What To Wear In A War

And this armor is not for style and profile, but it is for protection. It also covers only the front of the soldier. In fact we have a photo, a picture of a Roman soldier. Remember Paul in writing the book of Ephesians was in prison and so he would have been looking at a Roman soldier; chained to a soldier almost hourly. And while a soldier would not have been in full battle garb he began to think under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of what a soldier appeared to be and how that applies as a metaphor, as an illustration of the Christian life, this battle, and you can see this soldier standing strong, decked out strongly in the armor.

So we also have a spiritual armor and each piece is essential. We’re going to take each piece. I would encourage you to take notes, to write these down, to write in the margins of your Bible, and let’s together put on the armor of God that we may fight the good fight of faith and win.

Number one, he says, verse 14:

14) Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth…

Now the belt in a soldier’s garb obviously fitted around the mid-section; it held everything together, the pieces of the armor including the breastplate of righteousness, or the breastplate of the Roman soldier; it held that together. The belt also contained weapons for warfare as in the soldier’s sword would be hung on that belt, and other implements of war and of fighting. Also the soldier would often wear a long tunic and so when the soldier needed to go to battle and fight, he didn’t want to be running in a dress and so he would gather up the tunic and gird it up in that belt, cinch up in that belt as it were tightening the belt.

And so that’s the picture that we have here as we engage in this spiritual warfare. We are to first put on this belt of truth, because this belt of truth holds everything together. The belt of truth is the believer’s integrity because we are protected against deception, and stand against deception the believer’s integrity. If you are not supported with truth, you will lose in life. The belt of truth supports the core of who you are and what you believe. Truth, absolute truth, biblical truth, God’s truth!

Satan attacks with lies and errors and deception. We often live with secrets but God says we are to live with truth! Get the truth straight! Because if you don’t have your belt tightened with truth, the inner core tightened, the inner you of you strengthened, then everything else is going to fall apart. Everything hangs on the truth of God’s Word.

Maybe if you’re working with a trainer, weight training or physical training, you’ve heard your trainer talk about your core, getting your core stronger. Right? You know I walk around with some mild back pain constantly. Not bad, just a little mild back pain. It’d go away if I quit playing golf probably. But really my back is not my problem. I don’t have a back problem, I got a front problem! And if you want to help your back you strengthen your core, right?