the belt of truth

Written for the church newsletter.

Our journey through the armor of God (Ephesians 6:13-17, introduced last month) begins with the belt of truth.  Having come of age in the midst of the unfortunate sartorial phenomenon known as “sagging,” I’m fairly well placed to comment on the importance of belts.  Belts protect us from exposure.  They also protect those unlucky enough to be on the receiving end. 

Wandering around belt-free causes all sorts of problems.  I’ll leave the literal concerns to your imagination (and my apologies for the resulting mental images).  I would suggest, however, that walking around without our metaphorical belts can be even more damaging.

Without our belts of truth, we run the risk of exposing ourselves to every false notion that comes our way.  We lack the capacity to discern truth from lies.  Worse yet, we may then expose others to the lies we are unable to discern.  Untruths spread and compound the damage we have already caused ourselves.

Where can we find the belts of truth that will keep us from this exposure?  First, last, and always, we look to the Word.  Lutherans are very big on the Word, and with good reason; as John tells us in the first verse of his gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Was God.  That’s pretty amazing.

Note John doesn’t talk about “words.”  John asserts that the Word in its entirety reveals God to us.  Cherry-picking verses isn’t going to fly here.  Furthermore, John reminds us that God speaks God’s Word through all of Creation.  Chapter 1, verse 3: “All things came into being through [the Word], and without [the Word] not one thing came into being.”  God speaks through the Bible; God also speaks through the world and through the God-gifted reason of the people God has created.

To don our “belts of truth,” we must do our best to come to terms with the entire story of God’s work in this world in all its complexity.  We recognize our flawed humanity, as well as the flawed humanity of those who have committed the Word of God to paper over the centuries.  We acknowledge that our comprehension of the “Word” must be leavened with a healthy dose of prayer for discernment, lest we lead ourselves (or others) astray.  After all, we don’t want our “belts” to be those flimsy little things that get lost in one’s belt loops.  I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer tooled leather, preferably with one of those cool cowboy buckles that looks like it could withstand being run over by a tank.

Then and only then, pants firmly hitched, are we ready to don the rest of the armor God has given us.  I suspect it’s vital that the Word comes first.  Only then will we have a foundation firm enough to hold up everything else that’s coming our way.