Ephesians 6:14
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Finally, we dive into an examination of the various pieces of Godly armor. If you have not read the preceding three parts to our series, I encourage you to read them in order before proceeding. If you have already read these parts, then by all means, continue!
I would be remiss if I did not reiterate the importance of the word WHOLE in our study. We are instructed to put on the WHOLE armor of God. Each piece is vital in and of itself, but together they form the ultimate spiritual protection and strength for the believer. Part 4 explores Ephesians 6:14, and gives us the first two pieces of armor.
Just before we begin looking at the first piece, we see the first two words in this verse are, “Stand therefore.” Up to this point, we have seen the need for strength and power, to stand against the devil’s wiles, able to withstand, having done all to stand, and now, to therefore stand. Sense a recurring theme? Standing up against our enemies is essential to Christian success, and in order to properly and effectively use the strength, power and might of the Lord, we must use the armor the Lord provides. So without further adieu, the first item we will examine is …
GIRD YOUR WAIST WITH TRUTH
Walk around a mall for any length of time, and chances are you will see a number of adolescents with a common dilemma. What this might be is up for debate. From my personal opinion, it could be a number of things, including rapid weight loss, clothing stores with a lack of proper sizes, an inability to properly measure, etc. What is this malady? Kids wearing the pants off their rears.
Now, I know that’s the style these days. It’s been around for years, but there seems to be a resurgence of the trend. These kids, sans belts, walk around with their boxers showing, the waists of their pants some few inches above their knees. What is particularly amusing is that, in order to keep up with style, they are constantly holding the pants with their hands to keep them from all together falling down.
My wife, a public school teacher, told me the other day about the annual high school talent show, where a group of young men were performing a rap song. While shouting out and busting the proverbial moves, their gyrations facilitated the falling of the jeans, so that most of their set consisted of trying to hold their drawers in place.
Perish the thought that I am trying to be a fashion critic. I do, however, personally know that it is more than annoying when you don’t have a belt on to hold your pants up. Without a belt, you take a few steps, and suddenly you’re reaching around, hiking them up toward your armpits, in a vain effort to avoid embarrassing yourself in a number of ways. For me, I must have the belt.
What has all this to do with our first piece of armor? Allow me to explain. What happens when you need a belt and don’t have one? Here are a few things:
1) You remain distracted by making sure the pants are always up, keeping your focus on how many more steps you can take before they fall completely off.
2) Your pants do fall down, causing everyone to see that today, of all days, you decided to put on your underwear with the dinosaurs and duckies.
3) Before you can grab the sliding waist of your pants, they hit your ankles in mid-stride, causing your face and the ground to have an impromptu, and somewhat painful, meeting.
So, how do you avoid such scenarios? Purchase, and then wear, a belt. Pretty simple, eh? Well, let’s get back to business, and be a bit more serious. The truth is one of the most important pieces of armor in our arsenal, and it is no mistake that it is mentioned first on the list. Battle requires us to be limber, flexible, unencumbered by anything, and girding our waist makes sure we are able to stand, walk, and maneuver effectively.
Additionally, truth is what holds everything up and holds everything together. Without truth, nothing else matters. The world today (in one of those fiery dart attacks) tells us that truth is subjective, that as long as you’re sincere in your beliefs, all is well. This is not the case, however, and the truth of God’s Word must be the first thing you put on, the first thing you use, your ‘first step’ in your spiritual walk.
Also, as you walk, in order to turn other directions, your waist moves; it helps determine the direction of your legs, and thus your ultimate destination. From a spiritual standpoint, this is why it is so necessary that we have the truth. No matter what direction we go, we must have the truth in order to ensure we’re going in the right direction. If we wish to find victory, the truth must be our guide.
Finally, a belt surrounds. We must have the truth all around us. The truth in our life keeps everything in place. It helps us keep things in perspective, as well as living our life as an effective testimony for the Lord. From whatever direction people see you, let them always see the truth in you.
THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Perhaps one of the most vulnerable places on our body is our heart. A well-placed blow to the chest or an attack of a knife or bullet can have instant, and deadly, ramifications. Our heart, our lungs, and other vital organs are all there in a relatively small area. Therefore, through the centuries armies have seen the necessity of providing protection and armor for the heart and surrounding area.
This vulnerability is not only physical, it’s emotional. We know from even the most basic physiological knowledge that emotion is seeded in the brain, but throughout the ages, we talk about deep emotions being in the “heart.” We talk of being heartsick and heartbroken. When our emotions reach their breaking point, when we’ve reached the limit of our endurance, surely our “heart” can’t take any more.
