Stand and Fight: Learning to Accessorize
Ephesians 6:10-18
Beartown Road Alliance Church
There was a game that we used to play when I was little called King of the Hill. We used to play it almost every recess on the side of the schoolyard, next to the baseball field. There was a small hill and the object was to get to the top of the hill by removing everyone else, including whoever had formerly been at the top of the hill. Then, you had to defend the hill against attacks form all sides. Everyone wanted to be the “King of the Hill.” I’m sure this game has gone the way of dodge ball and red rover and has been banned from recesses for fear of what effect it may have on the fragile psyche of grade school children. But when I was young, they didn’t care about our psyches so we could play all sorts of fun stuff. I can remember the feeling of being the king. I can remember standing there and looking down on everyone else and just daring someone to come and knock you down. You had to watch your back and your sides. You had to watch out for coordinated attacks from groups of kids, I’ll tell you, third graders can be sneaky little guys! If you could stand, you had won. Whoever held that position when the recess bell sounded, was king for the day, they had victory and tomorrow, the hill was theirs to defend again. I could do alright against kids my own age, in the same grade that I was in. There were plenty of recesses that ended with me up on top of that hill, still standing after everyone had given me their best shot.
I remember one summer, playing this game at Mahaffey Camp in Western PA with my cousins. It was a little different with them because a couple of them were older and bigger and stronger and they knocked me off of the hill without a problem. It was frustrating and I can remember finally giving up going to play with the younger cousins that I could still push around! The Christian life is a little bit like this game. God is calling us to stand at the top of the mountain and to declare that He is King, He wants us to defend the spiritual ground that He has given us, but Satan is determined to knock us down. Satan wants to be King. We can hold our own against some things, we can survive certain attacks from people, but Satan is bigger and stronger and smarter. He can come from any angle at any time. Too many Christians have taken their spiritual stand only to be knocked off the hill, they get up and immediately they’re knocked down again. Eventually, they decide that they can’t do it, it’s not worth it, and they quit in frustration. So many never achieve what God is calling us to achieve because they don’t know how to fight in the spiritual realm, they are unprepared for the spiritual warfare that is guaranteed to be a part of life for a healthy, growing Christian. God is calling us to stand and fight.
Last week, we began a look at this topic of spiritual warfare and specifically at what it is that God provides for us to be able to stand our ground. It’s found in Ephesians chapter 6, beginning with verse 10, listen as I read it again to refresh our memory.
Paul lays out for us the secret of winning this war and he tells us of the armor that God provides for us in this battle. Last week, we looked at four keys to winning the spiritual battle. First, Paul tells us that we need to know where our strength is. This is huge! We cannot defeat Satan in our own strength. But Paul tells us to stand strong in the Lord, in the strength that He provides. Then he tells us that we need to dress the part, we need to dress for the battle. We’re told to put on the whole armor of God! All of it, every last piece is vital to our success in God’s Kingdom. Paul then tells us that we need to know our enemy. Our struggle is not against man, it is a struggle against Satan and the forces of the spiritual realm, it is a struggle for our hearts and minds and it is a struggle with eternal consequences. I mentioned last week and I will reiterate it today, my intent is not to frighten you with thoughts of Satan and demons. When you mention Spiritual Warfare, most people’s eyes get big and their first emotion is fear. But, we serve a God who is greater than our enemy and if you truly grasp what we’ll be driving at these next few weeks, you will leave this place, not fearful and defeated but in awe of the power of God that gives us victory in the spiritual realm. Finally, last week we looked at the action step. When we understand our strength, when we put on the armor of God, when we know who the enemy is, Paul tells us then to stand and fight. All of the armor of God is for the protection of our front, Paul mentions nothing that covers our back so that we can turn and flee. We are called to stand, that is the goal, that is the command.
