STAND FIRM
4.
The Belt of Truth
"Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist" (Eph. 6:14).
The finest soldiers of Paul’s time were undoubtedly the men of the Roman legions; they had conquered virtually all the known world. In his journeys, the Apostle had seen these soldiers at close quarters on several occasions (Acts 21:30-37; 23:23, 24). He was therefore very familiar with their equipment, and in Ephesians 6 he uses this to illustrate the equipment available to the Christian soldier for the spiritual battle.
There are six pieces of equipment mentioned here. Nothing in Paul’s teaching is ever haphazard; when he makes a list, the order of things is generally important, and this is certainly the case with the armour of God.
We start first with the belt of truth buckled round the waist. What is the function of this belt? In the first centruy, a man wore long flowing garments - something like an old-fashioned night-gown. To try and run or fight in something like that would be impossible. The man would be tripping over it; he would never feel secure on his feet, and this would have obvious dangers. So he was equipped with a belt, its purpose being to hitch up and bind together the long flowing robes, thus leaving the man free for action.
It becomes clear, then, why this piece of equipment is mentioned first: it means being ready for action. You may have all the other parts of the armour, but if you are not ready, not prepared, then you will be caught unawares.
What has this to do with our spiritual battle against the devil? Paul is arguing that truth is the first essential, and it is on this that the usefulness and effectiveness of everything else depends. Some people think that the word ‘truth’ here means truthfulness or sincerity. That cannot be its meaning, because truthfulness or sincerity is something we produce ourselves, whereas every part of this armour is provided for us by God. If in battle we are to rely primarily upon our own sincerity, then we are certainly doomed to failure. No, what ‘truth’ means here is a knowledge and belief of the truth. This is the first and indispensable qualification of the soldier of the Lord. To face the enemy with a mind filled with confusion and doubt is to be a spiritual cripple before a mighty foe.
As the girdle (or belt) gives strength and freedom of action, and therefore confidence, so does the truth when spiritually apprehended and believed. Let not any one imagine that he is prepared to withstand the assaults of the powers of darkness, if his mind is stored with his own theories or with the speculations of other men. Nothing but the truth of God clearly understood and cordially embraced will enable him to keep his feet for a moment, before these celestial potentates. Reason, tradition, speculative conviction, dead orthodoxy, are a girdle of spiderwebs. They give way at the first onset. Truth alone, as abiding in the mind in the form of divine knowledge, can give strength or confidence even in the ordinary conflicts of the Christian life, much more in any really ‘evil day’.
Charles Hodge
The belt signifies unqualified confidence in the truth of Scripture. This is the foundation of everything. Later on in the passage (verse 17), Paul deals with the matter of how to use this truth, but there is the truth itself that he brings before us.
The Bible and science
Jesus tells us that God’s Word is truth (John 17:17). It is essential to believe this, and that is why the devils spends so much time trying to discredit the Scriptures. There is nothing new about this. Ever since the church was born, Satan has been attacking it in this way. In the second century, a very earnest and sincere man named Marcion came to prominence in Christanity; but he rejected all the Old Testament and most of the New Testament, with the exception of ten of Paul’s epistles and the Gospel of Luke. He even edited these to suit his own particular doctrines.
The attack on the Word of God has intensified in this present century with the growth of the Bible versus science controversy, and this has caused some Christians to lose confidence in the truth of the Scriptures. But there is no need for this. Science can never disprove the Bible. The trouble is that, very often, what science tenaciously believes today, it will cheerfully reject tomorrow, on the ground that it has now been disproved by new scientific ‘truths’. For instance, Christians claim that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. At one time, science said that was impossible, because writing had not been invented in Moses’ time. Since then, however, archaeologists have discovered thousands of inscriptions dating back long before the time of Moses, and it is now known that in his day there were at least six different written languages.
The results of scholarship, far from discrediting the Bible, actually support its truthfulness. Of course, they do not prove inerrancy. We will probably never have all the data that would be necessary to do that. But they do point in the direction of reliability and reveal nothing that is not compatible with the highest view of Scripture. Even Time magazine acknowledged this in a cover story on the Bible (December 30, 1874): ‘After more than two centuries of facing the heaviest scientific guns that could be brought to bear, the Bible has survived - and is perhaps the better for the siege. Even on the critics’ own terms - historical fact - the Scriptures seem more acceptable now than they did when the rationalists began the attack.’
No Christian should ever fear to stand upon the Word of God. At times, theories will challenge it. The arguments may seem unanswerable, and the one who stands by the Bible will be called foolish. The wise of the world will say, ‘You can believe that nonsense if you want to, but science teaches us better.’ This has happened before and will happen again. But the Christian who will stand upon Scripture will find even within this lifetime that, as the so-called ‘assured results’ begin to crumble about the scholars, the view of the Bible held by the Lord Jesus Christ and the historical Christian church will prevail.
James Montgomery Boice
Authority
The ‘belt of truth’ settles for us what our authority is. This is of crucial importance because of the nature of the battle and the character of the enemy. The devil is ‘a liar and the father of lies’ (John 8:44), and the only way to combat lies is with truth. But what is truth? Jesus said, ‘your word is truth’ (John 17:17). The Bible therefore is our only authority. There are many excellent books available today to help us understand more of God - books to encourage, guide and instruct, books written by spiritual men whose only motive is to glorify God and help His people. But none of these books is infallible, and so they cannot be our final authority. Only the Bible is the infallible Word of the infallible God. The Bible is not the word of man:
‘Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit’ (2 Peter 1:20, 21).
The Bible is inspired by God:
‘All Scripture is God-breathed (inspired)’ (2 Timothy 3:16).
It is because of this that we can rely upon it as our infallible authority in the spiritual battle. How do we know what to believe, or how can we be sure of what is right or wrong? We turn to Scripture and ask, what does God’s Word say? The Bible is to be a lamp to our feet and a light for our path (Psalm 119:105) - in other words, it is our final authority.
It is vital for our survivial in the battle that we settle once and for all in our minds the question of biblical authority and inerrancy. Dr. James Packer tells us:
I assert biblical inerrancy, and encourage all faithful Christians to do the same.
For, first, it is true. If, as Christ and Paul among others believed, Scripture ‘came through the instumentality of men from the very mouth of God’ (Calvin), any idea of it teaching and affirming some falsehoods must be dismissed as blasphemous nonsense.
Second, it is clarifying. He who asserts inerrancy thereby shows what he means when he calls Scripture inspired, authoritative and infallible. We owe such honesty to each other.
Third, it is health-giving (’sound doctrine’ in the New Testament sense), for it leads to that systematic submission of our proud minds to Scriptures without which we cannot but lose some of God’s precious truth.
Put on
We put on the belt of truth when we have an unqualified confidence in the truth of the Word of God. When our beliefs and doctrines are goverened exclusively by the Bible - not by reasoning or by feeling or by what men say - then we are wearing the belt of truth. When our standard of behaviour is determined solely by the Scriptures, and not by current social standards or what is convenient or easy, then the belt of truth is firmly in place.
If we do not put on the belt of truth, we shall never be victorious soldiers. We may talk about faith or we may pray as much as we like, but the devil will defeat us every time.
The advice of the Lord to Joshua is still very relevant to us today:
‘Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everthing written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go’ (Joshua 1:8, 9).
View Our Guestbook
