Ephesians 6:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"Having girded," says Paul, "your loins with truth." The meaning of these words was explained in the previous homily. It is this: we must become so light that nothing hinders our pilgrimage.

"And having put on the breastplate of righteousness." As a breastplate protects from wounds, so righteousness saves us. Here he calls the whole virtuous life righteousness. Many, of course, inflict wounds upon it. Yet no one can ever strike it down or overthrow it, not even the devil himself.

It is as though he said: implant righteous deeds in your breast. Of such people Christ also says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied" (Mt 5:6). Whoever has fenced his heart with righteousness is as strong as a breastplate. Such a man will never be swept away by anger.

Having arranged this army and awakened in it a martial spirit, Paul then encourages it and finally arms it. Both were necessary: not only soldiers, but a martial spirit in them. Encouragement was also necessary.

There will be no benefit from weapons if soldiers have not first been gathered, and courage has not been stirred in their souls. They must first be armed inwardly, and only then outwardly.

If this is true of soldiers who fight against external enemies, it is much more true of spiritual soldiers. Their proper armor is not external, but wholly inward. The Apostle awakened and inflamed their courage. He gave them boldness and set them in good order. Then he armed them.

But see how he clothes them in the very armor. "Stand therefore," he says. The first task of those in formation is to know how to stand well. Much depends on this. Therefore the Apostle often speaks about the need to stand.

Thus elsewhere he says, "Watch, stand firm" (1 Cor 16:13). Again, "Stand fast thus in the Lord" (Phil 4:1). And again, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor 10:12). He also says, "that you may be able to withstand all."

Notice that he is not speaking of any ordinary standing, but of standing in proper order. Those experienced in military affairs understand what it means to know how to stand.

If trainers first teach boxers and wrestlers the art of standing, this is far more necessary in battles and military affairs generally. Whoever stands upright stands without distraction and without leaning toward anything. Strict uprightness is seen in standing.

Thus those who are truly upright stand. Those who do not stand do not preserve an upright posture. They are distracted and give themselves over to wandering thoughts. The man who seeks pleasures is not upright, but bent over. The same is true of the sensual man and the lover of money.

For one who knows how to stand, standing itself can serve as a kind of support. Everything pertaining to the struggle will appear easy to him.

"Stand therefore," he says, "having girded your loins with truth." The Apostle is not speaking of a bodily girding. Here he speaks figuratively. Notice what he does: first he clothes the soldier with a belt.

What does this mean? He restrains the distracted man who is given over to desires and whose thoughts are turned downward. He does this by girding him, so that the garments covering his shins do not hinder him. Thus his feet are given full freedom to run.

"Stand therefore," he says, "having girded your loins." He speaks here of the loins because they are for us what the keel is for ships. They support the whole body. According to physicians, they form the foundation, and on this foundation the whole body is built.

When he girds the loins, he thereby strengthens our soul. He does not mean bodily loins, but loins in the spiritual sense. Just as the bodily loins serve as a foundation for the lower and upper parts of the body, so also do the spiritual loins.

Often the sick support themselves by placing their hands upon them as upon a prop. The belt is also used in war to preserve and protect our foundation. We gird ourselves so that we may run more easily. This secures our strength.

Let the same thing, says the Apostle, be observed in relation to the soul. Then in all our actions we shall have greater strength. This is especially fitting for soldiers.

Yes, someone will say, but we gird our bodily loins with a leather belt. With what shall we be girded here? With the chief thing among our thoughts, that is, with truth. "Having girded," he says, "your loins with truth."

Therefore let us put away every lie. Let us act in all things according to truth. Let us not deceive one another. If we seek glory, let it be true glory. If we desire life, let it be true life.

If we guard ourselves with this, if we gird ourselves with truth, no one will overcome us. Whoever seeks truth will not become attached to the earth, because everything untrue is from the earth.

This is clear from the fact that all outsiders, the pagans, serve the passions by following their own reasonings. Therefore, if we are sober, we shall not need the instruction contained in the writings of the Greeks.

