For this reason take [to you] the panoply of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having accomplished all things, to stand.
Verse 13 repeats the command of verse 11, but now it follows a hard look at the enemy: unseen powers, not human opponents. So what makes a day "the evil day", and why is the goal of all this fighting simply to stand?
Notice first whose armour this is:
The first thing to notice is that the Holy Spirit calls on us to take up the full armour of God. Neither the strength nor the wisdom of man is of any use in this conflict. Since we have to do with the hosts of Satan on the one hand, we need on the other "the whole armour of God." Our natural character and habits may not matter where the Spirit of God is at work to save our souls in His grace. But they matter greatly in the presence of a foe who knows how to take advantage of every unguarded opening.
None of this armour protects us from God. He gives it for use on His side:
It is of the greatest importance for us to understand that this armour is given to us on God's part, given to the Christian by God so that he may be for God in the very place where the wiles of the devil are at work. Not one bit of the armour is against God, not one bit of it stands between the soul and Him. God puts Himself, as it were, behind the armour, as if He said, "I am here behind the armour with you."
Being a Christian and being armed are two different things:
The armour has to be "put on." It by no means follows that because we are Christians we have put on the armour. It remains with us to put it on. It is not enough to look at the armour, or to admire it, or to be able to describe it; we must "put on the whole armour of God."
And it is the whole armour. A partial outfit is an invitation:
Here the apostle repeats the exhortation of verse 11. His own mind is deeply impressed with the frightful array of our foes... "Therefore take to yourselves the whole armour of God." No part must be left unguarded. The enemy knows how to take advantage of the smallest opening.
The phrase carries two layers:
In a general sense the whole period of Christ's absence is an "evil day" for the believer. There are, however, occasions when the enemy makes special attacks upon the people of God, seeking to rob them of special truths. Such attacks constitute for the people of God an evil day. To meet these we need to have on the whole armour of God.
One writer describes what such a season looks like, and how it ends:
But there are moments when this power is allowed to show itself in a more particular way. The enemy then uses the world against the saints. He darkens the light which shines in it from God, and he troubles and leads astray the minds of professing Christians and even of believers. Our part is to do all that the confession of His name requires, whatever it costs, and to be found standing when the storm and the evil day are past.
A soul still unsure whether God is for him has no strength to spare for the fight:
The season of conflict is not the time for putting on the armour. If I am merely trying to grasp and get hold of Christ while in conflict, I cannot have peace of soul. Then there will be no power "to withstand in the evil day." ... You will never fight Satan with energy so long as you are asking, "Am I on the Lord's side or not?" "Is God for me or against me?"
The most dangerous hour can be the one after a victory:
How often the victory of faith is too great for the faith that won it! A believer who has defeated the enemy for a long time, and freshly too, may tire of the struggle and turn aside into a path that looks easier. He then proves his own folly and his very great danger, even if in the end God delivers him by pure mercy. So resisting is not enough. "Having done all," having finished everything required, we are still "to stand."
This is a fight to keep ground, not to conquer it:
We are in possession of our place, and our business is to hold it... It is not a matter of gaining ground on Satan as if he were in possession. The object of the enemy is to turn us away from this by whatever trick and manoeuvre. So in conflict the matter is to stand against the wiles, and having done all to stand.
- Take — the armour is God's, not ours; human ability contributes nothing against unseen powers.
- Take all of it — the whole armour, because the enemy looks for a single unguarded opening.
- Take it early — arm before the attack, never in the middle of the struggle.
- Withstand — "the evil day" is both this whole age and the particular seasons when the enemy's power presses hard.
- Stand — after the fight is won, we still have to hold the ground; the goal is to be found standing when the storm has passed.
Stand therefore, having girt about your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
The verse names the first two pieces of the armour, and a soldier puts both on before the fight starts. The quotes below use the older wording, "the loins girded," for what the ESV calls "the belt of truth" — a belt that braces the body for action.
One writer warns against reading "stand" here as a description of our place before God.
The true sense of these words supposes not only a settled position, but the soul in activity at the call of the Holy Spirit. Much harm has come from treating this passage as if it were about standing. It is something quite different. It is practical arming and conflict. It rests on the most blessed standing anywhere revealed in the New Testament, and it makes a fitting close to the letter that reveals that standing.
Another writer names the one place where no armour is needed, and what the belt grips here.
Before God our righteousness is perfect. It is Christ Himself, and we are the righteousness of God in Him. But we do not need armour there. We are sitting in the heavenly places: all is peace, all is perfect. But here we need armour, real practical armour, and first of all to have the loins girded with truth. The loins are the place of strength when they are properly girded, but they stand for the intimate affections and movements of the heart. If we let our hearts wander where they like, instead of staying in communion with God, Satan has an easy hold on us.
The picture behind the words comes from clothing and from soldiering at once.
Girding means applying truth to the soul. The word deals closely with the will and with the movements of the heart. This is arming for conflict in a most practical and effective way. But we must do it in the presence of God, before we meet the enemy. The soldier's belt holds the rest of his armour close to him, so he can march and is strong to fight... There is also a reference to an eastern custom. People there tied their long loose robes up around the waist, so the cloth would not get in the way while they travelled or worked.
Owning the truth and being held by it are two different things.
To know the truth and be set free by the truth is one thing; to have our loins girded with truth is another. It is the intimate dealing of truth with the soul, so that there is no laxity of heart or indulged will, but instead the affections and judgment braced up to Christ and the things of Christ.
Which is why a shelf of sound teaching is not by itself a defence.
Girding up the loins means getting ready for action. Truth is to set the limits of all we do. The truth is to govern us. God gives us the truth, but we must put it on... God's word is truth. But the truth in the Bible will not defend us. What defends us is truth applied in a practical way to all we do.
The second piece covers uprightness in daily life. Where it is missing, the enemy attacks.
The breastplate of righteousness is not divine righteousness. It is uprightness of heart before Him, a clear conscience in simple uprightness in what we are doing... There is no good conscience without it. If you do not have a good conscience, Satan soon knows you have a bad one. He will touch you on that point and play on it, for he is a master of tricks.
Yet the two kinds of righteousness are not rivals — one rests on the other.
The righteousness we have been speaking about is quite different from the righteousness of God. In that righteousness we stand accepted in Christ Jesus. He is our righteousness, complete and unchangeable in the presence of God — but not as a breastplate. All conflict is over there. Here we still need practical righteousness, so that we can fight our enemy the devil and win. Still, the righteousness of God which we are made in Christ Jesus is the foundation of the other.
Truth is named first because the second piece depends on it.
This armour is not like the armour people once wore on the battlefield. An armourer made that armour for them, and they put it on when they were about to fight. You put this armour on from the inside, like the feathers of a bird. It all has to do with our practical state. So if truth has not girded your loins, you will never wear the armour of righteousness, because this is practical righteousness.
- Standing first. The armour does not win a place before God. Those already sitting in the heavenly places wear it, to hold their ground against Satan.
- Belted inwardly. Truth grips the affections and the will, the way a belt gathers loose robes. We fasten it in God's presence, before the enemy appears.
- Worn, not shelved. Truth in the Bible defends no one; truth applied to our actual habits does.
- Covered outwardly. Practical righteousness guards the conscience. It grows out of the righteousness God has already made us in Christ.
- In that order. We put this armour on from the inside out: no truth within, no righteousness without, and no ground held when the enemy comes.