Stand therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
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Gaius Marius Victorinus
AD 400
Faith lives in righteousness. Faith remains the fountain of all the virtues, as Paul has often stated. Righteousness is not as strong as faith because “righteousness lives by faith.” But the effect of righteousness is accomplished by faith. So in this battle we must strive toward righteousness. Faith is proven to be true faith when we live righteously. Then faith is seen to be useful to us, as the righteousness that accompanies faith is useful. –.
Your loins. With truth, both as to doctrine and a good life, keeping your baptismal promises.
Having on the breastplate of justice, not only of the particular virtue of justice, but of all virtues in general. (Witham)
One who has put on a sturdy breastplate is difficult to wound. Especially wellprotected are those essential parts of the body upon which life depends. So put on the breastplate. Strap it together by iron rings and insert the hooks in their place. One protected by such a breastplate of righteousness will not be like a vulnerable stag that receives the arrow in his liver. He will not lapse into rage or lust. Rather he will be protected, having a clean heart, having God as the fashioner of his breastplate, since he fashions the whole armor for every one of the saints. .
Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth.
Having drawn up this army, and roused their zeal—for both these things were requisite, both that they should be drawn up in array and subject to each other, and that their spirit should be aroused—and having inspired them with courage, for this was requisite also, he next proceeds also to arm them. For arms had been of no use, had they not been first posted each in his own place, and had not the spirit of the soldier's soul been roused; for we must first arm him within, and then without.
Now if this is the case with soldiers, much more is it with spiritual soldiers. Or rather in their case, there is no such thing as arming them without, but everything is within. He has roused their ardor, and set it on fire, he has added confidence. He has set them in due array. Observe how he also puts on the armor. Stand therefore, says he. The very first feature in tactics is, to know how to stand well, and many things will depend upon that...
The first art in tactics is to know how to stand firmly. From this firmness all else follows…. He is not speaking here of a literal girdle. He is setting in contrast, by this metaphor, the soldier who is slack and dissipated in his appetites, who lets his thoughts creep on the ground…. He speaks here of the loins. Just like the keel of a ship the loins are the central balancing support of our whole body. They are a kind of foundation. All is built up from them…. The girdle is used in combat to bind and hold together this foundation of ours. That is why we are also girdled when we run. It secures the strength within us. .
Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Having girded your loins, says he, with truth. What can be the meaning of this? I have stated in the preceding discourse, that he ought to be lightly accoutered, in order that there should be no impediment whatever to his running.
And having on, he continues, the breastplate of righteousness. As the breastplate is impenetrable, so also is righteousness, and by righteousness here he means a life of universal virtue. Such a life no one shall ever be able to overthrow; it is true, many wound him, but no one cuts through him, no, not the devil himself. It is as though one were to say, having righteous deeds fixed in...
If, however, you will not acknowledge John, you have our common master Paul, who "girds our loins about with truth, and puts on us the breastplate of righteousness, and shoes us with the preparation of the gospel of peace, not of war; who bids us take the shield of faith, wherewith we may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the devil, and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which (he says) is the word of God."
