The Belt of Truth?

As I looked for a reference in Ephesians 6 for the “Belt of Truth” I realized something simple that might help our understanding concerning the “Belt of Truth”. We have allowed for the words of the Bible to be changed.  Where did I get the phrase “Belt of Truth” from?  There are some translations that use the word belt.

Ephesians 6:  14 (NASB)

14 Stand firm therefore, having belted your waist with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

Ephesians 6:  14 (NIV)

14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,

There is nothing wrong with this in a sense, but we need to realize that words mean things and those meanings can be good or bad if you don’t understand their proper usage.  What is the typical usage of the word belt in our culture. 

When we think of the word belt these images come to mind.  These are some “typical” belts in our culture.  What do you notice about these belts?  They are thin.  In comparison to our bodies, they cover a very small area. There are wide belts in our culture but typically the norm is for them to be thinner.  I freely stipulate that not all belts in our culture are thin.  For men, we typically think of the use of belts as a method to hold your pants up or in place.  The typical use for women is somewhat different.  In more cases than not belts are used for decoration more than for holding your pants up or in place. Let’s take another look at Ephesians 6:  14, this time using versions that are closer to the original text.

Ephesians 6:  14 (KJV)

14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

Ephesians 6:  14 (NKJV)

14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

What is a loin? A loin is the part of the body on both sides of the spine between the lowest (false) ribs and the hipbones.

This diagram shows a general depiction of the area that your loins represent.  We can see from this diagram that this is a very large area on our bodies.  Not only does the area of your loins include your private areas, but they also include your intestines, your kidneys, your liver, your pancreas, your spleen, and your stomach.  These organs are critical to your survival.  These organs are necessary for you to sustain life.  Why does this matter?  These areas have to be protected.  You cannot reasonably go into battle and expect to survive without them being covered.

Here is a representation of Roman battle gear.  This is what it means to have your loins girded.  Look at how wide this band is around the waist.  This protects those organs in this area of your body.  This is much larger and covers more area on your body than our modern day version of belts.  There is an important lesson here.  That lesson is that truth is critical to protecting you. Without truth you cannot survive.  Without truth you cannot stand against the devil and his angels.  You need the truth inorder to fight the good fight of faith.  In today’s climate it will be those who have a firm foundation in truth that will survive.  Let’s look at Ephesians 6:  14 in the Amplified version.

Ephesians 6:  14 (Amp)

14 So stand firm and hold your ground, having [a]tightened the wide band of truth (personal integrity, moral courage) around your waist and having put on the breastplate of righteousness (an upright heart),

Look at this cross reference [a] from BibleGateway {Ephesians 6:14 Lit girded your loins, a phrase often found in the Bible, is an urgent call to get ready for immediate action or a coming event. The phrase is related to the type of clothing worn in ancient times. Before any vigorous activity the loose ends of clothing (tunics, cloaks, mantles, etc.) had to be gathered up and tucked into the wide band worn around the midsection of the body. The band (usually about six inches wide) also served as a kind of pocket or pouch to carry personal items such as a dagger, money or other necessary things. Gird up your mind or gird up your heart are examples of variants of this phrase and call for mental or spiritual preparation for a coming challenge.}

Truth has to carry weight in the life of a believer.  You must know and understand that the absence of truth, will cause the rest of the armor of God to be ineffective and just not work at all.  As a believer you must have the Spirit of truth in your innermost parts.

John 14:  16 – 18 (NKJV)

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

John 15:  26 – 27 (NKJV)

But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

John 16:  13 (NKJV)

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

The Armor of God would be of no use to us if we did not have the Spirit of Truth. As we talked about earlier belt of a Roman soldier in Paul's day was not just a simple leather strap like we wear today. It was a thick, heavy leather and metal band with a protective piece hanging down from the front of it. This belt held the soldier's sword and other weapons. Many people do not understand that a sword had some weight to it.  It was metal and heavy.  The Bible is referred to as the Sword of the Spirit.  Think about this.  How heavy is the sword that you carry in the Spirit?  How much do you read your Word?  How much to put the Word down on the inside of your heart. 

Psalm 119:  11 (NKJV)

“Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.”

There is a relationship between truth being girded around you.  This girding provides strength and support to the believer and gives them the ability to stand against the darkness that is in the devil.  We must fasten truth around us, buckle the truth around our waist, gird our waist with truth, or gird our loins with truth. No matter what we must use the Word, we must actively lay hold of the truth and administer it wisely. Truth cannot be cast to the wayside.  Truth is our defense and our offense.  Truth will enable us to stand and guard against battle against the lies and deceptions of the enemy. Without the ability to discern the truth and apply it, we are left vulnerable to being carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming imaginable. 

In this “End Time” battle our weapon will always be truth.  We must girdle ourselves in truth.

Blessings,

Christopher & Kathryn

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