God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

THOUGHTS FROM EPHESIANS

42 THE BELT OF TRUTH

A meditation on Ephesians 6:14

 

Ephesians 6:14 – ‘with the belt of truth strapped round your waist’ -  has in mind the soldier’s belt or girdle encircling his loins which was the item of armour strapped on first. As well as protecting him, it supported much of his other armour and equipment. It was an indispensable item. 

We must never assume that this item of armour refers simply to our sincerity or our telling the truth as opposed to telling lies. If we were dependent on these for our protection we would be in trouble. No. It refers to God’s truth, that is, the sum total of the truth that God has revealed in his written word [John 17:17]. This truth is indissolubly and intimately connected with Jesus Christ. [John 1:14, 17; 8:32,36, 38-47; 14:6-9; Colossians 2:3.] 

It is the ploy of the evil one, and the practice of those he has duped, to suppress or deny the truth of God [ Romans 1:18, 21-23, 25, 28; 2Corinthians 4:2-4; Ephesians 4:17-19]. It is the truth – God’s self-revelation – that sustains, protects and directs us, and it is this truth that sets us free from the dominion of the evil one. 

This first item of God’s armour, then is his truth. Satan always seeks to deceive, to subtly or blatantly alter the truth, and so turn us away from, or corrupt, our knowledge of God. In our society today, and sadly to some extent in the church, we can see this undermining and corruption of the truth occurring at a number of significant levels: 

Denial or reduction of the supernatural and exaltation of the human.

Dependence on human reason.

The search for substitute gods.

Dependence on the mystical or experiential.

Absence of absolute values of right and wrong. 

Denial of the both the existence of and the possibility of knowing absolute truth.

The belief that all religions, including the Gospel of Jesus Christ, are mere human constructions.

Against these and other deceptions of the evil one God’s truth protects us, and by God’s truth we are delivered from them. To seek to live without the protection of God’s truth is to make shipwreck of our faith before we even enter the battle.

Copyright Rosemary Bardsley 2006, 2011