Activities That Teach the Armor of God to Teenagers

In Ephesians chapter 6, the apostle Paul uses the metaphor of body armor to discuss spiritual armor: the Armor of God. Teaching the Armor of God can be done in a memorable way so that teens will apply it to their lives. Activities that will get the kids to laugh and use their creativity will help them incorporate the Armor of God into their memory and life.

... Stockbyte/Stockbyte/Getty Images

Some of the items in the Bible passage are not commonly used today, such as a sword. Use football pads, hockey helmets and safety glasses as examples of today's protection against evils or danger. Dress up in current-day armor and explain how each article is useful for protection or as a weapon. If possible, allow the teens to wear the pieces of armor and explain in their own words how each item can symbolize part of the Armor of God.

... Ableimages/Photodisc/Getty Images

Paul explains the Armor of God as part of a Christian's spiritual life. Encourage the teens to provide examples of acts they can do to represent the Armor of God in their lives. You will need a large piece of poster board and a pen. On the poster board, sketch the outline of a person. Ask the teenagers how they can implement each piece of armor in their life and write their answers across the sketched body. For example, one teen might say, "I will stand up to bullies," write this across the feet to represent the Shoes of Peace.

... Brad Dyksen/iStock/Getty Images

Armor is for protection, and a fun way to teach about the importance of protection is to put them in the line of fire. A safe fight could be with water balloons or water guns. The teens have the option of wearing ponchos or raincoats as protection. Those who chose to not wear protection will end soaking wet. Use this as a teaching point to explain about why we need to use armor for protection. Cite Paul's words that our fight is not against the physical things but in the spiritual world. Talk about spiritual wars they may be fighting.

Split the teens into two groups and select a model from each team. Write "peace," "faith," "truth" and the other titles of the armor on separate pieces of paper, without noting the article, such as "helmet." The group guesses where each paper should go and tapes it on the model. The team that gets the most papers at the correct place on the model wins.

Have the teens read about the Armor of God in the Bible, moving the papers to the correct place on the model as they read. Have them discuss why they think each piece of armor is at the place it is. For example, the breastplate of righteousness might be over the chest to protect the heart in an emotional, not physical, sense.