Spiritual Warfare: Armor of God: Belt of Truth - Ephesians 6:10-17


Truth.  When I hear the word “truth,” the first thing that comes to mind is the movie A Few Good Men.  It’s the middle of the courtroom scene and the attorney Lt. Kaffee, played by Tom Cruise, is facing off against Colonel Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson.   Lt. Kaffee is charged with defending two Marines accused of murdering another Marine in a beat-down. Lt. Kaffee is challenging that the men were just following the orders handed down from Colonel Jessup.  Kaffee accuses the colonel of ordering a “Code Red,” a command that has soldiers beat a fellow soldier, either to get him to step up his trying or to run him out.  In the court room scene, Kaffee is just grilling Jessup.  In a heated exchange, Kaffee says, “I just want the truth.”  Jessup responds, “You can’t handle the truth.”   
This exchange brings to mind another court scene.  In that room, two men are facing off alone.   In this exchange the first gentleman, Pilate, questions Jesus, wondering if he can convict Jesus for treason against Caesar:
Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king.  For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”[i]
Last week we began a series on Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God.  We came to acknowledge that our battle is not against those that we would normally consider our enemies.  Our battle is not against those on the left or the right; our battle is not against those of other nationalities are political ideologies; our battle is not against those that aren’t like us or don’t believe like us or don’t live like us. Our battle is not against those of blood and flesh.  We are not in a battle against those whom God knit together in their mother’s womb; we are not in a battle against those that God placed his very breath within to give life; our battle is not against any one for whom Christ died.  Our battle, our true battle, is against the forces of darkness, against satan and his demonic army that would try to steal us away from the path God would have us walk.  We are not fighting a battle simply on this plane, we are engaged in Spiritual Warfare and we are called to put on the Armor of God.
So what does it look like to put on the Armor of God?  What does it mean to: fasten the belt of truth around your waist; to put on the breastplate of righteousness; to put on our feet whatever will make us ready to proclaim the gospel of peace; to take the shield of faith; to take the helmet of salvation; to take the sword of the Spirit?  If we are supposed to do it, we need to find out, so over the next month-and-a-half we will examine each one of these pieces of equipment that God provides individually.
 Paul begins by telling us to fasten the belt of truth about our waist.
The first thing we’ve got to understand is that this was not a belt meant to hold up our suit of armor pants.  This belt was meant to protect the abdominal cavity.  It was meant to protect those organs such as our stomach, our liver, our pancreas, and all those other organs that don’t have the ribs or any other bone structure to protect them.  It would cover the area that would be located just below the breast plate.  The belt on a suit of armor is important in order to keep from being gutted on the battlefield.
So we are to put on the belt of Truth.  However, at times, this belt leaves me standing there like Pilate asking, “what is truth” and how do we fasten about ourselves this Belt of Truth.   So many of us think differently and with that comes different understandings of just what truth is.   The trouble arises out of the fact that what one person defines as truth does not always line up with what someone else understands to be truth---making truth subjective—changing from person to person, place to place, situation to situation.  As I began reflecting on this during my time at Summer Breakaway, I decided to ask several of the youth and staff to simply answer the question “What is truth?”  Of the staff I questioned, some were young adults and others were more veteran in nature; some were laity and others were clergy.  As I carried on conversations, I found to be interesting that for many that I talked with, truth seemed to be just as subjective to them as it seemed to be for Pilate.   I wish I could share with you the details of all of their answers, some were brief one line responses, while others were a little longer.  One of the young adults I asked, came up with an essay almost as long as this sermon.  Another suggested that truth is that which is scientifically and empirically able to be proved, suggesting that anything else, any other truth, is purely subjective, depending on the society or culture that you find yourself in.  In other words, what might be true here in Burlington might not be true in the deep recesses of the Congo.  Their thoughts suggested that what may be true in one situation may not be true in another situation, that truth really is subjective, and there are no absolutes.  They suggested that truth may change over time.
All of that leaves us confused and wondering what is true and what did Paul mean when he said to fasten about yourself the belt of Truth.  How can something that is so fluid and changing and inconstant that you can’t be certain what it is protect us?  However, it is in the responses of two of the youngest that I asked.  One of them answered, “truth is simply the will and desire of God.”  The other answered fairly quickly, “Jesus is the Way the Truth, and the Life.”   These two young minds made it seem very easy.  It’s funny, the preacher Reverend Carolyn Roy this week had said, it doesn’t really matter the question, the answer is always “Jesus.”  The kids at the children’s message tend to understand this.  If y’all can hear, most of the time when I ask the children who did something, they almost always answer “Jesus” before they guess anyone else.  Jesus is always the answer.  What is truth? Jesus is truth!
What does it mean, then, to wrap this kind of Truth about ourselves?  What does it mean to wrap Jesus around us?  Why does Paul suggest that we put on the belt of truth before we do anything else?  It is because, my brothers and sisters, that before we enter into the Spiritual Warfare fully ready for battle, we must make sure that we have surrounded ourselves with Jesus.   We must make sure that we have wrapped ourselves, that we are completely surrounded and enveloped, and bathed in Christ.  What does this mean?  Wrapping ourselves with Jesus, with the truth that is Jesus, means that what we do, how we act, and what our conversations sound like, and even every thought we have, will reflect that Jesus is the center of our lives.  It means that our interactions with others will reflect that Jesus is first and foremost in our lives.  It means how we respond when we see those in need will reflect the care and compassion and heart of Jesus. It means that when we see that there is pain that we will offer grace and love.  It means that where there is sin that we will offer forgiveness and freedom (not condemnation).  And it means that when there is a needed response that we are willing to sacrifice to meet that need.  It means that when we enter into this battle and we find ourselves in situations where we don’t know what to do and we don’t know what is the true way to act, that we simply look to Jesus and respond as Jesus would.  It means that if we’re trying to discern where the word of God, the Eternal Word of God, the scriptures that are opened before us, if we’re trying to discern where they are directing us, we look to the Word made flesh, Jesus.  When we don’t, it gives the devil a foothold in our lives and in our homes, and thereby gives him a chance to gut us.  For when we base our lives on the false messages that the world sends to us—calls to hate others, calls to think of ourselves first, calls compromise our faith for the sake of getting ahead, calls to cheat or steal or surrender to addictions, we find our vital organs, our very lives, exposed, and easily taken down.  My Brothers and Sisters, as we enter this battle may we stand up for truth, may we stand up for Jesus, as we make ready for battle first putting on the belt of Truth, surrounding ourselves with Jesus.  In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.


[i] John 18:37-38

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