Justice is Based on God's Truth

Therefore, stand firm, having been girded about your waist with truth, and having been clothed with the breastplate of justice,

Ephesians 6:14

In this passage, Paul speaks of our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spirits of evil in the high places. He then tells the Ephesians to “take up the armor of God so we can stand against the evil day and remain perfect in all things.”

Then Paul begins enumerating the components of the armor of God. He begins with the truth being girded around our waist. The belt is what keeps the armor together. It keeps what protects us firm. Truth does the same thing. It keeps gives us the right perspective. Satan knows once truth is gone, the whole armor falls apart. This is happening today where everyone has his own truth and does their own thing. When everyone has his own truth, everyone becomes his own god which is why we we are in such a mess today.

The second thing in the armor if the breastplate of justice. Some translates this as breastplate of righteousness. A search about justice shows an entry in wikipedia about Tzedakah. According to Wikipedia, Tzedakah is a Hebrew word that literally means justice or righteousness which is an obligation to do what is right and just. It is related to giving donations which even to poor are called to do. It is doing the right thing even if it hurts.

Since Paul was a Jew, I think this is what he means by righteousness when he wrote these words. The breastplate of righteousness or justice then is doing the right and just thing. The breastplate covers the heart. The Jewish Encyclopedia defines the heart as the “seat of emotional an intellectual life.” The heart rules our emotions and thoughts. The breastplate then protects our emotions and thoughts so that we do what is just and right even if it is against our emotions and reason. We do not do something because we feel like it or because our reason tells us to do so. But we do something because it is the right and just thing to do based on the truth from God’s perspective.

Truth and justice then go hand in hand. Without God’s truth, there can be no justice because justice has to be based on truth, not on any human ideology or philosophy, but on God’s word.

Lord, open our eyes to your truth so we may do what is right and just.