Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Parallel translations
- WEB Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
- BSB Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed,
- NKJV Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
- NASB Stand firm therefore, having belted your waist with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
- NLT Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The first pieces of armor are truth, like a belt holding everything together, and righteousness, like a breastplate guarding the heart. It matters because integrity and right standing protect the believer's core.
Overview
Drawing on Old Testament imagery of the LORD and his Messiah as a warrior (cf. Isaiah 11:5; 59:17), Paul applies God's own armor to the believer. The belt of truth speaks of sincerity and commitment to God's revealed truth that holds one's life together; the breastplate of righteousness guards the vital organs. Faithful Christians have noted this includes both the imputed righteousness of Christ that is our standing and the practical righteousness of a holy life that gives no foothold to the enemy.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Isa 59:17For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
- 1 Th 5:8But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
- Isa 11:5And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
- Luke 12:35Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;
- 2 Cor 6:7By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
- 1 Pet 1:13Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
- Eph 5:9(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
- Rev 9:17And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
- Rev 9:9And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
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Christ at the center
Every spiritual blessing is 'in Christ,' the head over all things for the church, in whom Jew and Gentile are made one new man by his blood.
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Original language
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