Ephesians 6:14

Ephesians 6:14

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

1. “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth…”

a. stand [2476 *  histemi][Thayer: to cause or make to stand, to place, put, set… to make firm, fix establish, to stop, stand still, to stand immovable, stand firm, of the foundation of a building, continue safe and sound, stand unharmed, to stand ready or prepared.]

1). I love this word in its context. It does not imply reasoning such as, “Well, when you have done everything you know to do, then just stand.” No, I believe it has more a sense of, being immoveable after a tremendous assault and saying, “What, is that all you got?” A study of all the armor pieces gives a sense of absolute victory, not “just getting by until we get rescued”! We need to renew our minds in the word and get grounded and established in Him.  

b. loins [3751 * osphys][Thayer: the hip (loin)][Vine: the seat of generative power, in Ephesians 6:14, [of]bracing up oneself so as to maintain perfect sincerity and reality as the counteractive in Christian character against hypocrisy and falsehood.]

1). The loins he is speaking of are the loins of our minds.

a). 1 Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

b). We are commanded here to wrap the Word of God around our minds

2). It is here we see the importance of including the mind and its God given purposes in our weaponry.

a). 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

(For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

b). 1 Peter 4:1-3 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;

That he no longer should live the rest of [his] time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

For the time past of [our] life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

3). We are to have the same mind that Christ Jesus had, that is, to have the attitude that we will not sin against God. We need to bring our thought life in line with the word of God, to not allow any thoughts in our mind that are different than the Scriptures and also, as the text in Ephesians 6:14 declares, we need to wrap the word of God around our minds in accordance with Joshua 1:8, memorizing, meditating and confessing what the Scriptures say about us. Yes the Covenant provides for us forgiveness when we sin, and I thank God for it, but we need to focus on His ability in us, for us to live lives that sin less and less.

c. girt about [4024 * perizonnymi][Thayer: to fasten garments with a girdle or belt, to gird one's self,  metaphorically with truth as a girdle, to equip one's self with knowledge of the truth.]

1). Isaiah gives two different kinds of girdles.

a). Isaiah 11:5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

 

d. truth [225 * aletheia][Vine: objectively, signifying "the reality lying at the basis of an appearance; the manifested, veritable essence of a matter", especially of Christian doctrine…where "the truth of the Gospel" denotes the "true" teaching of the Gospel, in contrast to perversions of it…]

e. The truth we are to gird the loins of our mind with is the Word of God

1). John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

f. Hence, Luke exhorts us to be fueled in order to live lives exemplary of a Christian, one who is knowing his Lord is coming soon and lives a life that demonstrates it.

1). Luke 12:35, 36 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;

And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.

2. “…and having on the breastplate of righteousness.”

a. breastplate [2382 * thorax][Thayer: the breast, the part of the body from the neck to the navel, where the ribs end,  a breastplate or corset consisting of two parts and protecting the body on both sides from the neck to the middle.]

b. righteousness [1343 * dikaiosyne][Zodhiates: Justice, righteousness…In the N.T. righteousness is a religious concept. It is righteousness according to divine standard, conformity to the will and nature of God Himself. In the N.T. the character of God is presented as absolute moral perfection.]

c. God’s moral perfection, God’s righteousness is the standard that God requires, but we don’t measure up and outside of Christ we can’t, but by receiving eternal life in Christ by the born again experience, we receive God’s righteousness.

1). Romans 3:19-26 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

2). 2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

d. Because we have received the righteousness of God we are not sinners saved by grace, we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. The Scriptures call the believer in Christ “saints”.

1). 1 Corinthians 1:2  Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

2). Romans 1:7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3). 2 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:

4). Ephesians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:

 e. We have been given the righteousness of God and God expects us to wear it as a breastplate. Calling ourselves sinners saved by grace is not correct. Whatever habitual sin we have in our lives should be focused on and prayed about until it is no longer in us, because frankly, the New Covenant provides for us victory in every situation. Are we sinless? No, but our lives should exhibit a lifestyle of growth, of instances where sins that once completely dominated us  are becoming less and less a factor to the eventual condition of not being a temptation at all, not even on the radar screen.