They say that a sign of insecurity is seeing some old guy wearing both a belt and suspenders to hold up his pants!We don’t understand the value and importance of a good belt until we don’t have one.
Many of you spent your summer months swimming as I did. I learned how to swim with the help of a bully uncle, pushing me into the “acequia madre” aka: main irrigation canal. The water was dirty, swift and treacherous and it was either sink or swim. I never took formal swimming lessons, but non-the less, with practice in the canals, I became a pretty good swimmer.
In my early teen years, I finally graduated to the public pools. Thank God for water you could actually see through! We looked forward to having my mom drive us to the pool, drop us off and pick us up about 4 hours later.
Since I was new to public pools, I had never jumped off anything higher than a tree stump, let alone a high diving board! I soon began gaining confidence by diving off the regular lower diving board and even started learning how to do some flips with my friend’s help and coaching. One day, I finally got up enough nerve to climb up the long ladder, step out to the end of the high dive board and after being coaxed and teased by friends, I took the plunge!
For a brief moment, everything seemed to be going smoothly until I hit the water, head first, in a near perfect dive. Suddenly I felt the water-force strip my trunks down to my ankles. There I was, thinking I was so cool with my “bare necessities” exposed. Thank God that my toes were able to hang on to my trunks and kept me from loosing them completely!
These were my very first pair of store bought swimming trunks. Prior to this, I used to cut off my old blue jeans into shorts and use them as swim trunks. I didn’t know that the string I had found to be such a nuisance was actually there to serve a specific purpose! The reason I lost my trunks is that I had neglected to tie a knot in the lace intended as the belt. I had not properly used the belt provided.
Belts are a very important part of our attire. They are one of the most functional pieces of our clothing. They help support: holding things in and keeping things up.
As we continue our study in the book of Ephesians, we’ll be taking a closer look at chapter 6 verse
14, which says, “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist” and strive to understand why this belt is so important to us as Christians, answering 3 pertinent questions about the “belt of truth”: 1. What does the “belt of truth” look like? 2. How does it protect me against Satan? 3. How do I put on the “belt of truth”?
OBSERVATION: What do I see? Read- Ephesians 6:10-14
Q-List three key words from v.14 that are examples of contrasts and comparisons and purpose and result words.
INTERPRETATION: What does it mean?
(v. 10) Paul is coming to the close of his Epistle. Addressing all the family of God, he makes a stirring appeal to them as soldiers of Christ. Every true child of God soon learns that the Christian life is a continual warfare. The hosts of Satan are committed to hinder and obstruct the work of Christ and to knock the individual soldier out of combat. The more effective a believer is for the Lord, the more he will experience the savage attacks of the enemy: the devil does not waste his ammunition on nominal Christians. In our own strength, we are no match for the devil. So the first preparatory command is that we should be continually strengthened in the Lord and in the boundless resources of His might. God’s best soldiers are those who are conscious of their own weaknesses and ineffectiveness, and who rely solely on Him. “God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” (1 Corinthians 1:27b) Our weakness commends itself to the power of His might.
(v. 11) The second command is concerned with the need for divine armor. The believer must put on the whole armor of God that he may be able to stand against the strategies of the devil. It is necessary to be completely armed; one or two pieces of armor will not do: nothing less than the whole panoply (complete or impressive collection of things) which God provides will keep us invulnerable! The devil has various strategies he uses like frustration, discouragement, confusion, moral failure, and doctrinal error. He knows our weakest point and aims directly for it. If he cannot disable us by one method he will try another to defeat us!
(v. 14) The first piece of armor mentioned is the belt of truth. Certainly we must be faithful in holding the truth of God’s word, but it is also necessary for the truth to hold us! We must apply it to our daily lives. As we test everything by the truth, we find strength and protection in the combat.
Q-Paul uses the armor of a soldier to represent our spiritual strength for standing firm against Satan. What’s the analogy, the reality, and the meaning that Paul uses in (v. 14)?
APPLICATION: How does it apply to my life?
Q- On a scale of 1-10, (1: very low,10: very high), how would your rate your commitment to the truth? What needs to improve? How and when will you start?
SUPPLICATION: Where do I need God’s help?
Q-What practical change do you need to make to become a more effective soldier for Christ? Would you take a moment to pray and commit to Christ to begin TODAY to take the necessary steps to become more effective?
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