Weekly Bible Study – December 25, 2017

The importance of the belt or the
girdle of truth and the breastplate of
righteousness for the Christian Soldier.

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Prepare yourself for learning the Word of God!

Before we begin, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ (that is; you have believed [trusted] in Him for His promised gift of eternal life), it is important to prepare yourself to learn God's Word so take a moment to name, cite or acknowledge (confess) your sins privately to God (i.e.; with your thoughts directed only to God the Father).

1 John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (known sins) and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [unknown or forgotten sins]." NKJV (New King James Version) [italics added]; we call this REBOUND, read the full doctrine as to “why” we need to use 1 John 1:9 to grow spiritually. REBOUND

If you have never personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, as your Savior (that is, believed in Him for eternal life), the issue for you is not to name your sins; the issue for you is to simply exercise faith alone in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life; when you do, you will instantly receive Eternal Life: John 3:16, 5:24, 6:47, 20:30, 31.

John 6:47 says: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me [Jesus Christ] has everlasting life." NKJV [italics added]

Notice again what Jesus said in John 6:47: "…he who believes in Me (Jesus Christ) has everlasting life." It doesn't say, "will have"; it says, "has." Therefore, the very moment you believe in Jesus Christ for His promise of everlasting life, you have it (it's really just that simple; nothing more and nothing less), and it can never be taken away from you (John 10:28-29). Furthermore, the gift (Ephesians 2:8c) of everlasting life (also called eternal life in scripture) is available to every human being; there are absolutely no exceptions.

John 3:14-15, 16, 17, 18, says: "¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." NKJV

Let us now bow our hearts and take a moment to prepare for worship and learning God's Word. If there is any known sin in your life, this is the time to just cite it privately to God the Father with your thoughts directed towards Him. With your head bowed and your eyes closed, you have total privacy in your mind and soul:

Study to show yourself approved to God!

Grace Bible Church
Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

Doctrinal Statement

The Tree of Life is a weekly teaching summary:
God’s Word is taught Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday

Alphabetical Listing of Terms & Abbreviations used:

STUDY TITLE:

The importance of the belt or the
girdle of truth and the breastplate
of righteousness for the Christian Soldier.

Eph 6:14, Therefore, hold your ground after you have buckled on your combat gear around your waist with truth, and after having put on the breastplate of righteousness.

We are going to see that the Breastplate of Righteousness has to do with the believer’s integrity in the midst of the angelic conflict and spiritual warfare. Remember that in Eph 6 we are still dealing with spiritual warfare and the Christian soldier. Therefore, the true biblical principle is that the integrity of God begins with your relationship with God and without a relationship with God there is really no true integrity.

1. Integrity is the spiritual strength to put into operation that which you claim to believe.

2. Integrity also is the means conforming to certain standards or rights.

3. Thirdly, integrity is the quality of life and power needed to live because integrity gives the believer capacity to act and to perform properly.

4. Therefore one of the most important goals of the Christian life is to develop integrity or to put on the breastplate of righteousness.

5. Motivational integrity which is personal love toward God. Or functional integrity which is unconditional love toward all mankind.

6. Integrity is for a man to know what is good and what is evil, what is useless, shameful, and dishonorable.

7. The Romans defined integrity as devotion and loyalty, especially to your family. To them, loyalty was the key to possessing integrity.

8. A believer who pursues experiential righteousness and loyalty finds true life, +Righteousness, and godly honor.
Prov 21:21, He who pursues righteousness and loyalty Finds life, righteousness and honor.

9. Loyalty and sacrifice and knowledge of God rather than sacrificial giving is what the Lord truly delights in Hos 6:6, that the Lord delights in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Alright, we are now ready for Eph 6:14, Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

In Eph 6:14 we have two concepts: The first concept has to do with the first item of equipment called the girdle or really the belt or harness of the Roman soldier. Whenever a Roman soldier moved out of his tent or his barracks and moved to the rack where the equipment was stacked, the first thing that he put on was the belt. Therefore, let’s note how it is stated by Paul.

