PT-1 "The Girdle of Truth" (Eph. 6:14a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/13/2019 8:50 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-1 “The Girdle of Truth”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 6:14a

            Message of the verse:  “Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth,”

            We finally got through the five parts of the introduction to this section in Ephesians six where we will learn, and continue to learn about the believer’s protection given us from God’s Word, and living in the age we live in we all need the spiritual armor on.  I was teaching some new believers about the basic things of Christianity and told them that they needed to put the spiritual armor on each morning as a reminder of how it is used.  On the day that we were to meet for our class I asked some of them if they had put the armor on and one of the ladies told me that she had forgotten and another one asked if she was a spiritual streeker? Needless to say we all got a good laugh.

            One of things we mentioned was that Paul was in prison when he penned this letter of Ephesians and was chained to a Roman soldier and that is where Paul, (humanly speaking) got the idea about the spiritual armor as he was looking at a soldier that was dressed with the armor that Paul writes about.

            John MacArthur adds to this thought:  “The Roman soldier always wore a tunic, an outer garment that served as his primary clothing.  It was usually made of a large, square piece of material with holes cut out for the head and arms.  Ordinarily it draped loosely over most of the soldier’s body.  Since the greater part of ancient combat was hand-to-hand, a loose tunic was a potential hindrance and even a danger.  Before a battle it was therefore carefully clinched up and tucked into the heavy leather belt that ‘girded’ the soldier’s loins.”

            There are some different places in the Word of God that tell us about what Paul is saying in this portion of verse 14.  In the Middle East people wore robes and when they had some heavy lifting to do they would put the robe in the belt that went around the robe.  When God told Moses on the first Passover how the children of Israel should eat it he said the following:  “’Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste-it is the LORD’S Passover (Ex. 12:11).”   The children of Israel were to be ready to leave Egypt and leave it in a great hurry, so they had to have their loins girded.  Let us look at another verse, Luke 12:35 “"Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit.”  In this section of Luke Jesus was talking about His second coming and how we as believers are to live, we are to be ready for His return.  Jesus was actually saying “Have your loins girded.”  Peter says something similar in 1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore, prepare your minds [literally ‘gird up the loins of your minds’] for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  Girding the loins was a mark of preparedness, and the soldier was serious about fighting was sure to secure his tunic with his belt.

            We will continue to look at this first piece of the spiritual armor in our next SD, Lord willing.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am always to be read to do the work of the Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  As I was thinking about why the Lord created the world this morning from something that I was listening in the Pastor’s message it reminded me of humility.  God created the earth to bring glory to His Son who would come to earth in order to pay the price for His bride.  He left planet earth after being resurrected from the dead and is now in heaven interceding for His bride.  It is all about the Lord, so why should I be prideful?  I am to be humbly living a life that will bring glory to the Lord each day.

The following is our quotation from “Love in Action” that goes along with our verses from Romans 1:8-9 that we viewed yesterday.

“One of the motivations behind Paul’s letters to the New Testament churches was his desire to encourage his friends.  These early believers were members of churches scattered through the ancient Roman Empire, a time ruled by cruelty and persecution.  These persecuted, isolated followers of Christ, trying to make their way in the world, often met in caves and catacombs of Rome for mutual encouragement.  They faced life-threatening challenges every day.  Paul, who founded most of these churches, wrote to communicate his heart to them.  In the beginning verses of almost every one of his letters, Paul labors to deliver a word of hope and affirmation.”

10/13/2019 9:21 PM