Truth and Consequences
Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be
reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that
his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (St. John
3:19b-21)
Recently I
read the account of Jonathon Hoffman, who was released from North Carolina’s
death row after having served seven years for a wrongful conviction of murder.
Hoffman proved a convenient scapegoat on which to pin the murder of a
jewelry-store owner, but as it turns out, he was convicted primarily on the
basis of false testimony from a cousin who was paid to lie.
When you and I hear such accounts of
the truth coming to the light, we rejoice that the lies finally were exposed.
Such a story makes you angry and glad all at once: angry at such liars, glad
for an innocent man.
Why is it, though, that you and I
become incensed with those who lie under oath and ruin a person’s life – yet
have no problem at all receiving and passing along half-truths about others in
Leakesville?
Lying is a particularly shameful sin
for Christians to commit. Scripture teaches that you and I, born of God’s truth
in Christ, have a special relationship to the truth that the sinful world
doesn’t. How often, though, you and I downplay the lies we tell.
In fact, your relationship to the
truth is of vital importance. Your relationship to the truth reveals your relationship
to God. Your relationship to the truth impacts yourself and those around you.
If you indeed have been born again by
God’s Word of Truth in Christ, then you must be a truth-teller – because the
God you claim as your Father is also the only true God, the God of truth.
How you relate to the truth, first,
reveals how you relate to God.
Jesus, in the eighth of St. John’s
gospel, pointedly refers to Satan as the “father of lies.” Our Lord says the
devil speaks lies, because he is the purveyor of such. He craftily promotes
half-truths in his ceaseless attempt to lead you and me to destruction, which
he did successfully to Eve in Eden. Consider: when Satan told Eve that she and
Adam would be as gods, knowing good and evil, he was partially truthful – they
would know good and evil. What Satan neglected to tell Eve was that this
knowledge would cost them Paradise.
Lying is the habit of the
unregenerate, those whom Jesus calls “children of the devil.” St. Paul, writing
both to the Colossians and to the Ephesians, exhorts believers to cease lying
to one another, because we have “put off the old man” with his deeds.
So when you and I lie – about
ourselves, about others, to ourselves and others – we aren’t reflecting our
Father in heaven. We are, in fact, parroting the father of lies.
While Scripture presents Satan as the
father of lies, we meet God as the God of all truth. Jesus himself said he was
“the Truth,” and the Lord frequently is described as being “faithful and true.”
This means God is as He says He is: there is no discrepancy at all between who
God is and what He says and does. This means God knows all things perfectly,
and He – the Creator of all things – is also the Source of all truth. And in a
world of broken promises and vows, He alone, who fulfilled every promise in
Scripture, is trustworthy and reliable.
Those who have been begotten of the
God of truth have come to see that the Lord alone possesses all truth. Satan
spreads the lie that “all truth is relative” and that “what is true for you might
not be true for me.” He promotes the falsehood that you are born basically
good, and that you have no need of the atoning work of Christ. If you are a
child of God through faith in Christ, however, you have admitted that you were
a child of the father of lies, in need of Christ. You have admitted the truth
about yourself – that you loved darkness more than the light of God’s truth and
presence – and you have come to believe the Gospel is real and the triune God
alone is God.
If you are a child of the devil, you
won’t care at all about truth. “Truth” will come to mean, for you, “whatever
suits my interests at this moment.” You don’t know the truth, so you care
nothing for it.
But if you indeed are a child of the
one true God, you know that He possesses all truth, from 2+2=4 to “There is
none righteous, no, not one” – and you will promote what is true.
How you relate to the truth is
important, secondly, because it profoundly impacts yourself and others.
Denial of the truth can be lethal for
you. I recall one of our college chemistry professors placing a notice on his
door that read to this effect: “Don’t ask me to write you a medical-school
recommendation if you didn’t make an A in my class, because they will not
accept you, and I will not lie for you.” Some students in response had written
unkind words on his note, which was proof of what Jesus said in St. John 3:
“Men loved darkness rather than the light.” You and I don’t want to face our
own sins and shortcomings, and we don’t want to admit we’re miserable offenders
destined for hell apart from the saving grace of God in Christ. We lie about
our ages and about our weight, and we lie about our spiritual conditions.
But if you never come to the light of
Christ, even as it exposes your sinfulness, you will not enter his holy heaven.
Your relationship with the truth also
impacts others – directly and indirectly. Of course, if you lie under oath
about another person (as was the case with Jonathon Hoffman in North Carolina),
you will do irrevocable damage to that person. Yet the same holds true for
gossip: as you disseminate lies and half-truths and possible-truths about the
people around you, and as you form false and unfavorable opinions of them, you
will destroy their good name (and your own!). If you fail to speak up for the
truth, you will harm others. (The professor was correct: to lie for an
unqualified student to get him or her into medical school would only hurt the
student, who will find out too late he shouldn’t have been there, or perhaps
one day hurt his patients through inability – if he makes it that far). A
society built on lies will not last very long.
And if you fail to tell others the truth about Christ, which is the
worst form of silence, then you will fail to offer them hope along their path
to hell. You will fail to combat the lies of our enemy, so prevalent in this
fallen world, with the truth of heaven. Not only must you tell others the truth
when they wonder openly about heaven, hell and the meaning of life, you must
support missions and evangelism with your time, prayers and money.
Your failure to speak the truth also will have an indirect impact on
others, particularly on unbelievers and on your children. What image are you
offering them of the God of truth when you accept lies? When you make up a
reason not to visit your Aunt Earline and tell your children to repeat that lie
verbatim, you are instilling countless bad lessons into them. Why would they
want to deal with the truth about themselves as sinners if you are instructing
them that truth is relative and, indeed, immaterial?
Your relationship to the truth has consequences for everyone involved.
If you are a Christian, then your entire spiritual life is built on the
truth. By God’s grace, He has impressed on you the truth about your sin nature,
about His real claim on your life, about the judgment to come, about the truth
of the Gospel.
If you are a Christian, then you know the God who possesses all truth.
This means you must be fearless in promoting the truth – with others, about
others, about every field of inquiry. Whether rejecting gossip, giving
testimony in court, filing your taxes, exploring history or telling others
about Christ, you must stand for the truth in a world of lies.
Knowing the truth about yourself and about Christ has set you free –
free from the fear of death, free from the guilt, control and shame of sin.
And free to tell the truth, that others may know the freedom of a
Christian as well.
|