SEV Biblia, Chapter 6:14
Estad pues firmes , ceidos vuestros lomos de la verdad, y vestidos de la cota de justicia.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Ephesians 6:14
Verse 14. Stand therefore] Prepare yourselves for combat, having your loins girt about with truth. He had told them before to take the whole armour of God, ver. 13, and to put on this whole armour. Having got all the pieces of it together, and the defensive parts put on, they were then to gird them close to their bodies with the zwma or girdle, and instead of a fine ornamented belt, such as the ancient warriors used, they were to have truth. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth of God; unless this be known and conscientiously believed no man can enter the spiritual warfare with any advantage or prospect of success. By this alone we discover who our enemies are, and how they come on to attack us; and by this we know where our strength lies; and, as the truth is great, and must prevail, we are to gird ourselves with this against all false religion, and the various winds of doctrine by which cunning men and insidious devils lie in wait to deceive. Truth may be taken here for sincerity; for if a man be not conscious to himself that his heart is right before God, and that he makes no false pretences to religion, in vain does he enter the spiritual lists. This alone can give him confidence:- - Hic murus aheneus esto, Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa. Let this he my brazen wall; that no man can reproach me with a crime, and that I am conscious of my own integrity.
The breast-plate of righteousness] What the qwrax or breast- plate was, see before. The word righteousness, dikaisunh, we have often had occasion to note, is a word of very extensive import: it signifies the principle of righteousness; it signifies the practice of righteousness, or living a holy life; it signifies God's method of justifying sinners; and it signifies justification itself. Here it may imply a consciousness of justification through the blood of the cross; the principle of righteousness or true holiness implanted in the heart; and a holy life, a life regulated according to the testimonies of God. As the breast-plate defends the heart and lungs, and all those vital functionaries that are contained in what is called the region of the thorax; so this righteousness, this life of God in the soul of man, defends every thing on which the man's spiritual existence depends. While he possesses this principle, and acts from it, his spiritual and eternal life is secure.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 14. Stand therefore , &c.] Keep your ground, do not desert the army, the church of Christ, nor his cause; continue in the station in which you are placed, keep your post, be upon your watch, stand upon your guard: having your loins girt about with truth ; by which is meant the Gospel, and the several doctrines of it; (see Ephesians 1:13 4:15); and to have the loins girt with it, shows, that it should be near and close to the saints, and never departed from; and that it is a means of keeping them close to God and Christ, and of strengthening them against the assaults and attacks of Satan; and is of great use in the Christians' spiritual conflict with their enemies; the girdle is a part of armour, and so considerable as sometimes to be put for the whole, ( Isaiah 5:27); and here it is mentioned in the first place: and having on the breastplate of righteousness ; in allusion to ( Isaiah 59:17), meaning not works of righteousness done by men, though these are a fence when rightly used against the reproaches and charges of the enemy, as they were by Samuel, ( 1 Samuel 12:3), but rather the graces of faith and love, ( 1 Thessalonians 5:8), though faith has another place in the Christian armour, afterwards mentioned; wherefore it seems best to understand this of the righteousness of Christ, which being imputed by God, and received by faith, is a guard against, and repels the accusations and charges of Satan, and is a security from all wrath and condemnation.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 10-18 - Spiritual strength and courage are needed for our spiritual warfare an suffering. Those who would prove themselves to have true grace, mus aim at all grace; and put on the whole armour of God, which he prepare and bestows. The Christian armour is made to be worn; and there is n putting off our armour till we have done our warfare, and finished ou course. The combat is not against human enemies, nor against our ow corrupt nature only; we have to do with an enemy who has a thousan ways of beguiling unstable souls. The devils assault us in the thing that belong to our souls, and labour to deface the heavenly image in our hearts. We must resolve by God's grace, not to yield to Satan Resist him, and he will flee. If we give way, he will get ground. If we distrust either our cause, or our Leader, or our armour, we give his advantage. The different parts of the armour of heavy-armed soldiers who had to sustain the fiercest assaults of the enemy, are her described. There is none for the back; nothing to defend those who tur back in the Christian warfare. Truth, or sincerity, is the girdle. Thi girds on all the other pieces of our armour, and is first mentioned There can be no religion without sincerity. The righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, is a breastplate against the arrows of Divin wrath. The righteousness of Christ implanted in us, fortifies the hear against the attacks of Satan. Resolution must be as greaves, or armou to our legs; and to stand their ground or to march forward in rugge paths, the feet must