Do you see how weak and powerless they were? Do you see how they could not receive even one sound thought about God that rises above the human mind? They were not girded with truth. Therefore their loins became weak, this receptacle of generative seeds, this strengthening of thoughts.

There is nothing weaker than they are. On the other hand, do you not see how the Manichaeans speak boldly about everything according to their own reasonings? They say it was impossible for God to create the world without matter.

From what is this clear? They say this while crawling below. They borrow it from the earth and from what is proper to us humans. For, they say, man cannot act otherwise.

Then listen to what Marcion also says: God, having assumed flesh, could not remain pure. From what is this clear? From the fact that this does not happen among men.

Valentinus, in turn, having thoughts turned toward the earth, reasons in an earthly way. Paul of Samosata and Arius teach in the same manner.

What, for example, does Arius say? God Who is begotten could not be begotten without passion. Why did you dare to say this, Arius? Because you began to reason about God in a human way.

Do you see, then, that all their thoughts are turned downward? Do you see that all their thoughts are weakened and breathe the earth? Such are the heretics in relation to the doctrine of faith.

As for conduct, they are fornicators and lovers of money. They are attached to the earth, to glory, and to everything else. They do not have strong loins that could provide support in time of sickness.

When they become sick, they do not place their hands upon them and stand upright. Instead they grow weak. By contrast, the one girded with truth, first, will never feel exhaustion. Second, even if he becomes weary, he will receive support from that same truth.

Tell me, will poverty make him suffer? Not at all. The thought of true wealth will comfort him, and poverty will remind him of true spiritual poverty. Will slavery seem burdensome to him? Not in the least, because he knows true slavery. Perhaps sickness will? Even this will not.

"Let your loins be girded," says Christ, "and your lamps burning" (Lk 12:35), so that you may have an inextinguishable light. This was also commanded at the departure from Egypt, when they ate the Passover girded.

Why, you ask, was it so? Do you wish to know the reason from history or from contemplation? I will tell you both, and you remember them. I do this not merely to answer the question, but so that our words may become deeds in you.

It is related that they were girded, with staffs in their hands and sandals on their feet, and so ate the Passover (Ex 12:11). It is a dread and fearful mystery, and one containing great depth.

If the mystery is so fearful in the type, it is much more so in the truth itself. They go out of Egypt and eat the Passover. Pay attention: this is the image of pilgrims.

To have sandals on the feet, staffs in the hands, and to eat standing means nothing other than this. What do you wish to hear first, the history or the contemplation? Better the history.

What, then, does the history say? The Jews were ungrateful and constantly forgot the benefactions of God. Therefore, wishing to bring His benefactions to their memory even by compulsion, God established this manner of eating the Passover.

For what purpose? So that every year, by necessarily observing this ordinance, they would also necessarily remember the God Who had brought them out.

God wished to remind them of His benefactions not only by the season of the Passover, but also by the very manner of eating it. For this reason they eat girded and shod.

When they are asked about this, they answer, "We were ready for a journey and intended to go out from Egypt into the land of promise." Such is the meaning of the image according to history.

But here is the truth: we also eat the Passover, that is, Christ. As it is said, "Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us" (1 Cor 5:7). Therefore we also eat a Passover that is far superior to the Passover of the Law.

For this reason we too must eat it shod and girded. Why? So that we too may be ready for a journey, for our departure from here. No one who eats this Passover should think about Egypt. Rather, he must hasten toward heaven, toward the Jerusalem above.

You eat girded and shod for this reason: so that you may remember that, when you begin to eat the Passover, you are obliged to set out on the road and to travel.

This indicates two duties. First, we must leave Egypt and live on earth as though it were a foreign country for us. For it is said, "Our citizenship is in heaven" (Phil 3:20).

Second, we must always be ready throughout our whole life, so that when we are called, we may immediately say, "My heart is ready" (Ps 107:1). Paul could say this, since his conscience was stained by nothing.