Today, we are going to begin to look at this armor that we are to stand in. In the coming weeks you’ll have a better understanding of each piece and what it looks like in our lives. These are things that we ought to be praying through each morning, asking God to help us to wear well as we prepare for whatever may come our way that day. When you are getting dressed in the morning and deciding what to wear, what to put on. My guess is that there are a few factors that go into that decision. For me, it usually starts with, “What can I wear without ironing.” But you start with the important stuff, the noticeable stuff. You pick a shirt and then pants that match or the other way around and then you build off of that. Once that’s done, we accessorize. At least some of us do. We pick the right shoes, the right socks, and then to tie it all together, we need a belt that matches. For most of us, the belt is the last thing we choose and it is contingent on other factors, like what color shoes you have on. As Paul gets into the armor of God, the belt is the first thing that he mentions. Rather than being an afterthought, it is the centerpiece, essential to the rest of the armor and just like the waist is at the center of a person, the symbolism, what the belt of Truth means to us, is central to who we are as Christians.
This morning, we are going to look at this belt, the belt of Truth. We’re going to begin with what the belt was, how it would have been understood by the people of that day, the ones that Paul is writing to.
I. What it Was
As Paul is writing this letter, he is sitting in Rome under the custody of Roman soldiers. He knew that his readers would be very familiar with the dress and the armor of the Roman army and so he uses the imagery of their armor as a way to communicate deep spiritual truth to the people of Ephesus.
In those days, before a soldier would have put on his armor, he would have put a belt around his waist. There were a couple of reasons for this. First of all, and this would have applied to everyone, non-soldiers included, your clothes were baggy. You would have first put on a loin cloth that was loose and then your undergarments which consisted of what was basically a big baggy shirt. The belt would have been essential to holding all of that together and ensuring that your clothing did not get in your way. For a soldier, it served an even greater function. Not only did the belt hold the clothing in place, but it held up the leather casing that covered and protected the loins, it held down the breastplate so that it stayed in place and protected your heart and vital organs, and it held your weapons, your sword, shield, and dagger. The belt bound everything together and gave the soldier a sense of firmness and security. It allowed for ease of motion and movement. No soldier would ever have dreamt of entering the fray without the belt fastened securely to his waist.
If the belt was not in place, you could not secure the rest of the armor, you could not hold all of your weapons, and you would always be in danger of tripping over yourself! Do you remember seeing Craig up here last week? If he didn’t have that belt around his waist, he wouldn’t have been able to carry all of the other things that he needs to do his job, the hand-cuffs, the radio, the gun and he would have had a tough time chasing the bad guys with his pants falling down. The belt is essential! And Paul tells us that we are not to stand until we have already put the belt on, this is what binds the armor together and this is essential to our being able to stand.
So that is literally what it was, now, I want to turn to what it means to us as we read it today. Paul says, as we begin to dress for battle, to put on the belt of Truth.
II. What it Is
What is Truth? As Pilate stood looking in to the eyes of Jesus, the embodiment of Truth, he asked the question that so many need to have answered today, he asked “what is truth.” He was staring at the very nature and reality of Truth and yet he couldn’t recognize it for what it was. We live in a society that struggles with the concept of Truth. We live in a society that really is uncomfortable with the idea of Truth as God defines it so we have sought to define it ourselves. We don’t want to believe that there can be an absolute truth because to believe that means that our lives have to change. If there is an absolute, unchanging standard, anything less than that in our lives is falling short. But, if we can move that bar, and raise and lower it as we see fit, the standard changes so that we don’t have to. We would rather define truth on our own terms and Christians fall into that trap as well.
Paul says that the first thing that a Christian needs to have in this battle, this belt of Truth, is a life that matches up with God’s ideal of Truth.
The Truth that Paul is talking about here is not the knowledge of Scripture, it is not the Truth of the Gospel that provides Salvation for us. He gets to that later when He talks about the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. But the Greek word that he uses here and that is translated as Truth, alathea, could be literally translated as the full or real state of affairs. It’s having the outside reflect the inside, It’s truth in the sense that it is the way it really is, the whole truth. It would have been understood in that day as a personal quality, used to describe a person’s lifestyle and behaviors.
