Therefore,
stand firm, having been girded about your waist with truth, and
having been clothed with the breastplate of justice,
Ephesians 6:14
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.
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