6 By innocence and purity, knowledge and spiritual insight, longsuffering and patience, kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned love; 7 By [speaking] the word of truth, in the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand [to attack] and for the left hand [to defend]; 2 Corinthians 6:6-7 [AMP]
As I was reading through this passage today, I was really encouraged by the contrast of these 2 verses.
Verse 6 talks about having innocence, purity, knowledge, spiritual insight, longsuffering, patience, and kindness IN the Holy Spirit…in genuine/sincere love. All of these admirable attributes come after Paul telling us all about the things that he and his ministry have endured in persecution, imprisonment, and unspeakable hardships….BUT
…in Verse 7 he pulls out the BIG GUNS. These things in verse 6 are enabled through speaking the Word of TRUTH IN the Power of God. How? you might ask…
…with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand [to attack] and for the left hand [to defend]
2 Corinthians 6:7b [AMP]
Hands full of everything you need to fight…weapons of righteousness. I just like this idea that what when both the right and left hands are full of righteousness there is nothing else that needs to be wielded to both attack and defend. There is just something very powerful about this.