Even When We Know the Truth, Do We Tell It?

Being an old-school guy, I still spend time listening to the radio when I’m driving. I’ve not yet made the switch to iPods or MP3 players – guess I’m still waiting for the next best thing to arrive. Kind of like going straight from the old 8-track tapes to CDs and skipping cassette tapes, even though that’s already an obsolete comparison.

 

Anyway, while scanning the radio recently, I happened upon a song that caught my ear. I don’t even know the artist who sang it, but the lyrics said, “Truth be told, the truth is rarely told.” Wow! Just eight words, but it’s a real mouthful. 

 

There are lots of directions we could go with that thought, but it occurs to me that sadly, this happens even within the Church. Even when we’re not plagued with a global virus that prohibits, or at least inhibits, our assembling together. You would think as groups of admittedly flawed and fallen people gather to be reminded of the love, grace and mercy of God, we’d feel free to be transparent, even vulnerable with each other. Too often, this isn’t the case.

 

I rarely hear the term anymore, but years ago they used to have “come as you are” parties. Often spur of the moment, these involved invitees attending just as they were when the party was announced – wearing pajamas, bathrobes, or whatever. Maybe the downfall of come-as-you-are events was people deciding that no matter where they go, they’ll come any old way they want.

 

Imagine a church marquee announcing, “Come as you are!” with members of the congregation following up on that, welcoming visitors however they are, no facades or pretentions. Maybe some churches are like that, but they’re the exception, not the rule. Yes, it’s become more and more acceptable to ditch the ties and sport coats in favor of jeans, untucked shirts, shorts, sandals, even no shoes. But come as you are – on the inside? 

 

A friend wrote a book called, Behind Our Sunday Smiles, its title derived from our inclination to display false expressions on Sunday mornings, even if we’ve had the argument of all arguments driving to church, or if our personal lives are crumbling. We reason, “If I tell them the truth when they ask, ‘How are you?’ they won’t like me - or won't want to hear it anyway.”

 

Instead of being able to confidently ask, “Can I be perfectly honest?” it’s as the song says, “Truth be told, the truth is rarely told.”

 

Which is sad, because Jesus Christ was particularly drawn to the come-as-you-are kind of folks: 

• Matthew, the much-despised tax collector, who was viewed by his fellow Jews as a sellout to the Romans. 
• The man with leprosy, a social pariah through no fault of his own, who approached Jesus and said, “If you are willing, you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40). 
• The woman who for years had been plagued with a chronic bleeding problem (Mark 5:24-34). 
• The paralyzed man whose friends carried him to Jesus on a mat, asking that he be healed (Luke 5:17-26). 
• The Samaritan woman at the well whose disreputable past caused her rejection by other women in her town (John 4:4-26).

 

There were many others, but each of these saw something in Jesus that enabled them to let down their guard, to cast aside their shame, and approach Him just as they were. Why shouldn’t it be the same in today’s Church, which the Bible describes as the body of Christ (Ephesians 5:25-32, Colossians 1:24)? God never intended for the Church to be a showcase for spiritual giants, but a hospital for sinners desperately in search of healing and recovery. 

 

Isn’t it about time that those outside the Church could no longer say, to borrow the phrase from the film, “A Few Good Men”: “You can’t handle the truth!” Because as Jesus declared, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). He also promised, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

 

As His followers, we shouldn’t only be truth-seekers; we should also be truth-tellers, ones who encourage others to do the same. 

Taking Truth to the Negotiating Table?

It’s time to revisit a topic in the forefront of many people’s minds these days. Pontius Pilate, confronted with what to do with Jesus, whom religious leaders regarded as rabble-rouser at best and outright threat at worst, famously asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Lots of people these days seem to be wondering the same thing.

We tend to treat truth as a negotiable commodity, like going into a grocery store and choosing between brands and flavors of jelly (or jam or preserves), kinds of deli meat, or varieties of cereal. Everyone likes multiple choices, don’t we? 

If you’re old enough, you remember having only three TV stations – or if you’re not that old, about a dozen cable channels. Boring, right? (Today we have hundreds of channels from which to choose, and still can’t find anything worth watching!) When cars were invented, Henry Ford said something like, “You can have your Model T in any color you want – as long as it’s black.” Can you conceive of not having dozens of makes, models, sizes and styles of cars, vans, SUVs and trucks, not to mention color schemes or accessory options?

Lots of folks view spirituality the same way. They recoil at the notion that there could be such a thing as absolute spiritual truth. I read this post recently on social media: 

“One can believe they have a corner on the truth and God’s will, but that would be true of any number of people from any number of religions.” 

In other words, who’s to say that Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and all the other “isms” aren’t equally true? (Despite the fact that even a cursory comparison reveals they differ greatly on many key points, often diametrically opposed and irreconcilable.)

