holiness and sin to two masters, who had each of themtheir slaves; and dwells for some time upon that custom, which was so common among the Romans, in order to their apprehending his meaning more clearly. In writing to the Ephesians, he uses the architect stile, ch. 1 Thessalonians 2:20 as all Asia had such sublime thoughts of the celebrated temple of Diana at Ephesus. In writing to the Hebrew Christians, he compares Christianity to almost the whole Mosaic oeconomy, and shews how much the gospel-dispensation excels: sohere, in writing to the Thessalonians of Macedonia, he speaks the very language of that warlike people; and as the lesser Asia was so well acquainted with the like customs, he makes use of the same allusion, Ephesians 6:10-18. See the notes there.