A Most Powerful Weapon

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist…

Ephesians 6:14a

…with the belt of truth around your waist. — that is always the place to start whenever you are under attack. Whenever you feel discouraged, defeated, uncertain, confused, downcast, depressed, or indifferent, this is the place to start: Gird up your loins with truth. The officers in the Roman army wore short skirts, very much like Scottish kilts. Over them they had a cloak or tunic which was secured at the waist with a girdle. When they were about to enter battle they would tuck the tunic up under the girdle so as to leave their legs free and unimpeded for the fight. Girding the loins was always a symbol of readiness to fight. That is why this is first. You cannot do battle until you first gird up the loins with truth.

When you are threatened by discouragement, coldness, and similar moods, how do you fight back? Well, you remember that, when you became a Christian, you girded up your loins with truth. What does that mean precisely? It means to remind yourself that, in coming to Jesus Christ, you found the truth behind all things, you found him who is in himself the truth, the key to life, the secret of the universe, final reality! You find the truth used in that sense in this very letter. In Chapter 4 the apostle says to these Ephesians, You did not so learn Christ! [i.e., in uncleanness and licentiousness, etc.] — assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus. (Ephesians 4:20-21 RSV)

He is the truth, he is reality, he is the key to life. In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, (Colossians 2:3). Well, someone says, how do you know that? How do you know you are not performing an act of blind faith without any supporting evidence at all? You say you believe in Jesus, but you have accepted him as the authority without any evidence to support it. That's blind faith. But that is not what a Christian does. Christian faith is not blind faith. When we believe Christ is the truth, we believe it because he demonstrated he was the truth. We need to put it on that basis.

Grant to me, Father, that I may see the challenge of the hour in which I live, and realize that I have been uniquely called to stand against the enemy with the powerful weapon of your Word. Amen.