What it means to gird up your loins – Belt of Truth, Part 2

Have you ever heard the phrase, “gird up your loins”?  It’s not a phrase we say much anymore, but it relates to the first piece of the Armor of God, the Belt of Truth.

But when you hear “gird up your loins,” it doesn’t sound like it is referring to armor.  Obviously the translators of the New International Version of the Bible thought the phrase “gird up your loins” referred to a belt (as we learned in the previous post), but before we get to making that connection, what do you think “gird up your loins means”?

Think about steel girder beams.  There we have a connection: gird and girder beams.  In my 21 years at Faith Church, our church portico has been hit by vehicles at least six times.  Each time, a vehicle did not fit under the portico, crashed into it, doing various degrees of damage.  Three of the six were really bad, and of those three, two required major work. 

The most recent one was about six years ago, and the vehicle hit the portico so hard, it bent the metal girder on the north side of the portico.  The construction company had to remove the girder, and you could see the bent steel.  But we didn’t need to see the girder to know that the damage was bad.  The portico was leaning over on its side.  Steel girders provide stability and strength.  They hold up the weight and form of the whole building. 

That’s what girding refers to.

But what about girding up your loins?  What are loins?  Our loins refers to our torso area.  Our core.  The center of our strength.  So when you gird up your loins for ancient warfare, you put on your belt.  In so doing you strengthen and support your core, providing an anchor for other pieces of armor. 

So the phrase “gird up your loins,” while very much a picture, is a figurative concept of what is central.  It’s a way of saying, “Get ready.  Prepare!”  If you want to stand against the enemy, it is of utmost importance that you get ready.

Put your belt on.  If you are a belt wearer, perhaps you know the feeling.  You may be so used to wearing belts, that you feel unprepared without one.  Your pants could fall down, your shirt could easily come untucked, your phone might not have a place to clip into.

What is Paul is saying, then, is this: when it comes to the very real spiritual warfare in the world, it is absolutely central to prepare yourselves by girding yourselves with truth. 

This is possibly a throwback to the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, who wrote in Isaiah 11:5 describing the Messiah.  “Righteousness will be his belt.”

That word “righteousness” in the Hebrew has many sides to it.  What is right, what is correct, what is honest.  What is true.  The Messiah will be gird his loins in/with truth. 

Which is precisely what we read in the New Testament about the Messiah.  In John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Then consider John 14:6, “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”

Jesus is truth.  He is the embodiment of truth.  When we gird ourselves in/with truth, we center our lives on Jesus, on his heart, his teachings, his way. 

Jesus once taught in John 8:32, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Jesus is saying that he is the truth, and Jesus is the only one that can set people free. 

We need Jesus.  He is the truth. We gird our loins in the truth, or with the truth, by grounding our lives in Jesus.

Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash