Ephesians 6:13-14
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness
No-one sets out for failure. Could you imagine how short a coaches career would be if he met with his team at the beginning of the year and said, “I have no intention of making it to the championship game this year! As a matter of fact, I don’t want to win a single game!” No coach in their right mind would ever say such a thing. Instead they begin to plan for victory from day one. They make their team practice for hours on end to prepare for each game with the goal in mind of being the one standing victorious on the day of the big game. Vince Lombardi, probably one of the greatest football coaches of all time, inspired a spirit of excellence in his players that allowed them to win three NFL championships and walk away from Superbowls I and II victorious. One of his famous quotes stands out to me this morning, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence!”. He understood the preparation it took to be able to stand victorious.
As Paul continues in our passage, he starts in verse 13 by telling us of the need to prepare for the battle to come by putting on the “whole armour of God”. No sane warrior would ever go to the battlefield with parts of his armor missing! That would create a weak point in his defenses that the enemy could concentrate on and defeat him. Each piece served a specific purpose and protected a specific area so that when the attack came it would not get through. So the warrior would spend time placing each peace in place, making sure there were no weak spots before he ever faced his foe. Each part of the armor of God that we will discuss together serves a specific purpose and we will need each part to be able to repel the attacks of the enemy. Ready to evaluate your armor this morning? Let’s look at the the first piece that we find in verse 14…
This first piece of the armor is the belt. Paul puts it this way, “having your loins girt about with truth”. In bible times the common cloths for people were tunics with were long and could get tangled up in if a person were working, or a warrior were fighting. So they would take a girdle (belt – sometimes cloth, sometimes leather) and tie it around the waist. This belt served a couple of different purposes: it would hold the tunic tight against the waist so it would not be a tripping or tangle hazard and allow for better freedom of movement and they would hang their tools and weapons from it. The phrase “girt up your loins” meant to be prepared. For the Christians, this belt is represented by truth. When it is the truth of God’s word that holds our lives and thoughts together, then we can walk untangled from the world. It is our faith in God’s truth that all others parts of our christian life hangs on as well! To be ready for battle, first and foremost we must be prepared by knowing and applying God’s truth to our lives.
Today as we ReFocus our hearts and minds on Christ let us prepare for excellence in our lives by putting on the perfect word of truth! It is this that serves as the foundation of our christian lives. We must know it, apply it and live it daily. Does that mean that we will never stumble and become entangled in this world? No it doesn’t, but when we chase after the perfect truth of God, we can catch excellence!