Eph 6:14, Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth,

The first word in this sentence is the aor-act-imp of the verb histemi which is stand which we’ve now had in verses Eph 6:11, 13, 14. It means to stand against, to oppose, to hold your ground, to stand fast. Remember, this is because the believer does not have any human power or any human ability to enter into a spiritual combat with a superior creature.

The superior creature being Satan and all the fallen angels. Angelic creatures are infinitely stronger and greater and smarter than we are. We cannot cope with them, and therefore God has provided this wall of fire, and the first item in the equipment is a part of the wall of fire. The aorist tense is a constantive aorist, it views defensive action against Satan and demons in its entirety. In other words, the constantive aorist tense views the believer as reaching a point where he is spiritually strong enough to hold his ground against spiritual warfare.

It has taken the believer a lengthy time of dedication and devotion as a student of the word of God to reach the point where he is able to put on the harness, or the belt of truth. You have to have truth, and the more truth that you learn, the more truth you will understand.

Then, the more truth that you understand, the more truth you will think. And, the more truth that you think, the more chance for integrity you will possess. That is the way the principle works. It starts out with truth in the concept of Bible doctrine.

When we talk about truth here, we’re talking about absolute truth, we are talking about the word of God. The active voice, the Church-age believer produces the action of the verb under the military metaphor of defensive action. Our defensive action in time of spiritual warfare is the constant and persistent perception of Bible doctrine, in spite of the satanic pressure.

The imperative mood is the imperative of command in which God makes a direct positive demand on the volition of every church age believer. So, the phrase stand firm or hold your ground is a divine command for defensive action through the daily intake of Bible doctrine.

Eph 6:14, Hold your ground therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

Instead of saying in Eph 6:14, Hold your ground, because of this, a better English translation would be, Because of this, hold your ground consistently,

The wearing of a girdle or a battle harness in the ancient world took on the meaning of one who is ready and prepared or strengthened for service or action. The phrase having girded is the aor-mid-part of perizonnumi which means to buckle on a belt.

Here it means to put on your battle harness which is used metaphorically for equipping oneself with the knowledge of truth.

The wearing of a battle harness in the ancient world took on the meaning of one who is ready and prepared or strengthened for service or action.

So, we will translate this, having buckled on your combat gear around your waist with truth,

And we are going to see some very interesting principles behind this buckle or battle harness, one of which is the fact that all the military equipment was in some way attached or connected to this harness. The aorist tense is a constantive aorist which means that it is something that you do on a daily basis. Your daily exposure to Bible doctrine and your daily intake of doctrine is the only way that you can buckle on this belt of truth. This is the only way that you can take defensive action against Satan while you’re taking offensive action with regard to the PPOG [Pedesigned Plan of God]. The middle voice is an intensive middle in which the Church-age believer acts for himself upon something belonging to himself. Bible doctrine belongs to you. And since it belongs to you, and, it is the greatest of all treasures, it is far more important than anything else in your life.

How you think, how you handle life, what capacity you have for life, your entire lifestyle depends on making Bible doctrine number one priority in your life. When you do this, you are learning how to buckle on your combat gear around your waist with truth.

The middle voice is an intensive middle in which the Church-age believer acts for himself upon something belonging to himself. And what do I mean by that? Look at

1Co 3:21-23, So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.

You cannot hold your ground against Satan until you have Bible doctrine or the buckle of truth. We will also see why the breastplate is second and not first.

So, this verb perizonnumi implies a combat belt issue for every Roman soldier as a part of his equipment.

Eph 6:14 says so far, Because of this, hold your ground, having buckled on your combat gear

Prin-The wearing of the girdle or a battle harness in the ancient world took on the meaning of one who is ready and prepared or strengthened for service or action. Here it means to put on your battle harness which is used metaphorically for equipping oneself with the knowledge of truth. All the military equipment was in some way attached or connected to this harness. Your daily exposure to Bible doctrine and your daily intake of doctrine is the only way that you can buckle on this belt of truth.

This is the only way that you can take defensive action against Satan while you’re taking offensive action with regard to the PPOG.

Now this belt or this harness was worn, in part, over the breastplate. The part that went around the waist actually was the bottom part of the belt which held the breastplate in place. The breastplate would snap on to the slots in the part of the harness or the belt which went around the waist. And so there was a harness system on the belt which actually fastened the breastplate in position.

