Many years ago I was excited to learn about the armour of God (Ephesians 6) and how I could make declarations to put on each piece. I could dramatise each action with words and appropriate body movements. This was a great routine and helped drill home to me how Paul had used the imagery of the Roman soldier, who was probably nearby as he wrote these letters from prison, and also drew from similar references in Isaiah (11:5, 59:17, 52:7).
However I realise now that each piece of the armour is more than just a declaration – they are character traits, attitudes, and actions that draw from the resurrection life of Jesus within us.
Take the belt of truth for example (Ephesians 6:14). A morning declaration in our quiet time “I put on the belt of truth!” is worthless when we arrange to meet our friend at 10am but aren’t there on time because we didn’t value the truth of our word. We actually put on the belt of truth by living a lifestyle where our words agree with our actions. When we don’t do what we say we will do our belt is loosened, our trousers slip to our ankles, and we fall over.
If you’re finding the Christian walk is more like a stumble, maybe you are not always truthful in what you say and that’s why you’re tripping up. In Hebrews 12:1 the writer encourages us to lay aside the sin which so easily entangles us and to run the race set before us. This is exactly why we must “gird up our loins” or “tighten up the belt to pull in the loose clothing” (my paraphrases of Ephesians 6:14).
Here are some examples of belt-loosening, trouser-dropping, entangling sins.
- “Yes we’ll get together sometime”. But you never follow through. Here’s a tip: don’t say it unless you mean it.
- “I’d love you to give a testimony in an evening service”. Three months later you still haven’t followed through and arranged it.
- “I forgot”. Let’s re-phrase that: “You weren’t important enough for me to remember”.
- Your timesheet says that you worked 40 hours for the week, but you were either late, talking too much, or doing private jobs and your actual working hours were much less.
- “I’ll be there Wednesday” says the plumber. By late afternoon on Wednesday you’re still waiting and you know the plumber is not a man of his word.
All of the above are examples where we communicate one thing but our actions say a different thing. Whether we realise it or not this type of lifestyle totally loosens our belt of truth. When we live a lifestyle of truth we can have confidence that our spirit belt is buckled tight, our loose clothing is out of the way, and we are ready to do God’s bidding and run the race of life unhindered.
Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6). If our belt of truth is tight then we let Him loose in our lives. But if our belt of truth is loose, then we’ve tightened up Jesus so He’s restricted in us.