Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Ephesians 6:14 KJV
In modern translations of the Bible the first piece of spiritual armour mentioned is the belt of Truth. I think the traditional King James Version conveys a much better understanding. “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.”
Your loins are the area of your body that starts just below your ribs and goes down to your hips. It is the area of the body where all your vital organs are. Girding your loins, would be like putting on the very broad leather belts that weight lifters use.
The spiritual belt of Truth is the Word of God. We need to apply His truth to every area of our lives. The devil will attack us in the areas we are weakest. We must protect those areas by staying within the boundaries of God’s Word.
If our area of weakness is a hot temper, Proverbs 25v28 is a truth we need to constantly remind ourselves of. “A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.”
If we are prone to lying and deceitful behaviour Revelation 21v8 is a fearsome verse. It mentions many other sins as well. “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practise witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars – their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulphur.”
We need to take these verses to heart. These truths will help us to see what is the right way to live, and what needs to be changed.
Getting to know God’s Truth and applying it to our lives is the first step in protecting ourselves from the attack of the enemy.
Isn’t it wonderful that the second item of armour is the Breastplate of Righteousness? I don’t think this is a coincidence. When we start reading and applying God’s Word, and the enemy knows we’re serious about following God, he begins his sneaky campaign against us. When we realise how deeply ingrained our sinful behaviour is, the devil will immediately turn the verses we are reading into condemnation, crashing them down on us, like a ton of heavy bricks.
Every time we lose our temper or tell a lie, or commit any other sin, he’s straight in there telling us what dreadful sinners we are. Doubts that we are really saved will flood our minds. We will begin to be beaten down by our own thoughts of failure and that we will never be able to live the Christian life. Then more doubts will come. Doubts about the truth of God’s Word and the fairness of it. Condemnation can lead to abandoning the faith because it seems too hard and we think we will never be able to please God.
We really need to understand the Breastplate of Righteousness. God gave the Ten Commandments, not to condemn us, but to show us how much sin there is in our lives. It’s like He’s holding up a mirror which shows us that we are dirty, ragged beggars, but then He holds out the Robes of His Righteousness and offers them to us, along with a hot bath, plenty of soap and sometimes a scrubbing brush!
The Breastplate of Righteousness is not our own goodness or ability to keep God’s Word and live in His ways. It is the Righteousness that Christ gained for us on the cross.
When the devil condemns us with all our many failures, we need to show him the Breastplate of Righteousness that we wear. We can personalise the Word of God and use it to counter these attacks.
“The Word of God says that if I confess my sin, He is faithful and just to forgive me my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness” John 1v9.
The hymn My Hope is Built on Nothing Less than Jesus Blood and Righteousness, needs to be our anthem and battle cry. I love the line which says “dressed in His Righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne”. These words are our protection. Our own goodness is the filthy rags that Our Father wants to strip from us. It is not our goodness that protects us, but the Righteousness of Christ.
The Breastplate covers our heart. It is attached to the belt of Truth. Let our hearts rest securely in the knowledge that Christ has paid the penalty for our sins. He has purchased the Breastplate of Righteousness for us, now we have to put it on and keep it on.
