Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
Ephesians 6:14 NIVUK
On first reading, the idea of a ‘Breastplate of Righteousness’ seems strange. After all, righteousness is about being acceptable to God. It’s about thinking right things, being right things, doing right things.
How can that protect our chest, and it’s most important occupant, our heart?
This is where, as believers, we have to ask ourselves some a deeply difficult and searching question:
Do we feel right?
That might sound strange, but the reality is that the Greek word for ‘righteousness’ doesn’t just apply to right thinking, being and doing, but also right feeling. In other words, it applies to keeping our emotions and our inclinations in check.
And that’s a tough ask.
You see, we have to confront an uncomfortable reality, something our modern culture doesn’t want to deal with. And that is that our feelings are not always correct. We cannot justify anything simply by saying that ‘Well, that’s just how I felt’, or ‘I felt like doing it, so I did it’.
Think about it for a second: if a violent criminal was caught committing a serious crime and then used their feelings as their excuse, would the judge let them go free?
Of course not!
The Breastplate of Righteousness forces us to confront the reality that there is such a thing as a wrong feeling.
Jeremiah, a prophet who struggled with feelings of depression, knew all about that, and this is what he wrote:
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9 NIVUK
And this is the Lord’s response:
‘I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.’
Jeremiah 17:10 NIVUK
So what God is saying to Jeremiah is that we are not just held accountable for our actions, or even just the thoughts that guided then, but also the emotions that drove them.
Which is why we need the Breastplate of Righteousness. As David prays:
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalms 139:23-24 NIVUK
Often, people live as if they were driven only by their heart. There were countless songs when I was growing up about ‘listen to your heart’. Still today, being governed by your emotions is seen as a valid decision-making criteria, not just for what you will eat or wear, but your future career and even who you'll marry.
The problem is that our feelings are highly fickle. They change from one day to the next. Building our entire life on how we feel will, inevitably, lead us to being hurt and to hurting others.
That is where the Breastplate of Righteousness comes in. Instead of exposing our heart to danger, being guided by the need to measure things so that we decide fairly and equitably keeps our emotions in check and allows us to take right decisions that avoid pain, and therefore protect our heart.
There is an ancient rule in the Old Testament that we might think no longer applies to us. But we would be wrong. It’s this one:
‘ “Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity. Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt.
Leviticus 19:35-36 NIVUK
Do not have two differing weights in your bag – one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house – one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.
Deuteronomy 25:13-16
It’s a principle echoed in Proverbs, but ij a quite interesting context:
Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin’? Differing weights and differing measures – the Lord detests them both.
Proverbs 20:9-10
You see, before the invention of coinage and banknotes, weights of gold, silver, salt and other precious materials were used in trade. For trading to be fair, it was essential that the weight measures were accurate and consistent. God is essentially telling the Jews to measure things fairly and equitably and avoid being involved in unfair profit.
It goes without saying that, although we have standards for weights and measures, our trade doesn’t happen in this way anymore.
But there is a similar way in which this rule can be applied.
What if we’re measuring people, situations, or even God Himself inaccurately and unfairly?
Jesus gives one dramatic example in the Sermon on the Mount:
‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. ‘Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Matthew 7:1-5 NIVUK
Do you see it? The Breastplate of Righteousness is all about judging things, people, situations, even God, fairly. It's about thinking right, and in doing so, believing right, feeling right and doing right.
If we take the time to put it on, metaphorically-speaking, then it will have a dramatic effect on how we see the world around it.
As a result, we won’t be battling negative emotions and suppressing how we feel. Counsellors across the world are united in saying that this is not healthy.
No, we will have a changed perspective, a right perspective, and this will change how we feel.
Maybe you're still a little confused. After all, doesn’t the Bible say that Jesus made us righteous through His death on the cross, through which He put us right with God (Romans 5:19; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
Yes, that is correct.
However, this is positional righteousness – a change in our standing before God.
Given the context of the verses in Ephesians, I believe what Paul is talking about here is functional righteousness – living correctly in the everyday world.
That’s not to say that being made righteous by Jesus Christ before God makes no difference to how we feel. Of course it does.
However, I believe that Paul is encouraging the Ephesians to a practical righteousness that will help them in their every day life and protect them from harming both themselves and others.
So, Christian, are you wearing the Breastplate of Righteousness?
Questions
1. Why is it not a good thing to take decisions purely based on how we feel?
2. Have you ever thought of righteousness being something that could change how you feel about a situation? How will this idea change your decision-making process?
3. Do you believe that you are already protecting your heart (emotions) by seeking to be righteous?
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