Ephesians 6:14 – Be Prepared for 2017

 January 14, 2017

Be Prepared for 2017: Belt of Truth

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:14-17

A long time ago my mother was going to teach a class about the armor of God and she asked daddy to draw her a little cartoon soldier “paperdoll” complete with paper armor to dress him in. She named him “Onward,” the Christian Soldier. He was so cute. (His shoes were Converses!)

As I think about little “Onward” and reflect on these verses in Ephesians, I wonder why these pieces of equipment are listed in this particular order. Some of them are strictly for protection and some of them are for taking the offense. But what about the belt? What purpose does it serve? And why is it listed first.

Well, I think it is the first thing on the list because of all the equipment listed, it would have been donned first. Think about it. Mother’s little soldier wouldn’t have been in the buff before he put on his belt. No, he would have had on a tunic of some sort (among other things). And it’s very possible that the garments the men wore were way too long and flowing to lend themselves to agile hand to hand combat. They most likely pulled their “skirts” up, pulled them from back to front between their legs, and secured them with a belt in a make-shift kind of pair of pants. This would allow them to move around more easily in battle.

The belt was extremely important because if they didn’t tie it just right, the “dress” would wriggle its way out and could easily have tripped them up.

The belt was a practical thing to wear.

So what, then, is the significance of this being the “belt of truth?”

“For you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.”  John 8:32

What is the Truth?

“For I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” John 14:6

It stands to reason, then, that

(1)   Jesus is the Truth. And He sets us free from our sinful nature if we ask him to reside in our hearts.

(2)   Jesus is the Force that holds everything together. (I know I am powerless to hold ANYthing together in my life so it's a good thing He is here to do it.)

(3)   It is fundamental that the first piece of our spiritual armor be Jesus, Himself. Otherwise we wouldn’t need the rest of the armor.

Yes, I love little Onward, the Christian Soldier and his belt of Truth.

Lord, help us to acknowledge that you, alone, are righteous and that you, indeed, are Truth. You hold all things together in our crazy lives. Without You we are lost in sin. But with you we are whole.