As for me, I cannot say this, because I need much time for repentance. To learn that being girded means having a vigilant soul, listen to what God says to a righteous man: "Gird up your loins now like a man. I will question you, and you shall answer Me" (Job 38:3).

He says the same to all the saints, and the same to Moses. He even appears girded in Ezekiel. Angels also appear to us girded, as though they were true soldiers.

In order to stand courageously, one must be girded. On the other hand, one can gird oneself only while standing. Let us also gird ourselves.

We too must depart, and afterward we shall have to experience many hardships. When we pass through this region, the devil immediately appears. He begins to act cunningly and uses every means to seize and destroy people.

These are people who have been delivered from Egypt, have crossed the Red Sea, and have been freed from demons and countless evils. Yet if we are vigilant, we too shall have the pillar of fire, the grace of the Spirit, Who illumines us and overshadows us.

There will be manna. Or rather, not manna, but what is far greater than manna. There will be spiritual drink, not water flowing from a rock. There will also be a camp for us who even now live in the wilderness.

Yes, the earth at present is a complete wilderness because of its lack of virtue. It is even more a wilderness than that one. For what reason did they avoid that wilderness? Was it not because it had, and still has, scorpions?

They say that no man passed through it. Yet that wilderness was still not as barren as human nature. Today in this wilderness there are so many scorpions, so many serpents, so many offspring of vipers, as we have already said.

Nevertheless, this must not frighten us. Our exodus from Egypt is led not by Moses, but by Jesus. But under what condition shall we avoid the same fate? Under this condition: that we do not do the same things. Then we shall not suffer the same fate.

They murmured and were ungrateful. Therefore we must not allow ourselves to do this. Why did they all fall? Because they grew negligent toward the land they had so greatly desired.

"Therefore stand, having girded your loins with truth." In warfare the first thing is to know how to stand well. Therefore Paul first gives counsel about standing, requiring it to be correct, fitting for soldiers, and upright. For one who stands properly stands upright, not inclining toward anything. Likewise, one who does not stand is not upright. For example, a pleasure-loving man, a lover of money, and one who lives in luxury does not stand upright, but inclines toward something.

Therefore, if we have understood the army of the enemies, it is time to wage the battle. Let no one dare to put the opposing army to flight without taking in hand the apostolic whole armor.

Surely everyone knows the manner of that divine armament, by which the Apostle makes one who stands before the enemy host invulnerable to opposing arrows. For by dividing the virtues into kinds, the Apostle made each kind of virtue a special weapon, useful for us in every circumstance.

Weaving and interlacing justice with faith, he prepares from them a breastplate for the one being armed. He beautifully and securely protects the soldier with both. But if faith and justice are separated from one another, the weapon cannot become secure for the one to whom it is entrusted.

What does Saint Paul mean when he says, “Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth” (Eph 6:14)? Is it not that contemplation restrains the desiring power in us, and does not allow it to rush elsewhere? For love for any one thing does not allow one to strive with the same force toward other pleasures.

"Therefore stand, having girded your loins with truth." There is no doubt for anyone that, in Sacred Scripture, all the powers of the soul are named according to the members of the body and flesh. One of them, in my opinion, is now called the loins, which we are commanded to gird with truth.

In the Gospel according to Luke it is also written: "Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning in your hands" (Lk. 12:35). Since the loins are often understood in the sense of begetting and seed, as, for example: "Of the fruit of your loins I will set upon your throne" (Ps. 131:11). And in another place: "Levi was still in the loins of his father Abraham when his father met Melchizedek" (Heb. 7:9-10).

"Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth." The Apostle first of all shows the insatiability of desire, because the kidneys lie in the loins, and in them is enclosed the power of desire.

Thus blessed David, lamenting the sin of adultery, said: "For my loins are filled with mockings" (Ps. 37:8). That is, he used natural desire in action as he ought not. So too the divine Apostle said concerning Levi: "For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him" (Heb. 7:10).

What do the Apostle's words "having girded your loins with truth" mean, and what is the rest of the armor fitting for spiritual warfare? Cf. Eph. 6:14-17.