So, the belt of truth that we are to gird ourselves with is to live a that shows a grasp of God’s truth and a willingness to pattern our lives after it. Each of these aspects of Spiritual armor that we’ll be looking at is a reflection of the character of God. In John 14:6, Jesus says that He is the Truth. The standard of Truth is found in Him, that bar that we measure up to, doesn’t change because it’s contained in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the Truth. For us to wear the belt of Truth is to put on the character of Christ. It’s to reflect outwardly the Lord and Savior that we profess to know inwardly.
So, the truth that Paul is getting at here is found in our lifestyle. We are being instructed to first and foremost make sure that our lives match up with God’s standards. Not perfection, that is humanly impossible, but we need to have a genuine desire to please God and to live holy lives. That is what Paul is using the belt to symbolize.
So, in the same way that belt was essential to the armor and to holding it all together, our spiritual armor begins with a life that reflects the Truth, that’s what holds every other part of the armor that we’ll look at together.
The next thing I want to look at is:
III. What it Looks Like
Practically, what does it look like for you or I to be wearing the belt of Truth? Because the belt represents a lifestyle, it is something that is going to be very visible. People have this idea that our Christianity is a very personal thing and that it’s no one else’s business what our relationship with God is like. That couldn’t be further from the truth! Our relationship with Jesus does affect us on a very personal level but it can’t stay there, it is meant to overflow into every other aspect of our lives. It is meant to change us and to affect us in ways that others can see.
When we are wearing the belt of truth, we will be known as men and women of integrity. That’s what it’s going to look like on us!
John Maxwell defines integrity as this: Deciding to integrate my heart’s values into my daily actions. He starts with the word deciding. We don’t happen upon integrity by mistake. We don’t all of a sudden wake up and discover that we have it. Integrity is a choice, it’s a decision.
Integrity is when the outside matches the inside, and the public matches the private. For the Christian, integrity is living out what you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart.
A local zoo had spent too much money renovating the grounds and improving the habitat for a gorilla exhibit that they can’t afford the gorilla.
So, Until they could get more funding, they’ve decided to use an actor in a gorilla suit. They found a struggling actor who really needed the money and they convinced him to play the part of the gorilla.
After a few days on the job, he begins to be amused by all the attention and started to put on a show for the spectators - hanging upside-down from the branches, swinging on vines, climbing up cage walls and roaring beating his chest.
Soon, he was drawing a sizable crowd.
A few days into his new job, the actor was swinging on a vine to show off to some children, his hand slips and he goes flying over the wall into the lion’s den. He panicked. There was a huge lion not twenty feet away, and it looked very hungry. So the man in the gorilla suit started jumping up and down, screaming and yelling, "Help, help! Get me out of here! I’m not really a gorilla! I’m a man in a gorilla suit! Heeellp!" The lion quickly pounced on the man, held him down and said, "Will you SHUT UP! You’re going to get both of us fired!!!"
The biggest problem that most non believers have with the church is that there is very little integrity. There are a lot of people who are trying to pass themselves off as something they’re not and they get pretty good at acting but you can’t fool people forever. You have too many people hiding behind the mask of truth, having a false piety and a Sunday morning holiness, but they left the belt of truth at home because it didn’t match their outfit. Integrity is actually being who you say you are.
William Barclay in his commentary on Matthew said: Life cannot be divided into compartments in some of which God is involved and in others of which he is not involved; there cannot be one kind of language in the Church and another kind of language in the shipyard or the factory or the office; there cannot be one kind of standard of conduct in the Church and another kind of standard in the business world.
In the battle for the hearts and minds of God’s people that is being played out on a spiritual level, in this fight and struggle against the rulers and authorities of this dark world, the Christian must first and foremost live a life of integrity. If we are divided, trying to be too many different things and play too many different roles, it’s only a matter of time until we fall and the fight is over for us.
We are to be a people of integrity. We are to be known for our honesty. Mark Twain put it very simply: Being Honest is better. It takes a lot of the stress out of our lives. If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything, but if you aren’t truthful, you have to remember everything that you say.
If we are too busy trying to figure out who we are at different times, we cannot be effective for God’s kingdom. The one who will stand in this war is the one whose mind is settled that they will live a life of integrity, a life that is reflecting the Absolute, unchanging, Truth found in the person of Jesus Christ. That’s what the belt looks like on us, and the one who will stand is the one who has that belt of truth wrapped securely around their waist. Without that, the rest of the armor won’t stay on. Without that, there is nothing holding us together and just like the soldier who has forgotten his belt, when we live lives that have no integrity, we are always in danger of tripping over ourselves.
Finally, I want to close by looking at how we put this belt on in our lives.
IV. How We Put it On
There are so many things that we could talk about here because really, the idea of developing integrity in our Christian walk involves a discussion of the deeper life. This is the aspect of Christianity that tends to get ignored so often today. We talk about the benefits of a relationship with God, and there are many. We talk about our freedom in Christ and it is wonderful. But when we begin to talk about choosing to be holy and setting ourselves apart from sin and the world, there are many who simply don’t want to take it that far. If we are to develop integrity, it means allowing our relationship with God to progress and to grow deeper and to truly experience victory over sin and live the kind of life that draws other people into a relationship with Christ.
It means that we must:
A. Yield Daily
Jesus says in LK 9:23 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.
Are we willing to set aside those things that the world tells us are our rights in order to yield our lives to the call and the will of another? It’s a tough decision and it’s a very unnatural decision. But if we say that we believe in God and we say that we believe that He is the Creator and that He is the Savior and that He knows better than we do and His ways and will are perfect, then the only way that those beliefs can be played out in our lives is to yield to Him daily.
B. Choose Consistently
Having integrity means consistently making the right choices. Each and every day we have so many opportunities to turn from God and choose our own way. Many of these decisions are made in private and are only between us and God. In order for us to stand with the belt of Truth securely around our waist, it’s time to choose God’s ways, it’s time to choose life. God lays the choice out for us in:
DT 30:19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life,
Having integrity means choosing life when you’re in church on Sunday and choosing it when you’re at work on Monday and choosing it when you’re home alone on the weekends. It’s time that Christians consistently choose to make the right choices in any and every situation.
Finally, in order to put the belt on we need to:
C. Live Openly
We talked about the fact that our relationship with God needs to be a part of who we are, it needs to permeate every decision and it needs to play a role in every relationship. There is no greater testimony and no greater way to witness to your unsaved friends and family than to live out your Christianity in living color 24/7 for all to see. People need to see the joy and see the hope. So often Christians are some of the most miserable people on the planet. Why would anyone want what we have if we don’t even look happy with it? We have been bought back and redeemed, we have been pursued and forgiven, we have a relationship with the God of the Universe and the promise of eternity in heaven free of pain and sickness and evil. If that’s not enough to get you to at least crack a smile, you need to check your pulse! The world needs to see the joy of the Lord on the faces of His people as they live out their faith. They also need to see the difference in our lives. Titus 2:7-8 says:
In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8 and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
2 Peter 2:12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Our actions and our lives are to be used to draw others in, not push them away! We need to live openly and to always be ready to give ananswer for the hope that we have, that which sets us apart, Jesus our Savior and the source of Truth that we proclaim and that we wear as a belt around our waist.
Paul used the belt because it was essential to the warrior. He tells us that for the Christian, this belt that ties it all together, that enables us to wear all of the armor in comfort and to have all that we need at our fingertips, is the Truth of a life that is the same, inside and out.
When I lived in Syracuse, one of the things that drove me nuts was the way that a lot of the guys in the city would choose have pants or shorts that were 3 sizes too big and then not wear a belt with them. They would walk around with their pants hanging halfway down their rear and they looked ridiculous. It wasn’t right, but it was hard not to make certain judgments on the type of person they were based solely on the lack of a belt to keep them together. When people look at you, what do they see and what conclusions do they draw? Do they see the armor falling off and the clothes flapping around because the belt hasn’t been fastened? Do they see us tripping and falling all over ourselves because the belt is missing and there is no consistency or integrity to who we are? Or do they see the belt of Truth displayed in a life that is consistent with what you profess on a Sunday morning, a life that is yielded to God, chooses to follow Him, and lives that out for all to see?
