Passage: Ephesians 6:14
The Big Idea
If Satan is the father of lies, our first piece of armor has to be truth. The belt of truth holds everything else together. In a world that says all truth is relative, God has given us His Word, which is truth, and His Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to guide us into it. Putting on the belt each day means abiding in His Word and, above all, resting our hope fully on grace rather than on our own performance.
What Is True?
Do you think you know the truth?
Our world and our minds are such a mess that truth can seem impossible to pin down. What really happened in that famous trial? What’s really going on overseas? What does the government actually do?
Students of logic catalog dozens of fallacies, errors in reasoning that lead us away from truth: appeals to probability, false generalizations, the “masked man” fallacy, and on and on. There are more than fifty kinds of informal fallacies alone!
Satan is the originator of every deception. People can identify these errors, but he started them all.
Last time we saw that Satan will attack us, but if we stay in Jesus and put on His armor, the enemy is disarmed. He can’t truly harm us. His lies will be exposed, whichever one he uses.
This is step one in standing against every attack. If Satan is the father of lies, we need the truth to counter him.
Paul says to stand firm, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist (Ephesians 6:14).
These aren’t helpful tips; this is the unbreakable armor of God.
Why a Belt?
- It holds all the other armor together.
- It prepares us for action, to serve and to move. (In the ancient world, you tucked up your long robe into your belt so you could run or fight.)
- The sword hangs from it, and the sword is the Spirit’s, the Spirit of truth.
- It protects our most vulnerable areas.
Is There Truth?
When Jesus stood before Pilate, He said, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate replied, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38).
That’s still the world’s question.
Relativism is the idea that all viewpoints are equally valid and that truth is relative to the individual. “That’s your truth, not mine.” “It’s true for you, but not for me.” “There are no absolute truths.”
Moral relativism says right and wrong are culturally shaped and a matter of personal choice. “You decide what’s right for you, and I’ll decide what’s right for me.” “It’s true for me if I believe it.”
Moral relativism is a worldview, and it’s widely taught in our culture. It gets into the Church all the time! Why do you do what you do, or believe what you believe? Because it’s true, or because it’s what you want?
But relativism refutes itself:
- “All truth is relative.” If that’s absolutely true, then not all truth is relative, and the statement is false.
- “There are no absolute truths.” That’s an absolute statement claiming to be true. So it can’t be true.
- If there are no absolute truths, you can’t believe anything absolutely, including relativism.
Relativism cannot be true.
God’s Word Is Truth
So what is truth? Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
A skeptic might say, “Of course you say the Bible is true. It’s your main product!” And plenty of brilliant people don’t believe the Bible, so intelligence alone clearly isn’t the key to understanding it.
Jesus said that those who abide in His word are truly His disciples, and they will know the truth, and the truth will set them free (John 8:31-32).
That freedom in your soul is one way to see the truth of the Bible:
- Freedom from the crushing compulsion to earn God’s approval.
- Freedom from fear about your eternal destiny.
- Freedom from slavery to your pride.
In other words, the results in your life demonstrate the truth of your faith. Intelligence alone can’t give that freedom.
Why is the Bible truth?
Because God decided it is, and gave it to us as a gift. Isaiah says the LORD of hosts has purposed it, and who can annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? (Isaiah 14:27). If He’s decided to give us His Word, no one will stop Him. He’s chosen to write down His Word so everyone can hear it, and to explain what truth is to everyone.
Why does it have to be written?
Imagine working hard for a degree from a top university. At graduation, the president calls your name and says, “Great job! But we aren’t going to give you an actual diploma. Just take our word for it.”
So God took His Word, which came from His mouth, and wrote it down for everyone to see. And He promises that His word won’t return to Him empty, but will accomplish what He pleases (Isaiah 55:11). God is committed to using His Word.
He’s set up a way to relate with every person through the Bible. He speaks to us, and we learn to communicate with Him. We call it devotions: spending time with God. It’s spiritual. It’s powerful. It’s daily food for the soul, daily drink for the spirit, living water nourishing our inner life.
It works. Spending time with Jesus every morning isn’t a sacrifice you make because it’s a rule. It’s coming up for air! It’s life! It’s the channel of our relationship with God.
Why does God want us in His Word every day? So that truth can grow on the inside. This world wants to sell you a lie, but God wants you to know truth.
Truth in the Inward Parts
In the early 1900s, a newspaper owner named George Riddell bought a sensational London tabloid. He offered to send a copy to the respected journalist Frederick Greenwood. The next time they met, Riddell asked what Greenwood thought of it. “I looked at it, and then I put it in the wastebasket,” Greenwood said. “And then I thought, ‘If I leave it there, the cook may read it,’ so I burned it.”
Greenwood was passionate about truth. He desired it, just as God does.
David prayed: You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I’ll be clean; wash me, and I’ll be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me (Psalm 51:6-10).
