The Purity of Truth

1 John 2:21

          There can be no place for lying in our lives. We live in a world that tolerates, perhaps even promotes lying as a way of life. Little white lies abound. We are told lying is OK if you are protecting someone. In almost every area of life, lying has become an accepted process. The truth would be too hard to handle. We tell them to protect people.

          But the truth is that most of the time we tell lies to protect ourselves. We think of politicians and cultural icons who have fallen from their positions because of the lies they told themselves. And once lies get told, they take over. Lies compound over time.

          Lies also muddy the waters of our lives. And just as it is impossible to draw a polluted glass of water from a pure stream, it is impossible to draw a lie from the truth. There are no ends justifying the means here. Truth must stand on its own, without any supporting lies. If lies are part of the foundation, the whole building is in jeopardy.

          We have heard about people who built their careers on lies written into their resume’. Finally, someone does their homework and the truth comes out. The lies put into question everything else said about that person. Deleted emails with the accompanying “trust me” won’t suffice. A polluted stream to be sure. No crashed hard drive will hide the truth.

          For John, the people who left their fellowship and began spreading lies about Jesus was too much to take. He couldn’t sit idly by and allow the Truth to be dismantled. What these people were doing said something about everything they stood for, not just what they believed about Jesus. Everything about their teaching was in question. The lie cannot come from the truth. Truth brings forth truth.

          John appeals to his reader’s knowledge of the truth. They know the Truth because they have experienced its power to transform their lives. They were in darkness, now they are in the light. They were dead, and now they are alive. The Holy Spirit has confirmed the truth in them.

          So be careful about receiving teaching from someone who abandons even one part of the Truth. Make sure the essentials of our faith remain. Don’t fight a battle over the non-essentials. But go to the death defending the identity of Jesus, fully God, fully man and alive forever more. Any watering down of our sinfulness needs to be avoided. If we are only a little sick, then we only need a little help to get better. But if we are, and we are dead, then we need resurrection from the dead to save us.

Anguish

Psalm 4:1-8

      Does your heart ever feel torn when you look around and see the evil that is being done in the world? The senseless killing, the lies portrayed as truth, the deafening silence when persecution of Christians happens, the apparent lack of moral compass in our leaders. There is so much happening in our world that could lead a person to despair.

      Now imagine that you are right in the middle of this struggle. You are trying to stand for what is right and just, and those who oppose you are standing on lies and deceit.  You see their motives, but others are just oblivious. They can’t see, or won’t see what will hit them in the face, given time. Like Lemmings, they are heading for the cliff, but singing and partying as the march.

      King David had several moments in his life when he might have felt like this. One in particular comes to mind. His son, Absalom, had stirred up discontentment in some of David’s subjects. He had stirred the pot of blame and pointed clearly at his father. If only he were king, none of this would have happened. He pulled a classic political move. Paint the current regime as all evil, and yourself as the only solution. Point at them, while all the while deceiving and scheming how you will use the newfound power to destroy the enemy and solidify your new power and position.

      David feels somewhat alone. He prays for an answer from the LORD, even while he senses the LORD’s care and protection. His antagonist, perhaps Absalom, is destroying the kingdom without really knowing it. In his desire for power, he is setting up their his destruction. But David feels the pressure and wants some relief.

      Absalom keeps shooting at the role of king, and David in particular. He tells them to stop falsely ruining the image of the king. If Absalom is successful at kicking David out, he will become king, a position he has destroyed. In today’s world, think Washington, DC. We now don’t trust them to do what is right, and yet we need them to do what is right. We have shot so many holes through them that they don’t dare try to work on any solutions for fear of being shot again. No matter what they do now, we will make sure they fail, even though their failure means our failure.

      David calls on his detractors to take time to really consider what they are doing. They are destroying the kingdom from within. They need to take time and consider their motives. They need to stop believing their own public relations campaigns and start examining the truth. David says they need to search their hearts. Sometimes we need to do the same thing. We need to look inward rather than outward. We need to make sure we are doing the right thing for the right reason at the right time.

      Then David brings their chief complaint before the LORD. They have been complaining about a tough economy. Sound familiar? But instead of blaming Wall Street, David looks to the source of all true prosperity. He knows the LORD is capable of restoring both his position and the hearts of the people. He ask that the LORD’s favor would be on them, the light of His face. David knows that if the LORD looks favorably on them, the economy will return to better times. For them, that was a time when grain was abundant and the harvest plentiful.

      When we are tempted to get on a political bandwagon for or against the powers that be, let us take time to examine our own motives. Take time to take responsibility for our portion of the mess. Correct our heart’s bent and repent. Then we will be able to rest in peace.

Stick to the Wall

Mark 15:2-5

      If you throw enough mud, some is certain to stick. That is a popular strategy for defeating an opponent. It happens on playgrounds and political campaigns around the world every day. You call names, make up stories, bring up past mistakes all in the name of gaining the upper hand. We put the other person down in order to lift ourselves up. They become a stepping stone for our upward rise.

      The one problem with this strategy is that we are now standing on our opponents. Not the most solid of foundations!

      The most powerful government official of that area of the world was holding court that day. Pilate had been governor for at least four years by the time of Jesus’ trial. He would have been familiar with the customs of the Jews, since he would have had to understood their beliefs in order to maintain peace. I am sure this is not the first trial that involved particular aspect of Jewish theology. There had been a long line of rebellions against Roman rule starting in this part of the Roman Empire. This history would have been part of Pilate’s initial briefing when he took office.

      The Jews come to present evidence against Jesus. They want Him convicted of something that would merit death. They have developed a long list of things Jesus has supposedly done. They throw the whole list at Him. This sounds like what many prosecutors do today. They charge you with as many things as possible, hoping to be able to prove one of them. The more things thrown at Jesus, the worse He sounds.

      But Pilate isn’t buying what they are selling. He asks Jesus directly if He is “King of the Jews,” a title that would have certainly put Him at odds with Caesar, the Emperor of Rome. Only one king could exist in the Roman Empire, and that seat was filled.

      So if Jesus had answered and said, “You’re absolutely right about that. And my reign isn’t just over Rome, but over the whole universe. Caesar is nothing to me.” Jesus would have been in big trouble. That would have been a direct threat to Rome itself. But Jesus didn’t have an army, or any real followers at this point. They had all run for cover. They were cowering in the shadows. Rome had nothing to fear from Jesus’ military force. He had none.

      And Jesus doesn’t defend Himself against these obvious false charges. This is what amazes Pilate. Even he can see mud when it is thrown. He can hear the flimsy nature of the charges. He might even want to be the defense attorney, just to see the prosecution squirm on cross examination. But Jesus keeps silent.

      I can bet that many have been accused before Pilate and have given strong defensive arguments against the charges leveled at them. Pilate must have been used to the back and forth of charge and rebuttal. This was a normal part of what happened. Charges were brought and then answers were given.

      But Jesus makes no defense. He says nothing to reject the false charges. He says nothing to address the silliness of the charges.

      What do you do when someone charges you falsely? How do you handle heightened emotional energy leveled your direction? Do you react with equal emotion and vigor? Do you counter sue with charges of your own? Do you bring up their past and throw it in their face?

Like

Proverbs 17:7

      This proverb is really in the Scriptures. It was not put here because of current political figures. Many a ruler lies, but that does not excuse the lies. But what else does this proverb say, and say to us?

      I am often wary of people whose words are too smooth, too polished, too calculated. Timeshare sales staff have this down to an art. Once they start talking every word is planned. And at the end of the day, they get your signature on the dotted line. My wife won’t let me go to any of these presentations because I won’t buy anything. I can’t be persuaded. And I am not very polite with smooth talkers. I am too abrupt.

      Smooth talking and foolishness don’t fit well together. That is because we don’t need more fools! The world has enough to go around. I think they must breed in the news media! Someone who just parrots what they have heard without any thought about whether it makes sense or matches the facts doesn’t help society.

      We need to learn to question, to think for ourselves. Just because someone can say what they say in a way that gets us excited doesn’t mean what they say is true. We knew the math on the Affordable Care Act never added up. It is impossible to care for more people at a higher level of care for less money. At least not without taking over the whole process and controlling how much everyone earns, and kicking the lawyers out of the picture. Simple math!

      I guess the question for us is this: Do we sugarcoat our words in order to convince people? Our ideas need to stand on their own merit, not on our ability to sell them. Personality should not be what sells ideas. But unfortunately, personality has become one of the key factors in convincing people. We have celebrity endorsements for almost every product.

      Be careful what you give your name to. Liking things on Facebook is adding your name and reputation to something. And once your name gets attached, it can be almost impossible to detach it.

Crying Wolf

Proverbs 14:25

      With the abundance of crime shows, both those portraying the crime in glorious detail and those dramatizing the solving of them, we know the value of a good witness to a crime. Solving the case can hinge on the availability and reliability of the witnesses. And in the case of serial criminals, lives may be at stake.

      We want our children to tell us the truth when we ask them, “Did you do this?” And yet the sinful nature raises its ugly head even in three year olds. And when we can’t trust the answer, we begin to doubt every communication. Can we trust anything being said?

      When we talk to kids about lying we often tell the story of about the little boy who cried “Wolf” one too many times. When the wolf actually came, no one believed him and he was eaten! The moral is that we shouldn’t lie about danger. And yet how many of us should be eaten by the wolf? We get in a crisis and call in the cavalry. But if we have too many crises, how can we expect people to know when a real crisis arrives?

      Once someone lies to me I put a filter between myself and that person. I question what they say in every circumstance. The more they lie, the stronger the filter. And what really gets me is when they lie to try to manipulate me or the circumstances. When they purposefully hide the truth, that gets me really mad.

      This could be why lawyers have such a bad reputation. They often tell only part of the truth in order to win a case. Truth is black and white. Truth doesn’t come in shades of grey. So when we try to tell “little white lies” we are really telling horribly black lies.

      Ouch! That was very insensitive, wasn’t it! Our proverb tells us that lives are at stake. We need to tell the truth.