Begin With the Truth

Begin with the Truth

Ephesians 6:14-15

14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 

15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

   Verse 13 ends with the word, “stand.”  Verse 14 begins with the same word.  Paul was urging us to equip ourselves to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil and his agents.  We can only stand when we are equipped with the spiritual protection (armor) God gives us in Jesus Christ.  Now he will tell us what to equip ourselves with. 

   Paul has been using the metaphor, (word picture,) of armor to give us the idea that we need to equip ourselves with spiritual armor for the battles we face.  And just as each piece of physical armor serves a purpose to protect the soldier in battle, each piece of symbolic armor, which I call spiritual armor, answers to a specific discipline in our Christian life that enables us to stand against spiritual attack.  

   Paul was under house arrest in Rome when he wrote this Epistle and was in the custody of Roman soldiers.  It’s easy for me to imagine him looking at the guards as he was writing and making his word analogy about how a soldier’s armor could be used as an example of how God has equipped the believer with spiritual armor.  If my research is correct, the order Paul uses in describing the armor is the order that the soldier would have put the pieces of armor on. 

   Paul begins with the belt.  "Having girded your waist with truth."  Strictly speaking, the belt is not actually a piece of armor, but before the armor can be put on, the clothing underneath must be gathered together.  In those days men often wore long, robe-like clothes and it would be hard to fight and maneuver in hand-to-hand combat in a long, loose robe.  The bottom part of the robe would be tucked into the belt so it would not become tangled around his legs. 

   The belt also kept the other parts of the armor in place.     The Roman belt was 6-8 inches wide and all the body armor and weapons were attached to it.  A soldier's belt gave ease and freedom of movement by anchoring everything else.  Putting on the belt prepared one for action.

   Truth is symbolically presented as a belt that both protects our mid-section, gathers up our garments so that we can fight effectively, and gives us something to hang everything else on.  Putting on the belt of truth puts on the Biblical beliefs of the Christian as a whole.  We are told in Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  The Word of God is truth and we need truth in our lives if we want to grow in Christ.  One of the most frightening things I see in Christianity today is the church taking off this belt to be more acceptable to the world.  This is completely wrong and is the wrong approach to take.  The world needs truth because there is so little truth in the world.  If the world will not be able to get truth from the church then just where do you think they WILL get truth? 

   Pontius Pilate cynically asked Jesus, "What is Truth?"  We need to face that question seriously.  Truth is a precious treasure to be coveted.  The pursuit of truth is a great challenge in our lives every day.  In our society’s effort to "open" our society to multiculturalism, we have abandoned the quest for truth.  In fact, we now deny the existence of truth in favor of "value relativism."  There is a warning written more than 2600 years ago: Isaiah 5: 20&21

20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!
   A spiritually apathetic society hardly murmured when in 1962, citing no precedents, a "liberal" Supreme Court abolished prayer from the public schools and the next year abolished Bible reading from the schools.  Moral teaching, proper standards, and respect for rules have been removed from our schools.  The high principles that made America great have been abandoned, and not just among the lower classes, but in the highest offices in the land.  People claim that "morals have changed."   God sets morals and He didn't change His mind.  

   We have disconnected ourselves from the benefits of 2,000 years of the painful lessons we call Western Civilization.  Our youth, both American and European, have been disconnected from our Christian heritage.  How can one find truth if he is taught truth doesn't exist?  Ignorant of the great moral and religious strengths of our country, they will be unable to teach these to a new generation.  A man puts into practice tomorrow what he believes today.  To believe in the wrong version of history or the wrong moral code of life can lead to an immoral and uncontrolled life.  Look around our society today and see the “benefits” of abandoning truth.    

      Where do you find truth?  In times past I would have said, “the church.”  Now I would say to examine even that to be sure you are getting the truth, and not a watered down, adulterated version of truth.  If what you hear contradicts the Bible in any way whatsoever; run for the nearest exit. 

   It should come as no surprise that Paul begins his list of spiritual armor with "being girded with truth."  The real truth – the only truth is found in the Word of God.  Follow the example of the people of the city of Berea.  They listened to what was being preached but wanted to be sure it was the truth so they carefully checked out what they were taught.  Acts 17:11

These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

Stephen Cram                               March 18, 2012                         Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8