However, remember the principle: you had to have the belt on before you could put the breastplate on. Otherwise you have a piece of armor just flapping around which would be totally useless. And of course, that application should be very obvious, you have to have truth or Bible doctrine first, before you can operate in the righteousness or the integrity of God.

the belt part is actually the part that fastens the breastplate, the breastplate comes out of the belt. However, make sure that you understand, the belt must be on first, then you can put on the breastplate.

Now, the belt not only serves as a harness but it also a baldric. What is a baldric?

A baldric is a shoulder belt usually of ornamented leather worn over the chest to support other parts of the military equipment. And the baldric would go over the top of the breastplate, and we will see something about that as well.

So the baldric consisted of two parts: a broad leather belt which was worn around the waist, and a leather strap, which was slung across the chest and over the shoulder.

There was another part in the belt that fastened to the breastplate below and this was a system for protecting the entire genital area of the soldier.

So, everything was attached to the belt, and this is why the Romans had a very thick and very wide leather belt with all of these things that fastened on them. And when the soldier was buckled up for combat, all of these things were in place and he could coordinate and know that defensively he was protected. The various parts of his body which would cause him to be killed were extremely well protected and therefore the belt was the basic part of the armor. The complete belt was used when heavy armor was worn, for to it was attached the bottom part of the breastplate.

The baldric was also stud¬ded with metal plates and fastened with a decorated buckle. Suspended from this belt also were the scabbard or a sheath for the sword and loops for ropes and rations; all were easily accessible as they were needed. The point is that the girdle or the battle harness was that part of the Roman’s armor that everything else depended upon, just like everything depends upon Bible doctrine in the Christian way of life.

The Roman soldier also had fastened to his belt his most valuable possessions: silver and gold, jewelry which he had plundered from captured cities or from enemy bivouacs. And so there is another analogy here which is the fact that if we have on the belt of truth, we will have a measure of blessing from following the Lord.

So, Paul mentions the belt first and foremost because he un¬derstood its importance: the belt was the key to the rest of the panoplia, the armor of God. Therefore, it paralleled Bible doctrine resident in the soul, the basic requirement for the full armor from God. Once the Christian Warrior has buckled on his waist the baldric God intended for him to wear, he is fully prepared for the charge of the unseen enemy.

When the alarm trumpet blew, the Roman soldier would run to the rack of equipment and the first thing that he would do is put the belt on. Once the equipment was put on and all in place, they would pick up their weapons and move to the FLOT line, which is the defensive area.

FLOT is a military acronym for the forward line of troops. This is how the Roman soldiers would handle being on the front line in warfare.

Many times they would lock shields against the enemy and we will see how that has to do with the fellowship which takes place in the local assembly as believers pull together for the same purpose.

Eph 6:14, Because of this, hold your ground, having buckled on your combat gear

Next, we have the accusative singular direct object from three words. The first word is definite article ten used to distinguish this belt from all other belts. This tells us that this is a special kind of belt. And with this we have the noun osphun which refers to the waist. And then the possessive genitive from the pronoun su which is humon meaning your waist.

EPH 6:14, Because of this, hold your ground, having buckled on your combat gear around your waist with truth,

Next we have a prepositional phrase which emphasizes the importance of this combat belt as Bible doctrine resident in the right lobe of the soul. How does the Christian soldier get ready to hold his ground? By means of doctrine!

We have the preposition en plus the instrumental singular from aletheia which does not mean with truth but signifies the means by which we reach our spiritual objective in life – doctrine, or that which is believed. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the high quality of doctrine.

Thus, the so-called belt of truth comprises the entire realm of doctrine – all its truths, all its categories ¬as it is assimilated by the daily function of perception, metabolization and application of Bible doctrine. If, therefore, the Christian wants to attain the super-grace status of maturity, he must take up the challenge to expose himself to Bible doctrine on a consistent and daily basis, no matter what distractions or temptations would keep him from it! The objective the high ground of super-grace – is well worth the effort! So aletheia is the word for truth or Bible doctrine.

The following link is to a good news message describing how one can receive eternal life: Ticket to Heaven, it was written for anyone not absolutely certain about their eternal future.