The Girdle of Truth and the Breastplate of Righteousness
1. The girdle (belt) of truth
Ephesians 6:13 Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth,
In verse 14, the first piece of armour is having your loins girt about with truth i.e. the first piece of equipment is the girdle of truth. Why did people need a girdle?
Men in Paul’s time did not wear trousers such as we wear today. Today, you could have understood that they needed a belt. In those days men’s clothing was loose fitting and quite long. And if a man was going to do anything that demanded free, active movement, the first thing he had to do was to get his long, loose clothing out of the way. And he did this by doing what the New Testament calls ‘girding up his loins.’ He would lift the clothing and fasten it around his loins with a girdle so that his legs from the knees downwards were free to move. Then he could do whatever else he had to do after that. So very logically the first step is to put on the girdle (or belt). Now the girdle represents truth. You could say it is the truth of God’s Word, but you will find that God’s Word, but it is even more basic. It simply means the plain truth. Truth means being honest. It is being real. It is putting away all our posturing and all our insincerities with which affects some religious people. This is the common problem amongst certain religious people which is called insincerity.
Jesus said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,” which is hypocrisy. The word hypocrite is the Greek word for an actor. The actors of Jesus’ day had a small selection of masks (4) they could put on during the play but never appeared in with their actual face but only a mask reflecting the part being played. Derek Prince said that there were many masks being worn in the church of today with most denominations have their own mask!
What Paul is saying here “Take the mask off and stop acting. Be real. Tell it like it is. How can we stand in the battle without a girdle, when we try to move, we will trip over our garments and get no further. So, the first essential requirement is put on the girdle of truth, which means we need to be real and be truthful in every area of our lives including in church!
2. Breastplate of Righteousness
Ephesians 6:14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
v.14 Having on the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate protects the heart.
Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
Everything we experience in life originates out of our heart. What you have in your heart will determine the course of your life. If your heart is filled with bitterness, unbelief, and fear, it is going to cause your life to go wrong. But if your heart is filled with faith, peace, and love, your life will take the right course. You need to guard your heart with all your strength. In the New Testament, righteousness is a condition of the heart, not of the head.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. (KJV). Notice the breastplate in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 is faith and love yet in Ephesians 6:14 it is righteousness. That is consistent for the following reason. In the New Testament righteousness is faith which worketh by love see (Galatians 5: 6) In Christ Jesus neither circumcision avail anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.
So the basic righteousness of the New Testament is faith working by love and it is a condition of the heart.
Romans 10:10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness (KJV). There is a difference between believing with the head and believing with the heart. Believing with the head is mere mental acceptance of truth and often leaves a person unchanged in the way that they live. But when we believe with the heart, we believe unto righteousness. It changes the way we live. And so Paul says we need to protect our heart with the breastplate of righteousness which is faith in the heart working by love. This means that we need to check our motives regularly!
Amen
Personal Prayer
Next time in Part 3 we consider the Gospel of Peace (shoes) and the Shield of Faith.
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