The words "having girded your loins with truth" were rightly interpreted by Gregory, called the Theologian, when he said: Is this not that the desiring principle is restrained by the contemplative? Cf. Greg. Naz. or. 45.18: PG 36, 649A.

The words "having put on the breastplate of justice" mean the following. Since justice is a disposition that distributes equally, it is necessary that the three powers of the soul in us have equal strength. By their help the fourfold set of the generic virtues must be formed with equal strength, for in this justice consists. Cf. qu. dub. 41.

Besides faith, Paul adds another command: to preserve righteousness, although what was named above, faith, is the head of everything. Righteousness is not valued in the same way as faith, for “the righteous shall live by faith” (Hab 2:4; cf. Rom 1:17). Yet we must also attain fullness in being righteous. Faith benefits us and is true faith only when we are righteous. Righteousness is beneficial when faith is present. Therefore, after speaking of faith, Paul added, “Put on the breastplate of righteousness.”

“And put on the breastplate of love.” In the Russian translation, “of righteousness.” Love surrounds and guards the most vital parts of our breast. It resists the deadly wounds of the passions, turns back the blows of adversaries, and does not allow the devil’s arrows to penetrate to our inner man. For it covers all things, endures all things, and bears all things (1 Cor 13:4-7).

The weapons are spiritual, and yet the God-wise Apostle wondrously adapted them to the defensive weapons of worldly soldiers, especially those of that time.

“Stand therefore,” he says. The first lesson in the tactical teachings of war is to stand straight in the ranks. A soldier who does not stand straight is unfit, but bends and twists disorderly. Such a one is easily wounded and killed by enemies.

The same happens to a Christian in the ranks against the demons. If he does not remain upright, that is, if he does not think rightly concerning the faith and rightly perform the works of virtue, he will turn aside into corrupt teachings and be led astray into the vanity of the world.

Then the evil spirits very easily harm and kill his soul.

“Having girded your loins with truth.” The ancient warrior wore a belt over his long outer garment, so that it would not hinder his movements. One may find a correspondence between truth and the belt, in that truth removes falsehood as an obstacle to man’s free activity. The belt also gave firmness and steadiness to the loins themselves. It is clear that truth produces the same effect in the human spirit. “Having put on the breastplate of righteousness.” One who has been justified before God is invulnerable to the devil, even if he suffers many heavy blows from him. But one who is still under the wrath of God is easily struck by the enemy. Thus justification serves as a breastplate for the Christian.

“Having arranged such an army, awakened in it a martial spirit, and encouraged it, Saint Paul finally arms this army. For there will be no benefit from weapons unless soldiers have first been gathered and courage has been stirred in their souls.

“First they must be armed from within, and only then from without. If this is so with soldiers fighting against external enemies, it must be even more so with spiritual soldiers.

“It is in no way proper for them to be armed externally. All their armor must be inward. The Apostle awakened a martial spirit in the soldiers he had gathered. He kindled it, gave them courage, set them in good order, and now arms them.

“But see how he clothes them in the very weapons.”

“Stand therefore,” he says. The first task of those in formation is to know how to stand well. Much depends on this. Therefore the Apostle often speaks about the need to stand.

Thus, for example, elsewhere he says, “Stand, watch” (1 Cor 16:13). Again, “So stand in the Lord” (Phil 4:1). And again, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12).

But note that he does not speak of some ordinary standing, but of orderly standing. Those experienced in military matters understand what skill in standing means.

He who stands upright stands without being distracted and without inclining toward anything. In standing, exact uprightness is visible. Therefore those who are truly upright stand.

Those who do not stand cannot preserve an upright position. They are distracted and give themselves over to dispersion. The man who seeks pleasures is not in an upright position, but in an inclined one.

So also are the lover of money and the man of sensuality. For one who knows how to stand, the very standing can serve as a kind of support. Everything concerning the struggle will appear easy to him (Chrysostom).

Whom, then, in the spiritual sense may we consider to be standing? Let us recall what was said above: “Awake, sleeper.” This appeal is addressed to the sleeping sinner.

