City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

 “14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness…”

Ephesians 6:14

Reflection

If you have a reference Bible, you may note in verse 14 when Paul says, “having girded our loins with truth,” he is actually paraphrasing from Isaiah 11:5, which states,  “Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist.” If you read Isaiah 11:1-5, you will see Isaiah is prophesying about and describing the person of Jesus, and in verse 5, Isaiah is saying that righteousness and truth will be such a part of who Jesus is, it will be like a belt around his waist.

The righteousness and faithfulness Isaiah is referring to means justness, accuracy, truthfulness, faithfulness, and adherence to the proper standard (or holiness). Isaiah is prophesying Jesus would not only be just in his dealings with people, He would also hold to the right doctrine, would speak truth, would be trustworthy, and be sinless in his adherence to God’s standard of right living. 

Understanding this makes Paul’s statements in Ephesians 6:14 all the more remarkable: When Paul is saying the Ephesian Christians should gird their loins with truth, he is saying they should be like Jesus with respect to His righteousness and faithfulness and all that it includes.  It is consistent with and a continuation of Paul’s command in Ephesians 5:1 that the Ephesian Christians are to be “imitators of God” but set within a new context—the context of spiritual warfare. 

Application

How we live not only affects our interaction with God, but our interaction in the battle that takes place in the spiritual realm. Righteousness and holiness protect us from deception, which is a major tactic of the enemy. It is those who live in sin and claim to be Christian who are most likely to be deceived into embracing false doctrine to conform to their lifestyle rather than embracing a lifestyle to conform to good doctrine.. See e.g. I Corinthians 6:9-10. 

Prayer

Lord, help me to always gird my loins with righteousness so I can avoid deception and know truth. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.