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Sermon preached on Ephesians 6:14 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/30/2026 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Last week we started into this final section in Ephesians by addressing the reality of spiritual warfare and the need to find our strength, not in ourselves, but in Jesus. Using the warfare imagery, we saw this passage commend to us to take up the whole armor of God. That is how we find our strength in the Lord by using this spiritual armor that he richly supplies. Today we will begin to study the individual pieces of armor. By slowing down and doing a sermon on each piece, we can consider how each is well-suited against specific schemes of the enemy. It will also give us time to think about how each piece is ultimately wielded by Christ our strong and mighty savior. Today then, we will think about this belt of truth found in verse 14.
Before we begin, let me note that when studying this memorable passage on the armor of God, often people spend a lot of time trying to match the pieces up with the known armor pieces of the typical Roman soldier. They might then use our knowledge of those Roman armor pieces to help explain this passage. Yet, Paul doesn’t specifically say he has a Roman soldier in mind. Furthermore, we’ll see that each of these armor pieces is a quote or allusion back to the Old Testament, especially Isaiah, where either the Messiah or God is described as wearing such armor. Obviously, the background of the Old Testament passages didn’t have Roman armor in mind. Instead of getting lost in trying to overly define some technical piece of armor, we should just let whatever language Paul uses here tell us what we need to know. That will be my general approach.
I’ll have us look today at this passage in three points. First, we’ll consider how Satan is the father of lies. In other words, the importance of beginning the armor with truth is recognized when we see how Satan and his demons wield the darkness of deceit and falsehoods. Second, we’ll consider what it means to be girded with truth. Third, we’ll consider Jesus as the one called Faithful and True. In other words, we’ll preach Christ as himself girded in truth and the source for he we can be girded in it too.
Let’s begin with Satan as the father of lies. That is what Jesus calls the devil in John 8:44. Jesus uses that title to describe how Satan lies because that is his character. Satan is a liar and a deceiver. Satan is the embodiment of what is false and behaves accordingly. As John 8:44 says, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” That’s where we saw Satan’s first attack against humanity in this spiritual war we are in. In Genesis 3, that crafty serpent lied to our first parents. The result is that we fell dead into sin and under God’s righteous condemnation.
Let us appreciate that Satan doesn’t label his lies as being false. No, Satan packages up his lies in a way that they become very attractive. That’s what verse 11 has in mind when it speaks of the schemes of the devil. The language of scheming refers to how Satan uses deception and cunning to trick us into believing his lies. Think, for example, how he did that in the Garden. Some of the things that he said there had an element of truth that made his lies more convincing. Satan told them that they wouldn’t die if they ate the fruit. It is true, that they didn’t immediately physically die the moment they ate it. But they spiritually died that day and became subject to physical death. It was but God’s mercy that he didn’t execute them right then and there. Satan also told them that they if they ate the forbidden fruit, they would have their eyes opened and understand good and evil like God. It was true that they did have their eyes opened and came into the knowledge of good and evil. But Satan didn’t tell them the terrible consequences to their soul and their relationship with God because they ate. Indeed, if they had resisted Satan’s temptation and obeyed God, I believe they would have also had their eyes opened and come into a knowledge of good and evil, but from the vantage point of righteousness instead of from the vantage point of sin. We must be on guard against the deceptive allure of Satan’s lies.
To be clear, it is not just Satan who lies. This deceit is common among all the evil spiritual forces we talked about last week. We see this, for example, in 1 Timothy 4:1, where Paul warns of how people will be led astray by deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons. We should not be surprised when some false prophet is able to lure many people over to his lies. Surely, such demonic influences are keeping that false prophet in darkness and using him to peddle their lies.
The application of this first point is to be aware that this spiritual warfare is very much a war against truth. In the bigger picture, the enemy has fought against truth in many ways. Relativism denies that there is any absolute truth. Atheism is a lie when it says there is no God. Agnosticism falsely says we can’t know the truth. Crazily, sometimes great lies are peddled claiming to be scientific truth, when they are not. Morality is increasingly changed from an objective standard to something subjective so that people do what is right in their own eyes instead of submitting to the truth of God’s righteousness. Every cult and false religion out there is an assault against truth. The enemy not only wages a war against truth in this larger scale, he also may wage it to you very personally. The enemy might try to convince you that some evil thing is good for you. The enemy might plague you with doubts about the truth. The enemy wants you to think wrong is right and right is wrong. May we be on guard against all the ways this war on truth comes to us.
