Truth Like a Belt

[T]ake ... the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, ... having your loins girt about with truth ..." - Ephesians 6:13-14a

We judge our needs by our best days but God warns us to prepare for our worst, when peace is not found, escape is not possible, and God seems distant.

Eight things are listed as essential armoury for evil days and first on the list is truth.

"Girding the loins" was putting on a waist belt,¹ it holds everything in place. "Truth", here, means, "not concealing". We can't stand in an evil day if we are a deceptive person. More than just confessing our sins before God, we need to be honest in our daily living.

If we are committed to honesty when no one is looking we will have nothing to fear from even the most intense scrutiny.

- fritz

^{1 - Mark 1:6}

Mercy and Truth Meet in Christ

"Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. - Psalm 85:10

"Truth" and "Righteousness" don't naturally lead to "Mercy" and "Peace".

Truth is that every one of us have done selfish and ungodly deeds. Righteousness demands wrongs to be made right, and we don't have the wherewithal to comply.

We can not bring back the dead, can't restored ruined reputations, can't unhurt or put back what we have wasted.

But Christ, Jesus, can and he has. In Christ righteousness and peace "kiss" and make up. He has paid for our sin, he can heal the hurt, take the wrong and make it work to every one's good.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ - Romans 5:1

- fritz

Telling the Truth About Oneself

The heart is deceitful ... who can know it?" - Jeremiah 17:9

"[A] man can not tell the whole truth about himself, even if convinced that what he wrote would never be seen by others"- Samuel Clemens¹

Search me, O God, and know my heart: ... know my thoughts ... and lead me in the way everlasting.-Psalm 139:23-24

- fritz

1 - "Mark Twain's Bequest," London Times, 23 May 1899 as quoted in Autobiography of Mark Twain Volume 1 edited by Harriet Elinor Smith, 2010

Confusion more from prejudice than logic

Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things. - Proverbs 28:5

Confusion is caused more by prejudice than logic. Unwillingness to release precious ideas, pride, or action(inaction) prevent an honest assessment. That honest assessment is all God is asking.

Truth can be discovered by those who want to know and who are willing to act on what they learn.

"Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own." - Jesus (John 7:17 New Living Translation)

Dallas Willard, in his book, "Renovation of the Heart" makes this point:

"[T]he confusion now publicly prevailing over the makeup of the human being may not be due to its inherent obscurity. Rather, it may be due to the fact that it is a field where strongly armed prejudices—assumptions about what must be the case, “don’t bother me with facts”—prevent even well-intended people from seeing what, at least in basic outline, is fairly obvious, simple, and straightforward".¹

- fritz

^{1 - Renovations of the Heart NavPress, Copyright 2002, pg 30}