Homily XXIII. Ephesians vi. 14 “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 hath roused their ardor, and set it on fire, he hath added confidence. He hath set them in due array. Observe how he also puts on the armor. “Stand therefore,”476 saith he. The very first feature in tactics is, to know how to stand well, and many things will depend upon that. Hence he discourses much concerning standing, saying also elsewhere, “Watch ye, stand fast.” (1 Cor. xvi. 13.) And again, “So stand fast in the Lord.” (Philip. iv. 1.) And again, “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.” (1 Cor. x. 12.) And again, “That ye may be able, having done all, to stand.” (Eph. vi. 13.) Doubtless then he does not mean merely any way of standing, but a correct way, and as many as have had experience in wars know how great a point it is to know how to stand. For if in the case of boxers and wrestlers, the trainer recommends this before anything else, namely, to stand firm, much more will it be the first thing in warfare, and military matters. The man who, in a true sense, stands, is upright; he stands not in a lazy attitude, not leaning upon anything. Exact uprightness discovers itself by the way of standing, so that they who are perfectly upright, they stand. But they who do not stand, cannot be upright, but are unstrung and disjointed. The luxurious man does not stand upright, but is bent; so is the lewd man, and the lover of money. He who knows how to stand will from his very standing, as from a sort of foundation, find every part of the conflict easy to him. “Stand therefore,” saith he, “having girded your loins with truth.”477 164 He is not speaking of a literal, physical girdle, for all the language in this passage he employs in a spiritual sense.478 And observe how methodically he proceeds. First he girds 476 [“‘Stand,’ here, is not, like the preceding στῆναι (in verse 13), the standing of the victor, but the ‘standing forth of the man ready for the combat.”—Meyer.—G.A.] 477 Compare Isa. xi. 5. 478 νοητῶς. Ephesians 6:14 302 Ephesians 6:14