Using The Terminology Of Truth
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, having taken up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, also receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:10-17, Legacy Standard Bible).
I do not always begin my blogs with such a long passage of Scripture, but I believe this entire text speaks to an issue that I need to address, which I will get to in a moment. Briefly, though, I want us to just review this text from the Holy Spirit, that we are to be strong, not in ourselves, but in the Lord. Our confidence is not in our flesh, but in His strength, His work, His armor, and that is why we must put on all the armor. Our focus in this battle, and it is a battle, is not our methods, not our thoughts, our focus is what God has given us. In order to armor up, we need to humble ourselves before God, and we must disavow all of our notions of what might be effective, and in so doing, we will be able to stand against the enemy’s schemes.
The enemy is always scheming, and in particular, against the church. His desire is to shake us, to move us, to cause us to run, to cause us to fall, and our call is to stand firm. Our call is to not waver, to not budge, to not give an inch, but stand firm exactly where God has placed us. This battle, again, is not fleshly, it is not against people, it is spiritual. The enemy will use people as his unwitting agents often times, but we must bear in mind that these are simply tools being used by the evil one. The true enemy is the power behind it all. But our role, once again, is to put on the armor and stand firm, not giving any quarter or room for anything.
And I would note, the first thing we must do is gird our loins with truth, or some translations say to wear the belt of truth. It is a similar concept either way, the girding of the loins would be to tighten up the clothing you are wearing around your waist to give you complete freedom of maneuverability. A soldier that is unable to do his duty because his undergarment is restricting his movements will be ineffective, so before he puts on the rest of the armor, he must first tighten up his belt and all the loose ends. Spiritually, we are to put truth around our waist and tighten it up so that it is never loosened in the battle. The word truth is not here symbolic only of Scripture, for that is laid out later in the sword of the Spirit. It certainly includes the Scripture, but it encompasses much more than the Scripture. Truth here means what accords with reality, what is factual, what is true in the broadest sense of the word. The first and most important part of the armor, for without this all the rest of the armor will be less effective, is to tighten up truth around us and not let it go in any form or fashion.
The world insists that we as Christians recognize their ideas of what a marriage is over God’s ideas, but only one is truth.
However, there are some Christians who are struggling with this idea when it comes to terminology used by those who are outside of Christ that is not true. Examples might be the term “gay marriage”, but Biblically there is no such thing as a marriage of anything other than one man and one woman. Only God defines a marriage. The world insists that we as Christians recognize their ideas of what a marriage is over God’s ideas, but only one is truth. The world insists we call two women in these types of relationships “wives”, or two men “husbands”, but the truth is that a wife can only belong to a man, and a husband can only belong to a woman. The same goes for the movement of men believing they are women, or women believing they are men. The world insists that we call them by their preferred pronouns rather than by their truthful pronouns. God is the One who created male and female, and God alone is the One who determines gender. Therefore, a man is a man his whole life, and a woman is a woman her whole life, and that is the truth. If we speak differently than what is true, we are loosening up the belt of truth.
The issue of using truthful terminology is not one for debate among faithful, Biblical Christians, rather it is one the Scripture speaks to with extreme clarity, yet there are many Christians who are struggling in this area. Let me say this clearly to anyone who is struggling, your choice is to either simply believe God, take Him at His Word, and cling to the truth He has revealed to you, or you can deny the truth He gives you and go your own way. I am not saying this takes you out of the faith, what I am saying is that it is leading you out of the truth of God’s Word and the reality of the world. I do recognize, however, that the pressure from the world, and often loved ones, to acquiesce on this issue is extremely great right now. While “Thus sayeth the Lord” should be enough for every slave of Christ, let me also address some objections people might make to this instruction.
The only time I desire to see shame removed for sin is when the individual sinning is repentant and has turned to Christ for forgiveness and for hope.
