OUR BELT AND BREASTPLATE

Ephesians 6:14
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place.

Growing up, my dad had a hobby of doing leatherwork. I recall one specific picture he crafted of an eagle soaring with a fish in its talons. I remember also a print he did of tired and bloodied solders with drums and pipes, playing their civil war tunes after a challenging battle. In addition to a few other works that come to mind still, I can also remember that for my older brother and I he made us each a belt with our names etched in. His workmanship was great, and he won county fairs for his entries. But the fact that he made a belt specific for me made me proud to wear it. I was wearing a hand crafted treasure, and while it did manage to keep my pants up, it also managed to keep the rest of my outfit in order.
The belt can prove to be many things, from a great childhood memory to a method of pain. Perhaps that is why God gave us the belt of truth. In wearing His truth we can indeed find that safety, that moment of peaceful memories. But in wearing it we also can have a weapon to use against our enemy. True, a belt helps keep the pants up, but if it was only to keep the pants up, couldn’t God have just given us suspenders? Why a belt? And why name this piece of armor first?
When Paul wrote his letter to the people of Ephesus, he wrote from prison. It is highly suspected that Paul’s daily view while in prison was of the guards, therefore allowing Paul to see the relationship between the physical armor of the Roman soldier, and its parallel to the armor given to the Christian warrior by God. And what better a place to start than with the belt. For the Roman soldier, the belt included five leather straps and was used to attach the sword and a small shield close by, keeping both pieces handy in times of combat. While some equate the five leather straps with the five-fold ministry and the need for truth in these areas, some also look at it in a deeper light, that of the truth we walk in regardless of being in ministry fulltime or not. However, the belt was also used to secure the breastplate onto the soldier, as it was strapped directly to the belt.
But just as the physical belt served functional, so Paul eludes to the spiritual belt serving functional. What is it that holds our spiritual pants up, so to say? Truth. This word ‘truth’ is the Greek word ALETHEIA, defined as reality, sincerity, accuracy, integrity, and truthfulness. Just like a belt one would wear to keep his pants up, so without this belt one’s armor will not stay up. Our faith and hope must be in truth as defined by God, or we will fall over his lies. And it is our belt that is our best defense against the deception and lies the enemy will throw at us. Do not forget, the devil’s nature is to take the truth to twist and manipulate it, but our walking in Jesus and His ways will deflect the lies the enemy attempts to hurl at us constantly.
In the Hebrew language, the word for TRUTH is EMET (אֱמֶת). Let us look for a moment at this word in the Hebrew, as every letter here has a reason. The first letter in the Hebrew alphabet is aleph (א). There are a few less letters in the Hebrew alphabet, but the letter in the middle is mem (מ). The final letter in the Hebrew alphabet is tav (ת). So now that I have given you a simple Hebrew lesson, what is my point? God desires truth in every area of life. God desires truth in the beginning, the alephs of life. But God also desires truth in the middle, the mems of life. And lastly, God desires truth in the tavs of life. How are we to have truth in every area of life? Only by putting on the belt of truth He gives us.
The belt of truth is given as the first piece of our armor because unless we are standing on truth, we will only believe the lies. Notice, when God used Gideon, He first had to rid the thoughts of being the least in his family and show Gideon the truth before he was able to be used so mightily (Jud 6:15-16). There is no point to the helmet or breastplate if the devil is already working on us and bending what we know is accurate. When thoughts come to us that are not in line with God’s word, let us throw them down and stand solid on God’s truth.
In the second part of our passage in Ephesians 6:14, we find the command to have the breastplate of righteousness in place. The Roman breastplate was a series of metal plates, patch-worked together like a modern day roof. The word ‘breastplate’ is the Greek word THORAX, and translates as heart protector. The breastplate is vital in that it protects our heart and our vital organs. As we see in the spiritual sense, the believer needs to protect the heart, for if nothing else we see in Matthew 12:34 that it is from the heart’s abundance that the mouth speaks. But Proverbs 4:23 also reminds us that we should keep (hide) our heart with all diligence, the same term that speaks as a guard who would protect a prisoner, for out of the heart are the issues of life. If the heart is not right, how can the remainder of the person be right?
This righteousness is not of our own, but a righteousness that comes from being in Christ (I Cor 1:30). The Greek word here for ‘righteousness’ is DIKAIOSUNE, meaning the quality of being right. It is not defined as being rigid. In fact, if the armor was to have been made of a few solid pieces as opposed to the patch-work design it was, the solider would have looked more like the Tinman, and probably with as much rigid movement. So then, the breastplate was complete with nine horizontal strips of metal, related possibly to the nine fruits of the Spirit or nine gifts of the Spirit. These fruits and gifts operate through one who is righteous.
Yet who among us is righteous? As the breastplate covered the area of the heart, so it is God’s righteousness that protects our heart. We are nothing more than sinners under God’s grace. By wearing the breastplate of righteousness, we are protected by the accuser. Jack Hayford writes, “God declares the believer righteous, in the sense of acquitting him, and imparts righteousness to him.”
Still, the Roman soldier’s breastplate had another interesting piece and relationship. The breastplate had a red cloak, or what we would call a red cape. The color red was purposed as in battle blood would be hidden within the color of the cloth. To use another color could expose the soldier’s injury, therefore giving the enemy the upper hand. However, as the soldier was hidden safely by the red cape, so we are hidden safely under the blood of Christ. As Perry Stone writes, "When the enemy strikes the Christian and tries to see if we have been wounded, there is so much of the blood of Jesus that he can’t tell whose blood he is seeing.”
When Christ died in our place on the cross, we became the righteousness of Christ (II Cor 5:21). We are urged to live right. However, our human nature and free will pave access to sin. The Bible tells that when we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I Jn 1:9). This act of forgiveness, of making a turn in the right direction, allows us to come again into right standing with God under the umbrella of His righteousness. Yes, the devil will condemn us for our sin while the Spirit will convict us of our sin. But it is that conviction by the Spirit that leads us to repent, which then allows us to stand righteous once more. Let us stand strong with this breastplate in place.
The opposite of truth is false; the opposite of righteous is unrighteous, or sinful. These are the negative characteristics that God does not want us to fall for. It is because of His great love for us that He has provided these tools for our protection. If truth is not wrapped around our waist as our belt, not only will nothing stay up, but it also will not stay connected. It was the belt that held everything in place. Yes the sword, shield, and medals of honor were all strapped onto the belt, but the breastplate was also connected. Everything had an order in the times of the Roman soldiers, much like everything should have order now. To miss even one item in the order made the soldier vulnerable.
God desires that we not be vulnerable or open to attack. He does desire that we be protected from the enemy’s falsehoods just as He desires we be protected from the enemy’s blows to our heart. Any how do we do this? We do are we are commanded by putting on, clothing ourselves, with His armor.