Paul's identification of the Christian's offensive weapon in Ephesians 6:17: And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Of the six pieces of armor Paul names, all are defensive (belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet) except this one — the sword. The Greek machaira (short sword) is the close-quarters weapon, used for the precise strike. The sword is the word of God: Greek rhema (the spoken/applied word) rather than logos (the written corpus), emphasizing the active deployment of Scripture against specific spiritual attacks. Christ's own use of the sword is the model: in the wilderness temptation, He answered each of Satan's lies with a specific Scripture verse (It is written, Matt 4:4, 7, 10). Hebrews 4:12 calls the word quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. The Christian who has memorized Scripture has the sword in hand; the Christian who has not is unarmed in close combat.