Some would say it is respectful, kind, or loving to use their terminology. One individual said that it is sticking one’s head in the sand to not use the terms of those caught in this sin. The truth, however, is that it is the sinner who is sticking their head in the sand and denying the reality of God’s created order. Those who practice such things are of a depraved mind, they are creating their own reality, and the reason they so strongly desire for us to give in on their terminology is that they so strongly want to be affirmed that their lives are not abnormal. The more they can normalize the activity, the less insane it is, and the less stigma there is.
Some might say that we should desire to remove that stigma and shame on an individual out of love for them. God’s law called for the death penalty for homosexuality, and while that may make those who have loved ones who practice such things uncomfortable, we must not be ashamed of God’s law. There is stigma for sin, all sin, and there is shame for sin. The only time I desire to see shame removed for sin is when the individual sinning is repentant and has turned to Christ for forgiveness and for hope. Outside of repentance, my prayer is they will feel the weight of their sin, the depth of depravity, so that it might drive them to Christ. Using their terminology, however, is cooperating with removing that weight of sin in their lives, and if possible, drives them further down the road of depravity.
Some might make the point that if we refuse to use their terminology, they will think we hate them and then we will lose gospel opportunity with them. Let me say this very clearly, the job of the Christian, long before “winning people to the gospel”, is faithfulness to Christ. You cannot be unfaithful to Christ and claim to also be seeking to win people to Christ. You cannot call people to follow Jesus while you yourself are denying what He has called you to do. Could God use your unfaithfulness to draw people to Himself, absolutely, but that is a testimony of God’s grace and mercy, it will not excuse your unfaithfulness. We are called to holiness, to truth, and we trust God with the results of that. God saves whom He wills, and our job is to pursue holiness and in so doing, we can share the gospel, and these are never in opposition to one another.
We fear the rejection and persecution of standing firm in the truth, so we use the excuse of trying to communicate love when the reality is we are trying to make sure that they love us.
Let me address this idea a bit further, because we often say our concern is we do not want them to think we hate them. I believe the problem is much worse than this, I believe the true problem is that we want to be loved by unbelievers. We fear the rejection and persecution of standing firm in the truth, so we use the excuse of trying to communicate love when the reality is we are trying to make sure that they love us. We are so desperate for approval from the world, so desperate to be affirmed by them, so desperate to be loved by the world, that we are willing to make compromises. This problem is even greater when the pressure comes from our own family, from our loved ones. We so easily forget that Jesus came to bring a sword and divide, and even to divide us from those we love the most (Matthew 10:34-39). There is a cost to our discipleship, and those who follow Jesus know full well He is worthy of that cost and so much more. It is painful to be rejected by people, to be called a bigot, to lose relationship with loved ones, but our loyalty must be to our King Jesus, and to Him alone.
In fact, we should become so desperate that our deeds would be found worthy, not in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of God, in the eyes of Christ our Savior and King. As His beloved children, we should be seeking to imitate Christ, to imitate our holy Father. We should be desiring so badly to be conformed into the image of Christ that we would never loosen our grip on the truth, on reality, on His Word. We should be unafraid and unashamed to receive the persecution and the shame that the world will put on us for the sake of righteousness. We must be prepared to suffer loss for our Lord.
There may be some who would respond to all of this with a lament that I do not know how difficult this is, or what I would be asking of a parent with a son or a daughter caught in these often life-dominating sins. Here is my pastoral response to them. First, my children have sinned, not in these ways, but in other ways, and I have risked relationship with them to call them to repentance. Second, I have dealt with families experiencing this heartbreak as a pastor, I am not speaking from a place of callousness. But the main point, the driving point, is this, that our Lord Jesus Christ is worth it. There is nothing it will cost you to remain faithful to Him that will compare to Him. We must learn to elevate Christ to His rightful place, to His glory and majesty. I think we talk about heaven so much, but we think streets of gold and pearly gates, but we do not long to see our Savior. Yes, this is a difficult call to those who may lose relationship with their loved ones, but if you know my Savior, you know you will not regret humbling yourself before Him, and you also will know that He is fully trustworthy. Dear Christian, it matters not what I have experienced, there is no need to place any trust in me, instead place it in the One in whom we have found salvation. Place your trust in Jesus.
