Day Seven : All together now (Belt of Truth)

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist… (Ephesians 6:14a)

The belt is the first item of armour that is mentioned, but it is also the last to be put on.

Because it keeps everything else in place.

The belt would go over the Breastplate of Righteousness.  It kept the tunic tucked away.  It gave somewhere to hang the sword.

Truth needs to cover everything, and keep it in place.

How can you use Righteousness as a breastplate, if you don’t know the truth of right and wrong?

It holds our whole armour together.

Satan will try to confuse us, and tell us we are doing things wrong.

“You aren’t forgiven.”  or “You aren’t using the Bible properly” or “You aren’t righteous.”

These are lies, but we need to keep truth buckled around us at all times.  As we said before, we need to accept the Truth of God’s promises.

"You have been forgiven”
”I love you”
”I have given you a way to resist evil”

Unless we are able to accept these Truths, we will never be able to use the rest of our armour.

It all starts with the Truth.

Day Six : Let it show (Belt of Truth)

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist… (Ephesians 6:14a)

The cingulim, or soldiers belt, was worn for functionality, but also as a badge of office.

A soldier wore his belt proudly to show who’s army he belonged to, and higher ranking officers would wear different colour belts, some with a sash or special designs.

And nobody doubted for a moment what it meant.

The belt told a story.

Does our belt tell a story?

Do people see that we are wearing the belt of Truth, or do we let lies and half-truths slip in as well?  Do we show the world who we belong to, or compromise our witness?

 

Am I speaking about someone in a way that I would not if they were in the room?  Would I want my friends, mother, or children to hear what I am saying?

If not, then I am probably not showing the Truth.  Truth is more than an absence of lies, it is saying what is right at all times, and never saying what is wrong.  It is being the same person in front of all people, and hiding nothing.

It is about proclaiming Truth by my actions, and wearing it proudly on my belt.

What Truth are we showing to the world?

Day Five : Tucked away (Belt of Truth)

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist… (Ephesians 6:14a)

 

Belts were useful for keeping our pants from falling down, but they were also used for something else.  If you wanted to run in a flowing robe or tunic, you might trip over your own clothes.

So soldiers, and other people, would reach down, and pick up the trailing material, and tuck it into their belt.

The belt kept them from falling over anything, and allowed them to move faster.  (Even if they looked like they were running in baggy pants.)

 

I heard a saying once.  “Always tell the truth, it is easier to remember.”  I often see that in practise.  People get caught up in lies, telling themselves things like “It is for her own good” or “It doesn’t really matter” or “Sometimes the truth hurts more than a lie.”

The problem with a small lie is that it is like being a little pregnant…. sooner or later it will show, and give birth to something bigger.

“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
(John 8:31-32)

We need to live in the light of the Truth, always.

There is no excuse to depart from the Truth.  God is Truth, Satan is the Father of Lies.  When we tell lies, we are speaking his language.

We need to always tuck ourselves into the belt of Truth, so that nothing will hang down and trip us up on our path.

Day Four : Keep it up (Belt of Truth)

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist… (Ephesians 6:14a)

Have your pants ever fallen down?

Mine have.

I blame it all on my belt.  If I had tightened it more, it would have kept my pants up.

So we come to the second use for a belt.  It keeps your pants up.

 

It would do a soldier no good to wave his sword at Satan with his one hand, while he held up his pants with the other.  Satan is just going to laugh at him, and so is the rest of the world.

 

I am a child of the Living God.  Satan needs to fear me, not be amused by me.  He needs to run when he sees me coming, not point and laugh.

 

But until I accept this Truth, I will always be afraid of him.  I will be afraid that my pants will fall down when I confront him, and I will expose everything.

 

But I do not need to be afraid.  God has told me the truth.  About me, and about Satan.  I know who I am.  I know who he is. 

I just need to keep that Truth firmly buckled around my waist.

Day Three : Hang on (Belt of Truth)

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist… (Ephesians 6:14a)

Soldiers wore a belt for a number of reasons.  But the most important was this… to have somewhere to hang their sword.

Most of us would rather talk about the Sword of the Spirit, and say that we need to know our Bible to use it. The Sword is much cooler than the belt.

But have you ever tried to carry one?

Those things were not light.  If you tried to carry your sword in your hand for a full-day march to face the enemy, your arm would be so tired when you got there, you wouldn’t be able to lift it.

In the same way, we need to have the knowledge of God’s truth to hang our knowledge of his word on.  Otherwise we might get tired.

One of the first things Satan always attacks with is doubt.

• “Did God really say you couldn’t have the apple?”
• “Surely God won’t mind if you turn some stone into bread?”
• “The Bible is old, it doesn’t really mean you can’t….”

We need to keep reminding ourselves that the Word (The Sword) is God’s truth, and inspired for us today.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,  so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work”
(1 Timothy 3:16-17)

We need to know the Truth of this.  The Truth that allows us to hang the Sword when it gets too heavy for us.  When we don’t know what to believe, we don’t have to worry.  We have decided in our minds (and hearts) that God’s Word is TRUTH.  So we have something to hang our weapon on.

Day Two : The Belt of Truth

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist… (Ephesians 6:14a)

I don’t know about you, but I tend to think of the belt as being the baby-brother of all the armour.  Kind of like the black sheep of the family.  A belt is okay…. but it is not a sword, or a shield.  Give me the cool bits with sharp edges.

Yet Paul starts with the belt.  He says “Stand firm… with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.”

So obviously there is more to this belt thing than meets the eye.

 

Over 80 times in the Gospels, Jesus starts a sentence with the words “I tell you the truth.”  That’s a lot of truth.

Truth comes in many varieties:  Truth with ourselves, truth with others, truth with GOD.

Over the next week we will be looking closer at truth, and why it is mentioned first.  And why it is compared to a belt.