Going one step further, we also hear of the great need to take care of our physical heart. It is said that the number one killer in America today is heart disease. There are countless medicines for cholesterol, high blood pressure, and other ailments affecting the heart. In a fraction of a second, our heart can experience an attack of its own, doing serious damage to the rest of our body, and even causing death. When the heart stops beating, most of the time, that’s it.
Is it any wonder, then, that so much care needs to be taken to protect our heart (both physical and emotional)? Carrying this thought over to the spiritual realm, we see the need to protect our soul, the spiritual heart of our lives. This is a very vulnerable place for us, and the devil knows this, which is why he focuses his attacks so often on our hearts. You see, our spiritual heart is very closely related to the physical and emotional heart. Allow me to explain.
Our spirit suffers when our emotional or physical heart suffers. When someone hurts us deeply, be that person a believer or unbeliever, a stranger or a close friend, our spirit is often times deeply affected. Our emotions begin to take control, and we might say or do things we would otherwise never do. We get depressed, angry, confused, and our spiritual relationship with God suffers the most.
Also, when we are suffering through some physical trauma, when we are hurting, going through an illness of some kind, our spirit also suffers. It is very difficult to maintain a healthy relationship with the Lord when you feel bad. I’ve known many people over the years who could not understand why they were ill, they couldn’t see past the pain, and because of this, their spirit grew weak right along with their body.
We don’t know what form the attacks of Satan will take toward us, but rest assured they will be fierce. We can only do so much when it comes to guarding our health and our emotions, but our spirit is a different story. We get to choose how close to the Lord we wish to be, and while the attacks on our spiritual heart are also fierce, we take comfort in the knowledge that the Lord is protecting us . . .if we have chosen to wear His armor.
Righteousness is not a relative concept; by this, I mean that righteousness is not subjective, not reliant on individual variables. Human righteousness, on which so many people base their entire lives, is as filthy rags compared to the righteousness of Christ. Therefore, I ask this question: if you were going onto the battlefield to fight, which would you rather have protecting your heart: three or four dirty rags tied together, or a metal breastplate? Would you rather have a roll of gauze or a Kevlar flack jacket? The choice is clear.
If we intend to protect our heart from the many things which can negatively affect it, we must make sure we have not just armor, but the right kind of armor. We must not consider ourselves arrayed for battle if we are only trusting in our own righteousness, for we will soon discover the ineffectiveness of our armor. It is only when we cover our heart with the righteousness of God that we can hope to prevail.
What is this righteousness? Well, I don’t have the time to fully explain. I could spend the next ten years trying to explain it, and still wouldn’t scratch the surface. I will, however, tell you how you can find it. First, pray to the Lord to give you the understanding that comes only from the Holy Spirit. Sincerely ask the Lord to enlighten your knowledge in spiritual things, to give you the grace to see beyond the human, beyond the temporary, and find the truth of His righteousness.
Second, study the Word. Don’t worry about all that you don’t know; focus instead on what the Lord can show you. And don’t give up if you don’t get it right away, or if you don’t understand it all. Let the Spirit lead you at the pace He desires, and it will be the best for you.
Third, practice what you know and learn. Don’t leave it inside the cover of the book. Make it a part of your life. Will it be easy? Heavens no! But again, the Lord will be right there to remind you of what His righteousness is, and will help you use it daily. The Christian life, and the Word of God, are useless unless we decide to live what we learn.
Finally, repeat the process! If you live the Christian life for 10, 20, or 50 years, you will never “arrive,” you will never reach the top of your game. There’s always room to grow and learn. So, the more you learn, the more you should strive to learn. Consistency is the name of the game. Never fail to keep praying, keep studying, and keep practicing, for in this process you will not only find blessings for your own soul, you will see what Christ’s life was truly all about, and you will be able to let others see in you the life of Jesus.
Always remember that it is not about our righteousness. Our righteousness cannot protect us one bit. But the righteousness of the Lord can protect us from every fiery dart the devil can hurl our way.
Next time, we will move to the next verse and examine our next piece of spiritual armor. At the end of this series, I hope to show you something about this armor that you may have overlooked. Until then, I encourage you to seek the Lord to show you more about this armor, and how you can best use it in your life. And as you read through the different pieces, try to figure out what it is you may have overlooked. See you next time!
NEXT TIME: Ephesians 6:15
© 2006, Chris Keeton and Soulscape Press. All rights reserved. All material printed on this site is protected by the copyright law of the United States. It may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Chris Keeton and Soulscape Press, obtainable by writing to soulscape@alltel.net. Altering or removing any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content is not permitted. Any and all portions of material copied from the Soulscape Blog must be properly attributed to Chris Keeton and Soulscape, and cited with original blog web address.
