Breastplate

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What is a breastplate?  What does it do and why should we wear it?

Definition

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary - Breastplate

1 : a usually metal plate worn as defensive armor for the breast -- see ARMOR illustration
2 : a vestment worn in ancient times by a Jewish high priest and set with 12 gems bearing the names of the tribes of Israel
3 : a piece against which a worker's breast is pressed in operating a tool (as a breast drill) 
(The breast is the front part of the body between the neck and the abdomen)

The breastplate defends the heart.  The heart is the center of Christianity.

Bible Examples of the Heart

Purity - Matt 5:8 - "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."

Music - Eph 5:19 - "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;"

Giving - II Cor 9:7 - "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver."

Righteousness - Romans 10:10 - "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness..."

Living - II Cor 3:3 - "...ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart."

Judging - I John 3:20-21 - "For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.  Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God."

Loving - Matt 22:37, Duet 6:5, Mark 12:30, - "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."
(also see  Duet 6:5, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27)

Conclusion

Remember that we are talking about "wearing" a breastplate of righteousness during a spiritual battle.

It's purpose is to guard our heart and keep it right before God.  We don't want to hear what Simon did when he tried to purchase the power to give the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands and was told, "Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God." Acts 8:21

If our heart is overtaken and we cease to love God, we can not be pleasing to Him no matter what we do.

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." I Cor 13:1-3  

I Thess 5:8 - "But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation."