Last week, we focused on the idea that all of us who are followers of Jesus are enlisted in a spiritual battle against the devil. And, as we discovered, our foe is a powerful enemy, one that we cannot vanquish on our own. The only way that we can defeat him is to make sure that we are properly prepared for the battle by being strengthened by God and by putting on His armor. Although one of the ways that we prepare for the battle is by understanding our enemy, the Bible makes it very clear that once we are engaged in battle, we stand firm, not by concentrating on what the enemy is doing but rather by concentrating on what we are doing. Although God makes His power and His armor available to us, we need to take the steps to actually put it on and use it properly.
This is such an important issue that I’m going to spend the next six weeks focusing on each individual piece of the armor. But before I do that, let me make one general observation that must be the foundation for everything else we’ll talk about for these next six weeks:
The armor is a symbolic description of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
We saw that in part last week, when we looked at a couple of passages from Isaiah that described the armor of the Messiah warrior, Jesus. And we discovered then that the armor of God is not only the armor that is supplied by God, but that in a sense, it is actually Jesus Himself. Paul makes this even clearer in another of his letters:
Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
Romans 13:14 (NIV)
The command “clothe yourselves” in that passage is exactly the same command that is translated “put on” in Ephesians 6:11 when we are commanded to “put on the full armor of God”. So I am quite confident to suggest to you that the command to clothe ourselves with Jesus is actually a direct parallel to the command to put on the armor of God. Therefore, in describing the full armor of God, Paul is actually describing to us how to put on Jesus Himself.
With that in mind, let’s read our passage this morning from two different versions. First, let’s read from the NIV:
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist...
Ephesians 6:14 (NIV)
Although that translation accurately renders Paul’s thoughts, in order to understand more completely what he is writing, I want us to also read the more literal rendering of the NASB:
Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth...
Ephesians 6:14 (NASB)
It’s pretty obvious why the translators of the NIV rendered this passage the way they did. We don’t use the phrase “girding the loins” a whole lot in our culture today. People would look at us pretty funny if we said, “I’m going to gird up my loins now.” But Paul’s readers would have had a very clear picture of what he was communicating. In his day, men normally wore long, flowing robes. Even the Roman soldiers wore a long tunic. And when they got ready for some kind of vigorous action, they would take and tuck their robes or tunics into their belt so that they wouldn’t get in the way and impede them.
As we prepare for the Summer Olympics to start this month, we’ll see just how far many of the athletes have carried this same idea. For instance, in this photo of Jesse Owens, you’ll notice that in the 1936 Olympics, he wore a uniform that certainly didn’t impede him as he ran and jumped. But you’ll notice that when Tyson Gay ran in the Olympic Trials last month, his uniform is designed to make sure that it does not create any kind of drag whatsoever as he runs. And you’ve probably read about the swimmer’s new high-tech swim suits that enable them to swim much faster.
So the idea of girding the loins would have conveyed to Paul’s readers the idea of preparing for battle by getting any impediments out of the way. In fact, the phrase “girding the loins” came to be used in the New Testament as a picture of preparedness:
Therefore gird up the loins of your mind...
1 Peter 1:13 (NKJV)
Peter is writing here about preparing the mind for action. In fact, the NIV actually translates this same verse:
Therefore, prepare your minds for action...
1 Peter 1:13 (NIV)
In Luke 12, Jesus told a parable to teach his disciples to be prepared for his second coming and he used that same phrase:
Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning
Luke 12:35 (NKJV)
I believe that Paul is very careful here to describe the armor in exactly the order that a Roman soldier would put it on and the same order in which we need to put it on. Unfortunately, our idea of a belt makes that harder for us to understand since our belts are usually one of the last pieces of clothing we put on. But what Paul is describing here is actually more like a girdle. The belt of the Roman soldier was made out of thick leather. It protected the abdomen and the lower back and actually provided support for the lower back in order to help him stand as he carried all the rest of the heavy armor. The belt also had clips on it that were used to carry the sword and to fasten the breastplate in its proper position. The belt was not just an adornment, but an essential piece of the armor that held everything else together.
It’s actually not surprising at all that the first piece of armor that we are to put on in preparation for our battle with Satan is the belt of truth. As we saw last week, Satan is a liar and his main weapon is his deceitful schemes. The truth is the primary weapon that we use to stand firm against his lies and deceit.
As I touched on briefly last week, our spiritual armor is actually more of a corporate concept than it is just a matter of something that we need to put on individually. And perhaps that is most evident with the belt of truth. So before we discuss how to put on the belt of truth, I want to take just a few moments for us to focus on...
WHY TRUTH MATTERS IN THE CHURCH
There are obviously almost limitless reasons why truth matters in the church, but let’s just focus on three of them. Paul has already written about two of them previously in this letter and the third is such an important aspect of truth that we need to also focus on it briefly.
1. The church is God’s divinely ordained means of manifesting the truth.
Throughout his letter, but particularly in Chapter 3, Paul emphasizes the importance of the church. And in the middle of that chapter, he summarizes the main purpose of the church:
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephesians 3:10, 11 (NIV)
God could have chosen any method he wanted to manifest the truth in this world. But in His infinite wisdom, He determined that He would use the church as His divinely ordained method of both making His truth known and demonstrating the operation of that truth. That is why it is absolutely crucial that the church is prepared for battle by putting on the belt of truth.
A 2002 survey by the Barna Group found that adults, by a 3-to-1 margin believe that truth is relative to each individual person and his or her circumstances as opposed to the concept of absolute truth. And frankly, that isn’t all that surprising. But what is really disturbing is that among those who call themselves born-again Christians, only about one-third believe in absolute truth. And among our teenagers, it is even worse. Only 9% of born-again teenagers believe in absolute truth.
A 2004 Barna survey may give us some insight into why this has happened. In that survey, just half of all Protestant Senior Pastors (51%) met the criteria for having a biblical worldview.
• God is the all-knowing and all-powerful creator of the universe who still rules it today;
• Jesus Christ never sinned
• Satan is real
• Salvation is received through faith in Christ, not by good deeds
• Every follower of Christ has a responsibility to share their faith with non-believers
• The Bible is accurate in all that it teaches
• Absolute moral truth exists
• Absolute moral truth is described in the Bible.
No wonder the church has become so impotent! How can we possibly be God’s instrument for manifesting truth when a large majority of our members don’t even believe in truth and when nearly half of those who are supposed to be the spiritual leaders in that body don’t believe in truth either?
2. Truth is the basis of church unity
Another major theme in Paul’s letter is the idea of how Jesus brings unity among the members of His body. Again we find that concept all throughout the letter, but it is expressed most clearly in chapter 4:
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
Ephesians 4:11-14 (NIV)
There is no way there can ever be unity in the church unless we all have a common truth that unites us. Unfortunately, today, the church has largely ignored the importance of doctrine. In an effort to be relevant and practical, which is certainly necessary, there is a tendency to focus on application without the necessary foundation of proper doctrine. Like many other areas of our lives, we just want to ignore the instruction manual and get right into the action. But there is a reason why Paul spent three chapters writing about truth before he ever started teaching about application in his letter to the Ephesians. Doctrine matters.
We’ve tried to take this to heart here at TFC by revising our new members’ class to focus primarily on our church doctrine. We want to make sure that we all have a common truth that unites rather than divides.
3. The kind of worship God desires requires truth
In His discussion with the woman at the well, Jesus described the importance of truth in our worship:
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.
John 4:23, 24 (NIV)
When we gather together for worship, there is no doubt that there is an emotional element to our worship. But if that is the extent of what occurs in our worship, it will be lacking since worship must also involve truth. That is why we work hard every week to make sure that our corporate worship is centered on the truth, Jesus Christ, and His Word. Everything we do, not just the sermon, must reflect the truth of Jesus and He must be the focus of all we do. That is what differentiates our worship from all the other kinds of social gatherings we take part in.
The truth matters in the church. So as we discuss how to put on the belt of truth, I want us to keep in mind that this is not just an individual exercise, but also something that we need to do together as the body of Christ.
HOW TO PUT ON THE BELT OF TRUTH:
1. Trust in Him who is the truth – Jesus
As Jesus stood before Pilate, Pilate asked the question that so many people still ask:
"What is truth?" Pilate asked...
John 18:38 (NIV)
As we’ve already discussed, people have a tendency to answer that question in a way that makes them feel good about themselves rather than wanting to hear the only Biblical answer to that question. Fortunately for us, Jesus Himself answered that question very clearly:
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6 (NIV)
As Pilate asked that question of Jesus, the answer was literally staring him in the face. You see, truth is not a philosophy, truth is not even a principle, truth is a person – Jesus Christ. And He demonstrated the fact that He is truth in every area of His life:
• By what He said
Every time He opened His mouth, Jesus spoke truth. Many of the things He said completely contradict our own human thinking, but every word that came from His mouth is true. Even many of those who were not His followers recognized that. Here’s how the temple guards reacted to His teaching:
"No one ever spoke the way this man does."
John 7:46 (NIV)
• By what He did
Jesus also demonstrated truth by what He did. Every miracle He performed was for the purpose of demonstrating truth. And then He rose from the dead to deal with the one issue that couldn’t be solved by any other philosophy or any other principle – the problem of death. The enemies of Jesus want us to think that these events aren’t historically true, or that it really doesn’t matter if they are true. But they are true and it does matter, because all these events demonstrate that Jesus is truth.
• By who He is
Truth is only truth when it is wide enough and high enough and deep enough to encompass all things. And therefore, real truth never changes. In our world today, there are some philosophies and some principles that can provide some limited help in our lives. But by definition, they are not truth. And they are constantly changing in an attempt to be relevant in an ever-changing culture.
But Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is the Alpha and the Omega. All things are held together in Him. He is the creator of all things and the explanation of all things. He is truth
So if we want to put on the belt of truth, we must begin by trusting our lives to Him who is the truth. We have to be willing to give up control of our lives and entrust our lives to Jesus. Anything short of that and we will leave ourselves continually open to the attacks of the evil one.
2. Protect my mind against that which is not true
Last week, we talked about how Satan’s attacks are primarily against our minds. Even his physical attacks are intended to draw us away from the truth about God and try to get us to question God’s character. So I need to constantly guard my mind against any falsehood which Satan will attempt to bring into my thoughts in order to try to get me to remove my belt of truth. Paul addresses this issue in a couple of his other letters.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)
We’ve all heard the phrase “garbage in – garbage out.” What Paul is essentially telling us here is to make sure that we don’t put garbage in our minds. We need to make sure that we are constantly evaluating our thoughts to make sure that we aren’t allowing that which is not true to slip into our minds. But it’s not enough to just keep the garbage out. We also need to put truth in.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.
Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
Thoughts come into our minds from all different sources – books, radio, TV, movies, the internet. So I need to consciously evaluate every one of those sources and determine if they are filling my mind with truth, or with falsehood. And then I need to avoid, the very best I can, those places where I am going to be bombarded with falsehood and to gravitate towards those places that reinforce truth in my mind. That leads directly to the third principle.
3. Continually be sanctified by the truth
Right before He went to the cross, as He was praying in the Garden, Jesus prayed this prayer on behalf of His followers:
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
John 17:17 (NIV)
We don’t use the word “sanctify” a whole lot outside of church circles. It’s a word that means “to be set apart” or “to be made holy”. The very moment that we commit our lives to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are sanctified in the eyes of God once and for all because of the blood of Jesus Christ. We call that positional sanctification. But there is also an ongoing process that we enter into at that point in which we are to become more and more like Jesus each day as we mature in our faith. Among the many places where Paul and the other Biblical writers describe this process is this passage in Romans:
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son...
Romans 8:29 (NIV)
It is a fact of life that we tend to become like those with whom we spend the most of our time. That’s especially true in marriage. I’m constantly amazed that the longer we’re married, Mary and I become more and more like each other. We consistently come up with the same thoughts at the same time
And if we want to become like the truth, Jesus, then that will only happen as we spend time with Him, which we do primarily through His Word. That is why Jesus asked his Father to sanctify His followers through the truth of God’s Word. It is impossible to keep on the belt of truth without spending time with the truth in order to become more and more like Him.
4. Don’t depend on others to tell me what is true
The verb form used by Paul in verse 14 makes it clear that each person must put on his own belt of truth. Even though there is certainly a corporate aspect to the belt of truth, it is also true that we each have to put on our own belt. No one else can do that for us.
A lot of people come into church and figure they’ll just kind of pick up the belt of truth by osmosis. But singing some songs, no matter how rooted they are in the truth, or listening to a sermon, no matter how Biblical, is no guarantee that your loins will be girded with the truth so that you are ready for the battle.
As much as Dana and I strive to preach and teach the truth every week, you should never rely upon us or upon anyone else to be your source for the truth. You need to be just like the Bereans:
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
Acts 17:11 (NIV)
I’m like anyone else who appreciates positive feedback. I am always grateful for those of you who share how my messages have impacted your lives in a positive way. But I appreciate even more those of you who are evaluating everything that I say each week and who are willing to confront me, in a loving manner, of course, when you think that something I have said is not truth.
But even if every word I utter is true, I still can’t put on the belt of truth for any of you. You have to appropriate that truth for yourselves and then apply this final principle.
5. Practice the truth
Just knowing the truth is never enough. Putting on the belt of truth also requires that we put that truth into practice. Listen to what John writes about this principle.
The man who says, "I know him [Jesus]," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1 John 2:4 (NIV)
In other words, if I just say I know the truth, but I’m not practicing that truth in my life, I’m a liar, and the truth is not in me.
Not surprisingly, Paul has already written about practicing truth within the body of Christ in Ephesians.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
Ephesians 4:25 (NIV)
In the body, putting on the belt of truth requires us to be real and truthful with others. That means not only telling the truth, but also being willing to be transparent with others. We need to be willing to share our hopes and our dreams, but also our hurts and our failures.
I’m really thankful that TFC is a safe place where hurting people can come and be true, where they don’t feel the need to try to be someone they are not. Let’s make sure that we keep working to make this a place where people can practice the truth.
Satan is a liar. Jesus even went so far as to call him the father of lies. So if we want to stand firm against those lies, we must be prepared for the battle by making sure that everything is held together in God’s truth. We must both love truth and live truth. And most importantly, we must be clothed with the truth – Jesus Christ.