be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Motives to obedience, amidst trials, must be drawn from a clea knowledge of the gospel. Faith is all in all in an hour of temptation Faith, as relying on unseen objects, receiving Christ and the benefit of redemption, and so deriving grace from him, is like a shield, defence every way. The devil is the wicked one. Violent temptations, by which the soul is set on fire of hell, are darts Satan shoots at us Also, hard thoughts of God, and as to ourselves. Faith applying the word of God and the grace of Christ, quenches the darts of temptation Salvation must be our helmet. A good hope of salvation, a Scriptura expectation of victory, will purify the soul, and keep it from being defiled by Satan. To the Christian armed for defense in battle, the apostle recommends only one weapon of attack; but it is enough, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. It subdues and mortifie evil desires and blasphemous thoughts as they rise within; and answer unbelief and error as they assault from without. A single text, wel understood, and rightly applied, at once destroys a temptation or a objection, and subdues the most formidable adversary. Prayer mus fasten all the other parts of our Christian armour. There are othe duties of religion, and of our stations in the world, but we must kee up times of prayer. Though set and solemn prayer may not be seasonabl when other duties are to be done, yet short pious prayers darted out always are so. We must use holy thoughts in our ordinary course. A vai heart will be vain in prayer. We must pray with all kinds of prayer public, private, and secret; social and solitary; solemn and sudden with all the parts of prayer; confession of sin, petition for mercy and thanksgiving for favours received. And we must do it by the grac of God the Holy Spirit, in dependence on, and according to, his teaching. We must preserve in particular requests, notwithstandin discouragements. We must pray, not for ourselves only, but for all saints. Our enemies are mighty, and we are without strength, but ou Redeemer is almighty, and in the power of his mighty we may overcome Wherefore we must stir up ourselves. Have not we, when God has called often neglected to answer? Let us think upon these things, and continu our prayers with patience. (Eph 6:19-24)
Greek Textus Receptus
στητε 2476 5628 ουν 3767 περιζωσαμενοι 4024 5671 την 3588 οσφυν 3751 υμων 5216 εν 1722 αληθεια 225 και 2532 ενδυσαμενοι 1746 5671 τον 3588 θωρακα 2382 της 3588 δικαιοσυνης 1343
Vincent's NT Word Studies
14. Having your loins girt about (perizwsamenoi thn osfun). The verb is middle, not passive. Rev., correctly, having girded. Compare Isaiah xi. 5. The principal terms in this description of the christian armor are taken from the Septuagint of Isaiah.
Truth (alhqeia). The state of the heart answering to God's truth; inward, practical acknowledgment of the truth as it is in Him: the agreement of our convictions with God's revelation.
The loins encircled by the girdle form the central point of the physical system. Hence, in Scripture, the loins are described as the seat of power. "To smite through the loins" is to strike a fatal blow. "To lay affliction upon the loins" is to afflict heavily. Here was the point of junction for the main pieces of the body-armor, so that the girdle formed the common bond of the whole. Truth gives unity to the different virtues, and determinateness and consistency to character. All the virtues are exercised within the sphere of truth.
Breastplate of righteousness (qwraka thv dikaiosunhv). Compare Isa. lix. 17. Righteousness is used here in the sense of moral rectitude. In 1 Thess. v. 8, the breastplate is described as of faith and love. Homer speaks of light-armed warriors armed with linen corsets; and these were worn to much later times by Asiatic soldiers, and were occasionally adopted by the Romans. Thus Suetonius says of Galba, that on the day on which he was slain by Otho's soldiers, he put on a linen corset, though aware that it would avail little against the enemy's daggers ("Galba," 19.). Horn was used for this purpose by some of the barbarous nations. It was cut into small pieces, which were fastened like scales upon linen shirts. Later, the corset of metal scales fastened upon leather or linen, or of flexible bands of steel folding over each other, was introduced. They appear on Roman monuments of the times of the emperors. The Roman spearmen wore cuirasses of chain-mail. Virgil mentions those in which the linked rings were of gold ("Aeneid," iii., 467). The stiff cuirass called stadiov standing upright, because, when placed upon its lower edge it stood erect, consisted of two parts: the breastplate, made of hard leather, bronze, or iron, and a corresponding plate covering the back. They were connected by leathern straps or metal bands passing over the shoulders and fastened in front, and by hinges on the right side.
The breastplate covers the vital parts, as the heart,
Robertson's NT Word Studies
6:14 {Stand therefore} (stete oun). Second aorist active imperative of histemi (intransitive like the others). Ingressive aorist here, "Take your stand therefore" (in view of the arguments made). {Having girded your loins with truth} (perizwsamenoi ten osfun humwn en aleqeiai). First aorist middle participle (antecedent action) of perizwnnuw, old verb, to gird around, direct middle (gird yourselves) in #Lu 12:37; but indirect here with accusative of the thing, "having girded your own loins." So endusamenoi (having put on) is indirect middle participle. {The breast-plate of righteousness} (ton qwraka tes dikaiosunes). Old word for breast and qen for breastplate. Same metaphor of righteousness as breastplate in #1Th 5:8.
