Prepared - Part 2

 

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth… Ephesians 6:14a

We are investigating Paul’s comparison of a Christian in spiritual warfare to what a Roman soldier was like prepared for physical combat.  This morning’s piece of God’s well-dressed warrior is the Belt of Truth.

Preparing for battle is no little thing.  In the latter part of my tour in Vietnam, the 1968 Tet Offensive put every soldier on high alert.  We spent the nights of those weeks in defensive embankments; two soldiers watching, one sleeping.  We needed to be ready for whatever invasion the enemy had planned.

In the primary battle of eternity between good and evil, the starting point for any soldier of the cross is an uncompromised commitment to truth.  Truth is that inviolable defense standing as the line between Godly obedience and wickedness.  It is only when truth is told that anything holy can stand.  A president that lies to his nation, or a bank teller that dips in the till, a husband or wife who cannot manage to be truthful with a spouse, or even a child trying to hide the cookie crumbs all over his face when his Mom said to stay out of the cookie jar, all are entry points to the crumbling of trust. 

Paul’s analogy of a Roman soldier, suited-up for battle, and the Christian warrior’s dress, begins with the belt of truth.  That belt holds everything in place.  Without truth any of us miss the mark of God’s way.

Jesus told Thomas:  I am the way, the truth, and the life. ^{(John 14:5-7)}  Like a belt around the middle, truth holds the way and the life together.  He told his disciple if he would see God, those realities would be in his bones, sinew, and flesh all day, every day, for eternity.  That is the nature of truth; without it there is no way or life worth having.

For You Today

In every way imaginable truth simplifies life.  Like not trying to make 2 + 2 equal anything but 4, you can count on truth; and that path always leads to finding the rest of Jesus’ math lesson with Thomas, the way to life.

Put on the truth belt…and never take it off…because the battle rages on!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©