This leads us to our second point, to consider how we need to be girded with the truth. How fitting that the first piece of this divine armor is this belt of truth. Our enemy is inherently opposed to the truth, whereas our God is inherently characterized by the truth. As we’ll see, our starting point for becoming equipped for the spiritual warfare is to be girded with the truth that is in Christ Jesus. Here is where I will more specifically deal with what we learn in verse 14 about this belt of truth.
So then, let us first note that the Greek text doesn’t literally use the word belt. Literally, the wording is to “gird your loins in truth”. This is where people like to propose what kind of armor or clothing Paul might have had in mind. Some propose this was the protective leather belt that Roman Soldiers wore that had an apron of protection covering the front of the loins. Others think he had in mind a leather undergarment worn under that for a base layer of protection. Other options have been suggested. But Paul doesn’t give us any of the specific names that these various articles had. Instead, he uses the more common yet colorful language of “girding your loins.” This phrase had become an idiomatic way of saying “prepare yourself for action.” It is rooted in the fact that people typically had long and flowing garments that needed to be gathered and secured around your waist prior to strenuous activity. So, don’t get lost trying to identify this belt of truth with some specific piece of armor that Paul didn’t identify. Rather, take the point as Paul gives is. Spiritual war is before us. We must prepare for the battle by taking up and putting on the armor of God. The first thing you would do is to gird up your loins. Paul says to gird them up with truth.
I hope we can appreciate the obvious that truth is both the defense and offense against the lies of the enemy. Let us also appreciate that the last item in the gospel armor is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. That is closely related to the truth, but has a more specific focus on that special revelation received from God as recorded in the Bible. It also puts it more in offensive categories. But, this first item of the armor begins with the need to prepare for action by being girded with the truth. Whenever and however Satan lies, each falsehood can and should be countered with the truth. If Satan tells you there is no god, the truth tells you that only a fool thinks that. If Satan says you have sinned too many times to be saved, the truth says that Jesus paid it all. If Satan says that following Christ will make you lose out on many fun things, the truth says, “Let me tell you what is truly fun and good and enjoyable, because it isn’t sin.”
Now let me point out that it’s believed that Paul’s reference to girding your loins is an allusion back to Isaiah 11:5. That chapter is speaking about the coming of the Messiah and what he would bring. And so, in a slightly longer version, Isaiah 11:5 says of the Messiah, “Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.” The Greek translation, which Paul appears to reference, translates “faithfulness” as “truth”. That should not surprise us because there is close connection between faithfulness and truth. Faithfulness is to embody the truth in a life of integrity, genuineness, and sincerity. So, when we speak of girding ourselves in truth, we can think about it not only from an academic and mental standpoint, but also in terms of how we live out that truth we’ve come to embrace. To be girded in the truth is not just about believing true things but living in that truth you have come to know.
This contrasts with the common phrase today of “live your truth.” That lie wants you live out what you believe to be true regardless of whether or not it is actually true. You see, Satan wants to so cover your life in darkness that you live what is false, because you have come to believe what is false is “your truth”. But truth is not subjective. The solution is to realize that there is absolute truth, and we learn it in Jesus. As we come to know that, we want to live in that truth which is really truth. And so, we have a Messiah who himself is girded with the light of truth and we can find our strength in him so that we too can be bound up with the truth that is in him.
That leads us to our third point, to consider Jesus, the one called Faithful and True. I have in mind the vision of Revelation 19:11. There, John saw a rider on a white horse. And it says, “The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.” That pictures the future return of Christ when he will come back to destroy all his and our remaining enemies. That complements the Isaiah 11 prophecy I just mentioned. I said Isaiah 11 spoke about the coming of the Messiah, the Christ. But Isaiah 11’s description of the Messiah was the big picture, that spoke both of what Christ began at his first coming and also of what he will conclude at his second coming. Revelation 19 focuses on the conclusion when he returns. But the common denominator in both Jesus’ first coming and his second coming is that he comes in faithfulness and truth.
