The Girdle of Truth
William Gouge. Ephesians 6:14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 1. Different kinds of truth. (1) Truth of judgment. When a man's judgment agrees with God's Word which is the touchstone of truth. (2) Truth of heart. When a man seeks to approve himself to God, the searcher of all hearts, and to be accepted of Him. (3) Truth of speech. Agreement of the word of a man's mouth, both with his mind and also with what he utters. (4) Truth of action. Plain, faithful, and honest dealing in all things. 2. The kind of truth here mentioned embraces each and all of these branches. 3. The fitness of the comparison of truth to a girdle. (1) Truth is the best ornament to religion. (2) The greatest strength. 4. Reasons for desiring truth. (1) Its excellence. (a) It makes us like God. (b) It is a kind of perfection in all Christian graces. (2) Its necessity. Without it, no other grace can be of any use. (3) The benefit of truth. The least measure of grace, seasoned with it, is acceptable to God and so profitable to us. 5. The devil will try to wrest truth from us. 6. The more truth is opposed, the faster we should cling to it. Let us do with this and other pieces of spiritual armour, as men do with their cloaks, which cover their bodies; if the wind blow hard against them, they will so much the faster and closer hold their cloaks. Even so, the more Satan strives to deprive us of our spiritual robes, the more careful and steadfast ought we to be in keeping them. In particular, for this girdle of verity, it is so much the more highly to be accounted of by us, who are the Lord's faithful soldiers, by how much the less reckoning is made thereof by the greater number of people. (William Gouge.) Parallel Verses KJV: Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; WEB: Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,