In the different Gospels much is said about the need to be ready for action, whether witness to Christ or meeting Him. Many of the Savior's parables speak about this. The words about girded loins and a burning lamp return us to the same theme. Jesus is clearly speaking about readiness for action, for making one's life truly Christian. A belt, especially a warrior's belt, said a great deal about its owner in antiquity, and in the army it was generally a mark of distinction, replacing epaulettes.
An officer who removed his belt and handed it to his superior was in effect submitting a request for resignation. And before a campaign everyone in the army had to gird himself, first of all so that everyone could see his military rank. But in ordinary civilian life too, taking off one's belt meant relaxing and even becoming unrestrained. Without a belt it was hard to imagine a long journey: on the belt one usually carried a water skin, a special small pouch for money and necessary papers, and small but necessary travel items such as a fire steel.
Therefore to gird oneself usually meant to prepare for a road, most likely a long road. But the Savior clearly has in mind not only this outward side of the image. He also speaks of the inner collectedness that is reached through consistent keeping of the commandments and following the inner Torah. Such following forms in a person the spiritual core necessary for full Christian life.
The image of the lamp is just as multivalent, indeed even more so: in the same Sermon on the Mount it means both witness, which cannot and need not be hidden, and a person's spiritual sight, the image of the eye as the lamp that illumines the human body. Of course, there can be no purity of sight if there is no spiritual core, which is reached by following the inner Torah. But this purity will remain only a possibility if a person is not aware of the inner wholeness he has managed to reach and the measure of its fullness.
If awareness is present, then a person's body is bright: such a person is not mistaken about himself, being aware of his inner life and of every intention born in his heart. Such a person knows who he is and what he can do, and what he cannot do and therefore had better not undertake. Yet awareness is also necessary for full witness. Christian witness cannot be theoretical; only a person who has experienced what he speaks about can be a witness, and such experience can only be the experience of communion with Christ and life in the Kingdom.
Experience of this kind cannot be acquired without inner wholeness and conscious life: even if some meeting occurs or an experience of spiritual reality, or even of the reality of the Kingdom, takes place, without inner wholeness and awareness a person will not be able to retain, remember, or understand what he has experienced. That is why the Savior draws His listeners' attention to girded loins and to the lamp: without them not only witness, but the very path of the Kingdom is impossible. And therefore being His disciple is impossible.