When he awakens, desiring what is better, he resolves to dedicate his whole life to pleasing God in Christ Jesus our Lord. He has this one thing as needful and directs toward this one thing his gaze, all his powers, and all his cares.

Such a man is the one who stands. Only such a man becomes the target for the enemy’s arrows and assaults.

Only such a man can be armed, because he burns with the desire to do everything in order to attain what he has set before himself.

But for one who does not have this, whatever you say is useless. He will not stretch out his hands or move his feet in this sense, because his mind and heart are not occupied with this.

What does Saint Paul counsel first of all to the one who has taken such a standing, that is, an upright, vertical position, and has directed all the thoughts of his mind and all the desires of his heart toward God?

He counsels him to gird his loins with truth. The holy Apostle Peter also commands Christians to be girded. He calls it the girding of the thoughts and equates it with sobriety (1 Pet 1:13).

The thoughts of the sinner wander without ceasing and never stay on one thing. This wandering of thoughts makes him morally powerless. At the same time, it opens him to every assault and every evil design of the enemy.

Together with the thoughts and images wandering in his head, the enemy also slips in there. He begins to build his illusory plans and draw the man toward passion and sin.

The sinner thinks that all this is his own construction. Yet it is all the enemy’s. By carrying it out, he serves the enemy.

When he repents and stands as shown, his first concern must be to halt the wandering of thoughts. In this way he bars every access to the enemy, for the enemy approaches through thoughts.

The wandering of thoughts is halted by sobriety. Sobriety is the mind’s constant attention to the movements of thoughts, with the aim of admitting not a single evil one.

This is the girding of the thoughts spoken of by the holy Apostle Peter. Saint Paul commands that they be girded with truth. This is the most effective means.

Why does the mind wander in empty thoughts and fantasies? Because it is empty. It is empty, and yet by nature it moves swiftly and cannot remain without occupation.

When it has nothing sound with which to occupy itself, it sets off into empty thinking, the empty wandering of thoughts and fantasies.

Fill it with truth, and instead of empty fantasies it will pass in contemplation from one truth to another. Then the swift movement of thoughts will cease.

For every truth will hold its attention not for one moment, but for a long time, sometimes for hours and days, months and years. The enemy’s access will be cut off, because he is falsehood and cannot show himself where truth reigns.

The rays of truth strike him like lightning.

How can the mind be filled with truth? Review the entire content of Christian teaching. Clarify each truth, surround it with fitting grounds, bring it to conviction, and deepen it in the mind.

Thus truth after truth will be placed in the mind and permeate it. Finally all the truths will enter there, and the content of the mind will be identified with the content of the divinely revealed truths.

From this the mind will be filled with sound conceptions and judgments concerning everything that exists and happens. It will become firm in itself, so that nothing can knock it off course.

By what does the enemy take hold? He presents a phantom of truth and goodness and draws the soul away. But the one who knows the truth fully will immediately expose the phantom character of the lie and thereby repel the attack.

The man who is filled with truth in this way becomes strong, like one who is girded. Men gird themselves in order to become stronger.

So also the one who is filled with truth becomes strong, as though girded. This is the purpose of the apostolic word. The spiritual warrior is invincible when he is full of truth.

Chrysostom says: “The Apostle is not speaking about a sensible girding. In this passage he speaks figuratively. What, then, does this mean?

“He restrains by means of a girdle the man who is distracted and given over to desires, whose thoughts are directed downward. When he girds the loins, he thereby strengthens our soul.

“For he means not the bodily loins, but the loins in a spiritual sense. As the bodily loins serve as the foundation and binding of the lower and upper parts of the body, so also do the spiritual loins.

“In order that we may run more easily, we gird ourselves. This secures our strength. Let the same thing, says the Apostle, be observed with respect to the soul, and then in all our works we shall have greater strength.

“We gird the bodily loins with a belt. But here, with what? With the head of our thoughts, that is, with truth.