We saw Jesus girded in faithfulness and truth throughout his ministry. When it began, we remember that he was first tested in the wilderness. There, the father of lies repeatedly perverted the truth of Scripture into lies aimed to lead Jesus into sin. But, in faithfulness and truth, Jesus combatted each lie with divine truth and endured the assaults. The enemy’s attacks continued through his ministry, but especially culminated on the cross. It might be easy to miss how Satan’s lies continued there. But remember all those who taunted him while he hung dying. They mocked him, that if he were the Christ, he should save himself and come down from the cross. Jesus indeed had the power to do so, but would have failed to be our redeemer, if he had. Instead, he endured even that in faithfulness and truth all the way unto death.
Yet death could not hold this faithful and true one. On the third day he rose again and showed himself vindicated in the truth. Before ascending into heaven, he sent his disciples out with his truth to proclaim his name and make disciples of all the nations. This we will continue to do until he returns to finish off this war at the day of his coming. But let us then remember that this means we live right now, in between his first and second coming. It means that we live right now during this spiritual warring that is going on. It means that we need ourselves to be girded in the truth. But let us remember that our passage said we need to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. For us to be girded in the truth does not simply mean that we follow Jesus’ example and look to do what he did when it comes to truth. No, that would still be to be strong in yourself, just modeled after Jesus, which is not something we could ever model in ourselves! No, we are supposed to be strong in Christ.
“Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father, except through me.” We don’t want to just be faithful and true like Jesus. We want to be faithful and true because we are united to Jesus who is the faithful and true one. As Jesus said in John 15, if we abide in Jesus and he abides in us, then we will bear much fruit. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing.
Yet, we don’t even have to go to other books of the Bible to see this point. This theme of knowing truth in Jesus has been a major theme in Ephesians. It was especially discussed back in chapter 4. Ephesians 4:21 said that we learn the truth by Jesus because truth is in Jesus. It contrasts that with how we used to be in spiritual ignorance and darkness, but now we’ve come into the light of truth in Jesus. Ephesians 4:24 goes on to explain how this truth that we have in Jesus produces within us righteousness and holiness as it renews us in the image of God. So, the truth we come to know in Jesus is not only mental knowledge, but that which brings moral transformation in our lives. So, Ephesians says both in 4:15 and 4:25 that this is truth we need to speak to our fellow Christians, so we would all be growing up into fully maturity. Indeed, it says there that this combats the false doctrines and deceitful schemes of the enemy. So, Ephesians 4 already told us so much about how we come to be clothed with this truth as we are united to Christ in faith. We gird ourselves in the truth by growing in our relationship with Christ. As his presence is working within us, we are being girded with the one who himself is the belt of truth.
Trinity Presbyterian Church, gird up your loins with the truth. Prepare yourself for battle by cultivating your relationship with Christ, the faithful and true one. Draw near to Jesus, meditate on his Word, and trust what he says. When the enemy’s lies come, do not entertain them as if they might be true. Bring them into the light of Christ. If Satan tells you that God is not good, remember the cross. If he tells you that sin will satisfy you, remember where sin leads. If he tells you that your sins are too great to be forgiven, remember that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. If he tells you that following Christ is worthless, remember that the risen Christ is coming again to judge the world and bring his people into glory.
And let us not only reject the lies of the enemy, let us seek to live faithful and true lives. By the power of Christ within us, let us seek to live as people of integrity. May what we profess with our mouths be reflected in how we actually live. May we be truthful with ourselves, with one another, and before God. May our yes, be yes, and our no, be no. May the fruit of our union with Jesus indeed see his truth produce righteousness and holiness in us.
Brothers and sisters, we live in an age when the father of lies still schemes and deceives. But his lies will not have the last word. The one called faithful and true has already conquered through his death and resurrection, and he will return to finish the battle. On that day, every lie will be exposed, every deceiver judged, and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. Until that day, stand firm in Christ. Gird up your loins with that truth which is in Christ.
Amen.
Copyright © 2026 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