I would be remiss if I did not reiterate the importance of the word WHOLE in our study. We are instructed to put on the WHOLE armor of God. Each piece is vital in and of itself, but together they form the ultimate spiritual protection and strength for the believer. Part 4 explores Ephesians 6:14, and gives us the first two pieces of armor.
Just before we begin looking at the first piece, we see the first two words in this verse are, “Stand therefore.” Up to this point, we have seen the need for strength and power, to stand against the devil’s wiles, able to withstand, having done all to stand, and now, to therefore stand. Sense a recurring theme? Standing up against our enemies is essential to Christian success, and in order to properly and effectively use the strength, power and might of the Lord, we must use the armor the Lord provides. So without further adieu, the first item we will examine is …
GIRD YOUR WAIST WITH TRUTH
Walk around a mall for any length of time, and chances are you will see a number of adolescents with a common dilemma. What this might be is up for debate. From my personal opinion, it could be a number of things, including rapid weight loss, clothing stores with a lack of proper sizes, an inability to properly measure, etc. What is this malady? Kids wearing the pants off their rears.
Now, I know that’s the style these days. It’s been around for years, but there seems to be a resurgence of the trend. These kids, sans belts, walk around with their boxers showing, the waists of their pants some few inches above their knees. What is particularly amusing is that, in order to keep up with style, they are constantly holding the pants with their hands to keep them from all together falling down.
My wife, a public school teacher, told me the other day about the annual high school talent show, where a group of young men were performing a rap song. While shouting out and busting the proverbial moves, their gyrations facilitated the falling of the jeans, so that most of their set consisted of trying to hold their drawers in place.
Perish the thought that I am trying to be a fashion critic. I do, however, personally know that it is more than annoying when you don’t have a belt on to hold your pants up. Without a belt, you take a few steps, and suddenly you’re reaching around, hiking them up toward your armpits, in a vain effort to avoid embarrassing yourself in a number of ways. For me, I must have the belt.
What has all this to do with our first piece of armor? Allow me to explain. What happens when you need a belt and don’t have one? Here are a few things:
1) You remain distracted by making sure the pants are always up, keeping your focus on how many more steps you can take before they fall completely off.
2) Your pants do fall down, causing everyone to see that today, of all days, you decided to put on your underwear with the dinosaurs and duckies.
3) Before you can grab the sliding waist of your pants, they hit your ankles in mid-stride, causing your face and the ground to have an impromptu, and somewhat painful, meeting.
So, how do you avoid such scenarios? Purchase, and then wear, a belt. Pretty simple, eh? Well, let’s get back to business, and be a bit more serious. The truth is one of the most important pieces of armor in our arsenal, and it is no mistake that it is mentioned first on the list. Battle requires us to be limber, flexible, unencumbered by anything, and girding our waist makes sure we are able to stand, walk, and maneuver effectively.
Additionally, truth is what holds everything up and holds everything together. Without truth, nothing else matters. The world today (in one of those fiery dart attacks) tells us that truth is subjective, that as long as you’re sincere in your beliefs, all is well. This is not the case, however, and the truth of God’s Word must be the first thing you put on, the first thing you use, your ‘first step’ in your spiritual walk.
Also, as you walk, in order to turn other directions, your waist moves; it helps determine the direction of your legs, and thus your ultimate destination. From a spiritual standpoint, this is why it is so necessary that we have the truth. No matter what direction we go, we must have the truth in order to ensure we’re going in the right direction. If we wish to find victory, the truth must be our guide.
Finally, a belt surrounds. We must have the truth all around us. The truth in our life keeps everything in place. It helps us keep things in perspective, as well as living our life as an effective testimony for the Lord. From whatever direction people see you, let them always see the truth in you.
THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Perhaps one of the most vulnerable places on our body is our heart. A well-placed blow to the chest or an attack of a knife or bullet can have instant, and deadly, ramifications. Our heart, our lungs, and other vital organs are all there in a relatively small area. Therefore, through the centuries armies have seen the necessity of providing protection and armor for the heart and surrounding area.
This vulnerability is not only physical, it’s emotional. We know from even the most basic physiological knowledge that emotion is seeded in the brain, but throughout the ages, we talk about deep emotions being in the “heart.” We talk of being heartsick and heartbroken. When our emotions reach their breaking point, when we’ve reached the limit of our endurance, surely our “heart” can’t take any more.
Going one step further, we also hear of the great need to take care of our physical heart. It is said that the number one killer in America today is heart disease. There are countless medicines for cholesterol, high blood pressure, and other ailments affecting the heart. In a fraction of a second, our heart can experience an attack of its own, doing serious damage to the rest of our body, and even causing death. When the heart stops beating, most of the time, that’s it.
Is it any wonder, then, that so much care needs to be taken to protect our heart (both physical and emotional)? Carrying this thought over to the spiritual realm, we see the need to protect our soul, the spiritual heart of our lives. This is a very vulnerable place for us, and the devil knows this, which is why he focuses his attacks so often on our hearts. You see, our spiritual heart is very closely related to the physical and emotional heart. Allow me to explain.
Our spirit suffers when our emotional or physical heart suffers. When someone hurts us deeply, be that person a believer or unbeliever, a stranger or a close friend, our spirit is often times deeply affected. Our emotions begin to take control, and we might say or do things we would otherwise never do. We get depressed, angry, confused, and our spiritual relationship with God suffers the most.
Also, when we are suffering through some physical trauma, when we are hurting, going through an illness of some kind, our spirit also suffers. It is very difficult to maintain a healthy relationship with the Lord when you feel bad. I’ve known many people over the years who could not understand why they were ill, they couldn’t see past the pain, and because of this, their spirit grew weak right along with their body.
We don’t know what form the attacks of Satan will take toward us, but rest assured they will be fierce. We can only do so much when it comes to guarding our health and our emotions, but our spirit is a different story. We get to choose how close to the Lord we wish to be, and while the attacks on our spiritual heart are also fierce, we take comfort in the knowledge that the Lord is protecting us . . .if we have chosen to wear His armor.
Righteousness is not a relative concept; by this, I mean that righteousness is not subjective, not reliant on individual variables. Human righteousness, on which so many people base their entire lives, is as filthy rags compared to the righteousness of Christ. Therefore, I ask this question: if you were going onto the battlefield to fight, which would you rather have protecting your heart: three or four dirty rags tied together, or a metal breastplate? Would you rather have a roll of gauze or a Kevlar flack jacket? The choice is clear.
If we intend to protect our heart from the many things which can negatively affect it, we must make sure we have not just armor, but the right kind of armor. We must not consider ourselves arrayed for battle if we are only trusting in our own righteousness, for we will soon discover the ineffectiveness of our armor. It is only when we cover our heart with the righteousness of God that we can hope to prevail.
What is this righteousness? Well, I don’t have the time to fully explain. I could spend the next ten years trying to explain it, and still wouldn’t scratch the surface. I will, however, tell you how you can find it. First, pray to the Lord to give you the understanding that comes only from the Holy Spirit. Sincerely ask the Lord to enlighten your knowledge in spiritual things, to give you the grace to see beyond the human, beyond the temporary, and find the truth of His righteousness.
Second, study the Word. Don’t worry about all that you don’t know; focus instead on what the Lord can show you. And don’t give up if you don’t get it right away, or if you don’t understand it all. Let the Spirit lead you at the pace He desires, and it will be the best for you.
Third, practice what you know and learn. Don’t leave it inside the cover of the book. Make it a part of your life. Will it be easy? Heavens no! But again, the Lord will be right there to remind you of what His righteousness is, and will help you use it daily. The Christian life, and the Word of God, are useless unless we decide to live what we learn.
Finally, repeat the process! If you live the Christian life for 10, 20, or 50 years, you will never “arrive,” you will never reach the top of your game. There’s always room to grow and learn. So, the more you learn, the more you should strive to learn. Consistency is the name of the game. Never fail to keep praying, keep studying, and keep practicing, for in this process you will not only find blessings for your own soul, you will see what Christ’s life was truly all about, and you will be able to let others see in you the life of Jesus.
Always remember that it is not about our righteousness. Our righteousness cannot protect us one bit. But the righteousness of the Lord can protect us from every fiery dart the devil can hurl our way.
Next time, we will move to the next verse and examine our next piece of spiritual armor. At the end of this series, I hope to show you something about this armor that you may have overlooked. Until then, I encourage you to seek the Lord to show you more about this armor, and how you can best use it in your life. And as you read through the different pieces, try to figure out what it is you may have overlooked. See you next time!
NEXT TIME: Ephesians 6:15
© 2006, Chris Keeton and Soulscape Press. All rights reserved. All material printed on this site is protected by the copyright law of the United States. It may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Chris Keeton and Soulscape Press, obtainable by writing to soulscape@alltel.net. Altering or removing any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content is not permitted. Any and all portions of material copied from the Soulscape Blog must be properly attributed to Chris Keeton and Soulscape, and cited with original blog web address.
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