Girdle of Truth

Armour of God

In armour, the girdle protects the loins, the whole area below the waist. Specifically, in the phrase “to gird up your loins”, it means to prepare for active work, as the people of this area and time wore flowing garments which they tucked up under their girdle when they needed to have freedom to be active.

Thus to be girded about with truth means that truth enables the man wearing God's armour to be ready for whatever will come - ready for work, ready for active duty.

Lies are the natural enemy of truth, but lies themselves come from an instinct to destroy truth and to substitute lies for them. Jesus referred to Satan as “the Father of Lies”, so there is no ambiguity about the origin of lies.

Why is truth so important? At the lowest common denominator, we know truth matters because it speaks of what is - correctly identifying things as they are. Poison is known as poison; fire is known as fire; good food that can safely be eaten is known as good food; and so on. But even more importantly, truth correctly deals with the spiritual world.

We know that Jesus spoke of truth as setting us free - and this is no exaggeration. To follow Jesus' words concerning truth, we see that He made the connection between truth and knowing Who sent Him. The truth is that Jesus is the incarnate Son of God, God made flesh for our sake. The truth is that God is the I Am; this truth permeates the entire Bible. To deny God as creator and saviour is a denial of the most important truth, and it means distortion of everything in one's world view.

This is the truth, then, that enables us to be free and prepared, unhindered by anything that would impair our strength and our readiness to do what is necessary.