167 Homily XXIV. Ephesians vi. 14–17 “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 ye 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,” saith 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.489 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 the breast”; of these it is that Christ saith, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.” (Matt. v. 6.) Thus is he firm and strong like a breastplate. Such a man will never be put out of temper. “And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” It is more un- certain in what sense this was said. What then is its meaning? They are noble greaves, doubtless, with which he invests us. Either then he means this, that we should be prepared for the gospel, and should make use of our feet for this, and should prepare and make ready its way before it;490 or if not this, at least that we ourselves should be prepared for our de- parture. “The preparation,” then, “of the gospel of peace,” is nothing else than a most virtuous life; according to what the Prophet saith. “Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear.” (Ps. x. 17.) “Of the gospel,” he says, “of peace,” and with reason; for inasmuch as he had made mention of warfare and fighting, he shows us that this conflict with the evil spirits we must needs have: for the gospel is “the gospel of peace”; this war which we have against them, puts an end to another war, that, namely, which is between us 489 [“‘Righteousness’ here is Christian moral rectitude (Rom. vi. 13.), inasmuch as, justified by faith, we are dead to sin and live in newness of life (Rom. vi. 4.). As previously the ‘intellectual’ rectitude of the Christian was denoted by ἀλήθεια, so here his ‘moral’ rectitude by δικαιοσύνη.”—Meyer.—G.A.] 490 [“This means ‘readiness,’ the ready mind; not, however, for the proclamation of the gospel, as Chrysostom and others,—since in fact Paul is addressing fellow-Christians, and not fellow-teachers,—but the readiness for the conflict in question which the gospel bestows. And it is the gospel of peace, for the gospel proclaims peace (Rom. v. 1; Philip. i. 20.), and thereby produces consecration of courageous ‘readiness’ for the conflict (Rom. viii. 31, 38, 39.).”—Meyer.—G.A.] Ephesians 6:14-17 309 Ephesians 6:14-17