Let me, this morning, explain St. Paul's words to you, one by one.
We shall find them full of lessons--and right wholesome lessons--for
in this parable of the armour of God St. Paul sketches what you and I
and every man should be. He sketches the character of a good man, a
true man, a man after God's own heart.
First, the Christians are to gird their loins--to cover the lower
part of their body, which is the most defenceless. That the Roman
soldier did with a kilt, much like that which the Highlanders wear
now. And that garment was to be Truth. Truthfulness, honesty, that
was to be the first defence of a Christian man, instead of being, as
too many so-called Christians make it, the very last. Honesty,
before all other virtues, was to gird his very loins, was to protect
his very vitals.
The breastplate, which covered the upper part of the body, was to be
righteousness--which we now commonly call, justice. To be a just
man, after being first a truthful man, was the Christian's duty.
And his helmet was to be the hope of Salvation--that is, of safety:
not merely of being saved in the next world--though of course St.
Paul includes that--but of being saved in this world; of coming safe
through the battle of life; of succeeding; of conquering the heathen
round them, and making them Christians, instead of being conquered by
them.
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