“Therefore let us leave every falsehood and act in everything according to truth. If we seek glory, let it be true glory. If we desire life, let it be true life.

“If we protect ourselves with this, that is, if we gird ourselves with truth, then no one will overcome us.

“He who is girded with truth, first, will never feel exhaustion. Second, even if he grows weary, he will receive strengthening in the same truth.

“Will poverty make him suffer? Not at all. The thought of true wealth will give him rest, and poverty will remind him of true poverty, which is spiritual.

“Will slavery seem hard to him? Not at all. For he knows true slavery. What about sickness? Nor will sickness seem hard.

“To be girded means to have a watchful soul. In order to stand manfully, one must gird oneself.

“Let us also gird ourselves, like the Israelites before the exodus from Egypt, who ate the Passover girded. For we also wish to depart, and afterward we shall have to experience many difficulties.

“When we pass through this sinful region, the devil immediately appears. He begins to scheme and uses every measure to seize and destroy people who have been delivered from Egypt, that is, from sin and the passions.

“They have crossed the Red Sea in the tears of repentance and have been freed from demons and innumerable calamities. Yet he tries to take them and destroy them.

“But let us not lose heart. We too have a pillar of fire. This is the grace of the Spirit. Our exodus is led not by Moses, but by Jesus.

“Let us walk well girded, so that we may overcome the enemies.”

“Having put on the breastplate of righteousness.” Soldiers put on a breastplate, armor composed of many parts. When the enemy’s blow falls upon it, it does not pass through to the body and causes no wound.

This is a weapon of manifold help. The spiritual warrior also must put it on.

What, then, is the breastplate here? Righteousness. Here righteousness means every good and holy disposition of the heart.

To see how the sum of such dispositions forms a breastplate that repels blows, let us recall how hostile temptations act. The enemy’s swing of the sword is the presentation of a thought.

He does this in the hope that sympathy for it will answer in the heart. On that basis he will afterward construct a strong temptation.

For example, the person who offended us is presented. This is the enemy’s swing of the sword. When an unfriendly feeling toward the offender answers in the heart, this means that the sword has reached the body of the soul and wounded it.

Then the enemy leaps upon the soul and raises up in it a whole storm of hostility and vengefulness.

But when there lies in the heart a constant disposition to forgive offenses and always to keep oneself in quiet meekness and peace with all, then things are different.

However much the enemy may strain to present to the soul, in thoughts, the people who offended it, there will be no echo in the heart. Consequently, the enemy will have nothing to which he can attach his temptation.

The blow of his sword will rebound from the heart, as from a warrior clothed in a breastplate.

So imagine that all good dispositions have been placed in the heart, loved by it, and made the object of its cherishing and keeping, as treasures. Whatever devices the enemy may use to sow exciting thoughts in the soul, he will gain no benefit from this.

No trace from them will remain in the soul. Thoughts can slip through, even with all the girding provided by sobriety, attention, and watchfulness.

Therefore the Apostle was not satisfied with girding alone. He also commanded the breastplate to be put on, that is, all holy dispositions to be implanted in the heart.

Then, even if thoughts somehow creep in, no evil effect will arise from them in the heart.

Saint Paul often depicts this spiritual breastplate, this many-parted spiritual armor, in his epistles. Thus in the Epistle to the Colossians he writes: “Put on... bowels of mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, and longsuffering... forgiving... above all... acquire love... and let the peace of God dwell in your hearts” (Col 3:12-15).

In similar fashion the holy Apostle Peter joins together such spiritual armor: “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control patience, to patience piety, to piety brotherly love, and to brotherly love love” (2 Pet 1:5-7).

In general, the one clothed in the breastplate of righteousness thinks only on “whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are righteous, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is any praise” (Phil 4:8).

What hostile blow can wound one so protected?

All such good dispositions were placed in our nature at creation, as Saint Macarius teaches. But the passions that entered afterward darkened and covered them.

One need only cleanse them again by casting off the shameful covering that has settled upon them. This is already accomplished in the first resolve to please God, through the love of every virtue.