- When we live in the truth, God actively works in us. It changes us.
- It blesses us.
- Jesus is the opposite of fake, and following Him keeps us from being fake too.
- He’s passionate about truth on the inside of you!
A drunk husband once crept quietly up the stairs after a bar fight. In the bathroom, he looked in the mirror and carefully bandaged his cuts and bruises, then crawled into bed, smiling at how he’d fooled his wife. In the morning she was standing over him. “You were drunk last night, weren’t you!” “No, honey.” “Then who put all the bandages on the bathroom mirror?”
When we’re sinning, we think we’re so smart, that we can cover up the truth. But it comes out, and it always leads to embarrassment.
Following Jesus, trusting Him and being cleansed by Him, also brings truth out, but it’s a new truth: an inner life that’s truly good, a heart that’s truly new, inward parts that know truth, know Jesus, know His Word. Not just in the brain, but in the soul and spirit.
“Renew a steadfast spirit within me.” God’s work of bringing truth into our lives produces renewal and consistency. You’ll be spiritually fresh and won’t fall as often. You won’t struggle so much with letting your flesh win. Truth does this, spiritually.
The Spirit of Truth
How? Through relationship. Jesus said the Spirit of truth would come and guide us into all truth (John 16:13).
- Truth is His very name and identity.
- It’s His job to guide you into all truth.
- He isn’t a mean schoolmaster, but a loving Guide.
- Truth isn’t just an idea or a rigid law. Truth is also a Person, One you relate to through the Word of God.
Putting on the belt of truth means drawing close to the Spirit of Jesus Christ, letting Him create truth in you, letting who He is fill you up.
Every morning, we need to put on our belt. If you want to stand against the enemy’s attacks, you need the truth inside you. If you want Satan to push you around and wreck you, just stay away from the Word. It’ll happen.
A. W. Tozer warned that an untended garden is soon overrun by weeds, and a heart that doesn’t cultivate truth and root out error soon becomes a spiritual wilderness.
The Truth of Grace
Daily we need to be equipped with truth, specifically the truth of grace. Peter helps us here: “Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).
- The belt imagery again! This time around the mind, guarding our thoughts.
- Putting on the belt is really about this: Are you trusting in grace?
- Are you resting your hope fully on grace, the grace that comes through a deepening relationship with Jesus, through humility and faith?
- “The revelation of Jesus Christ”: as you read His Word, He’s revealed to you.
It’s all about grace, not the Law. When we start trusting ourselves or our performance of the rules, we give up a bit of truth. It’s really ourselves we hurt when we try to live by the Law.
A ship’s captain once wrote in the log: “First mate drunk today.” It was true, though it was the first time the mate had ever been drunk on duty. The mate begged him to change it. The captain refused: “It’s true.” The next time the first mate was in charge, he wrote in the log: “Captain sober today.”
Technically true, totally misleading! That’s what the enemy does with the Law. When we leave grace and stop trusting Jesus to save and change us, we start living by a lie. The enemy wants you to try harder, believe in yourself, think, “I don’t need this belt. I know what’s up.”
- Humility says, “I need Your truth today.”
- Pride says, “I’m fine. I’ve got enough truth.”
Peter says, “Be sober, and rest your hope fully on grace.” The enemy gets us drunk on our own pride. It’s addictive to think highly of ourselves. It’s a rush to feel like we did something good, to feel better than the people around us we see fail. But it deceives us. It clouds our judgment, and it simply isn’t true.
The truth is that only the two relational realities of humility and faith receive God’s favor, His grace, His acceptance. Only trusting His Son, His work, His abilities and His resources.
Never let go of that truth! Never let a day go by without putting on the belt. Abide in the Word. It’s the truth.
Go out without your belt, and your pants might fall down! You’ll trip, get hurt or get embarrassed. And God says it’s all preventable by being in His Word.
Augustine said that when regard for truth has been broken down, or even slightly weakened, everything becomes doubtful.
There’s an old story about the devil walking with one of his demons. They saw a man pick up something shiny. “What did he find?” asked the demon. “A piece of the truth,” said the devil. “Doesn’t that bother you?” “No,” said the devil. “I’ll see to it he makes a false religion out of it.”
Almost every false religion is built on working for God: trying to prove yourself to Him and living by a law. True Christianity alone trusts in the work of Jesus Christ instead of our own.
Here’s the devil’s recipe: one small piece of truth, that God’s commands are good, mixed with a big lie, that you keeping them is what earns God’s pleasure.
What really pleases God is obeying His command to trust in Jesus Christ, and then watching His Spirit work mighty good deeds through your life.
Grace Takeaway
The enemy is a liar, so the first thing you need every day is truth. God has given you His Word, which is truth, and His Spirit, who guides you into all truth. Put on the belt each morning by abiding in His Word, and most of all, cinch it around the truth of grace: rest your hope fully on what Jesus has done, not on your own performance. That truth holds everything else together.
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