Our enemies realized our belts were weak.

The belt of truth, like the sword of the spirit, can be used on offense as we do battle with our spiritual enemies. We need the belt of truth to move swiftly and nimbly as we engage our enemies. Without it, our attempts at swordplay are futile. We will stumble and trip and even fall down when we engage our enemies if our belt is not up to the task. 

We live in a world that has become especially adept at aiming for our belts. Our enemies seek to slice, tear, and undo our belts of truth so they can out maneuver us and finish us off. 

It might seem strange to talk about the belt of truth being weak or susceptible to attack. How could truth ever be vulnerable? It is not truth that we must worry about, but it is our knowledge of the truth that we must tend to. If truth is to keep us from stumbling, how can it do that if we are unaware of it? 

While truth is unassailable, the belt we construct from it is not. Truth is something we must come to know in our own hearts and minds. Until we know and understand truth, it cannot serve in our belt. 

Christians need belts that are robust, sturdy, reinforced, and capable of surviving assault so our opponent cannot take away our own agility. A mere bit of twine clumsily tied around our waist will not do. Neither will a belt designed to only be fashionable by the standards of the world. We would seriously question the sanity of a soldier who trades their utility belt for a designer Gucci belt. 

Truth supplies unbreakable material, and it is up to use to craft a belt from it that will endure all attacks we may encounter. If we were Roman soldiers, we might say that we must craft a belt from the toughest leather, reinforce it with hardened metal that will protect the leather, and bind our belt together with an unbreakable clasp. 

But what does this mean?

To understand why Paul thinks of truth as a belt, we should think carefully about what Paul means by truth in Ephesians 6. The word Paul uses is aletheia. At its most basic level, ‘aletheia’ means something which is true which we believe, but it also means having a well developed understanding and clear view of what is true. Here we have a distinction between believing truth and having a clear understanding if it. Also related to aleitheia is having a mind that is unafflicted by false beliefs or lies. It is possible to believe true things but for falsehoods to undermine or weaken belief in true things. 

Now we can start connecting these ideas to the analogy of a good, strong belt. 

We can think of having a clear, thorough view of truth as the leather holding our belt together. It is the essential core of the thing. The clearer our view of what is true, the more in depth our understanding, the tougher the the leather will be.

Having only a vague idea that Jesus loves you and died for you is the bare minimum of truth a Christian must possess. Such a belief by itself amounts only to a string tied around one’s waist. It will fail to hold up when our enemies put it to the test. 

So what would make for “good leather”? We must not be content to only believe Jesus died for our sins. We must build up our belts with the knowledge of who God is, what He has done, who we are before Him, what role models he has given us, and how He has commanded us to live. We must carefully study the truth handed down to us in scripture and have it committed to memory so it will be there to hold our belt together when our enemies tug and pull. 

We must carefully study not only what the Bible says, but also what it means. This graduates us from just seeing truth, to seeing truth clearly and rigorously. Knowing what the Bible says but not carefully studying what it means leaves the fabric in one’s belt quite vulnerable to becoming distorted and the message of what God has said susceptible to bad interpretation and misuse. 

Satisfying this requirement is only part of the story. Even at its strongest, leather is still vulnerable. It can be cut. It can be stretched. It can be afflicted by external forces no matter how thick and tough it is. The leather must be reinforced to withstand external affliction. 

The same can be said of our minds. Aleitheia partly means having an unafflicted mind, and so we must address the things that afflict our minds if we are to have a sufficiently strong belt of truth. 

What sorts of things afflict our minds? The list can include false beliefs and doubts which are borne from sincere questions.  

Which questions and doubts might undermine our beliefs? That is, tear and tug at our belts? Here are some of the common ones: 

Does the Bible endorse slavery? Why should we listen to the Bible if it goes against our sexual preferences? How do we know it’s accurate? How do we know it is true? How do we know it is written by the people we say it was written by, and how do we know they’re inspired by God? Isn’t the Bible full of errors and contradictions? Why believe Christianity rather than any other religion? Why believe there’s a god when there’s so much pain and suffering in the world? Wouldn’t he make himself more obvious if he existed?

These are a handful out of the hundreds of questions that can severely afflict the minds of believers and unbelievers alike. No matter how clear and carefully we tend to our knowledge of the Bible, any one of these questions poses a danger of completely severing the leather we have so carefully conditioned. 

The world supplies answers to these questions that slash and cut at our belts. We could try ignoring such questions, but that does nothing to change that our belt is being cut to shreds in the meantime. 

This is an urgent concern. How often do believers stumble, stutter, and even fall entirely because their mind came to be afflicted by such questions? How many times has evangelism been frustrated because a Christian went into battle with a belt that could not hold up to the strain under which it was put by a culture constantly hacking away at it?

We must reinforce our belts to withstand such attacks. Truth offers unbreakable metal to attach at the points where our belt seems most attacked. We must make full use of that truth. 

Mending the cuts in our belts with mere thread will not do. It is less work, but it comes apart far too easily. We do exactly that when we seek to mend the damage done by hard questions with easy but inadequate answers or responses. Providing inadequate answers, or trying to avoid giving answers altogether, to the most afflicting questions will not hold up when combat ensues. Our beliefs cannot just be deeply felt. They must be tightly bound together with the strength that only an adequate knowledge of the truth can provide. 

Imagine how quickly and effectively the church will charge through our world when we are no longer stumbling over ourselves. Think of the beauty of the body of Christ mercilessly parrying every attack the world and the devil can throw at it. Think of the Church rescuing those who have been taken hostage and ensnared in webs of falsehoods and lies the world has presented to them as truth. 

 Imagine those things, then realize that in most cases such imaginings are not accurate to the world we live in. How many believers have mere threads for a belt because they have not applied their minds to truth? How many live in fear that the cuts and slashes in their belt will undo it altogether? How many Christians avoid evangelism because their opponent immediately exploits the weaknesses in their belt and leaves them paralyzed in their duel?

The weak belts of Christians are leaving them in miserable battles. Rather than being agile champions quickly dispensing with the futile attacks of the enemy, Christians are falling down on the battlefield as their shield, helmet, and breastplate absorb blow after brutal blow - growing weaker and more distorted with each swing from the enemy. The helmet of salvation may not ultimately fail, but time and again the shield and breastplate have proven to shatter under unrelenting assaults when the believer is unable to move out of the way. Meanwhile, the Christian’s shoes of peace just sink farther into the mud on the battlefield, becoming more obscured and tarnished, as the believer struggles to even deflect the enemy’s attacks without being able to move and counter. 

Christians can do better. We must do better. Our enemies realized our belts were weak. They exploited it. We must regroup in humility before Christ, fashion unbreakable belts of truth worthy of our mission, and return to the battlefield with a righteous resolve fueled by love for the souls that will otherwise be damned.