The Sword

and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
A sword is both a defensive and offensive weapon. With it you can block the blows of the enemy and with it you can strike the enemy down. In Hebrews 4:12 we read “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” We see that it is able to get into the inner most being.
We see how the sword of truth is used in Matthew 4:4-11. Notice that the tempter came in a time of weakness and made his attack. Notice also that each attack was met with the word of God. The tempter also used the word in a miss application but that was turned aside by rightly dividing the word and comparing scripture with scripture. In the end the tempter left in defeat. But we see in the parallel account of this in Luke 4:4-13 the tempter only left until a more opportune time. As long as we are alive the battle is not over.