Should we agree that truth is simply a matter of what’s right in the eyes of the beholder? As long as one is sincere – or convinced? Kumbaya, anyone?

Well, drawing cues from everyday life we discover truth isn’t nearly so negotiable. Take, for example, commonplace realities like gravity, blood, or even roadways.

What would you think of someone who said, “I’m jumping off this cliff. My truth says I won’t fall, that instead I’ll soar like an eagle”? Gravity has little interest in what our “truth” tells us. What goes up must come down, like it or not.

If we need a blood transfusion, in most cases a blood type matching our own is required. Tomato juice or red fruit punch won’t do; not even blood from a cow or a camel. No matter what someone decides they want their “truth” about their blood to be, the type of blood they have is the type they will need.

Many roadways are very clearly designated for one way. Especially highways. We don’t want some driver deciding “her truth” says it’s okay to drive south in the northbound lane. We’ve all heard about what happens when one person’s truth collides with someone else’s truth on the interstate.

There’s a tendency to balk when we’re told there’s only one way to achieve a desired objective. But imagine a passenger of the Titanic, struggling to stay afloat in the frigid waters as the fabled ocean liner sinks to the ocean floor. (This is shortly after the ship captain’s “truth” told him the Titanic was unsinkable, and that there couldn’t be an iceberg in the vicinity poised to rip a hole in the ship’s hull.) 

A lifeboat comes across the frantic passenger treading water. There’s room for one more person in the lifeboat, and it’s the swimmer’s last chance for survival. Yet he emphatically refuses to climb in, insisting he’ll wait for a larger rescue boat. His own “truth” convinces him this isn’t his one and only option. How long do you think his truth would keep him alive?

For this reason, when we read Jesus make the seemingly audacious statement,“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6), we should at least take a moment to consider the magnitude of His claim. Many argue, “Jesus is the only way? No way!” Then they move along pursuing their own way, their “truth.”

But Jesus didn’t make that assertion just once. He made it clear truth was of eminent importance for Him, such as the time He addressed the esteemed Pharisees: “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me…. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!’" (John 8:42-45).

Harsh, tough words, right? Jesus apparently hadn’t read Dale Carnegie’s book about how to win friends and influence people. But sometimes there’s no soft-pedaling, no sugarcoating the truth.

If He were standing among us today, I believe Jesus would say the same thing. As He told Jews who were following Him, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

And how can we find this truth? How can we know it? Jesus gave this answer as well: "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father – the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he will testify about me” (John 15:26). 

The Original ‘Nick at Nite’

This was the "Nick@Nite" logo
used by the Nickelodeon Channel,
2002-2006.

Have you or your kids ever watched “Nick@Nite,” programs broadcast in the evening by the Nickelodeon cable channel? It features syndicated series, children’s-oriented films and some original programming. We rarely watch it, unless one of our grandkids is visiting, but did you know there was another “Nick at night” about 2,000 years ago?

This “Nick” was Nicodemus, a member of the Pharisees, the Jewish ruling council, in the days of Jesus. In an amazing encounter recounted in the gospel of John (chapter 3:1-21), Nicodemus went to see Jesus at night, under the cover of darkness, presumably so he would not be observed by his peers and open to their ridicule. This evening interaction revealed a foundational spiritual truth.

Nicodemus kicked off the conversation by stating, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” As He so often did, Jesus responded in a very unexpected way, answering a question the Pharisee had not even asked: “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” 

The religious leader’s first inclination might have been to do a double-take, thinking something like, “Huh? What?” But then he asked, “How can a man be born when he is old?... Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus quickly explained He was not referring to physical birth, but rather spiritual renewal and transformation.

“I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear the sound but cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:5-8).

In 1976, in the days leading up to the Presidential election, then-candidate Jimmy Carter brought the term, “born again Christian,” into mainstream consciousness when he gave an interview in the most unlikely of places, Playboy magazine. Over the decades since then, “born again” has been used – and misused – countless times. But there’s no mistaking what Jesus meant during his interaction with Nicodemus.

He wasn’t referring to a simple change of thinking, attitude or philosophy. Neither was Jesus insisting upon the adoption of a new ideology or belief system. He was introducing “Nick” – and us – to a fundamental principle of the Christian faith. We can’t have a genuine, life-changing relationship with God without being born again spiritually. 

In Ephesians 2:1-25, we’re told, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient…. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ….” In another letter, the apostle Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

Grasping this truth, this reality, has been transforming for me, as I suspect it was for Nicodemus, who later became one of Jesus’ devoted followers. Being a person who does checklists and enjoys crossing off my “to-do’s,” I had been trying “to do” the Christian life, with very little success – but much frustration. Sometimes I still forget, or get distracted and fall back into my old “I can do this myself” habits. Then the Lord reminds me of what He said elsewhere, “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). 

I know I’ve written about this before, but I remember how long it took for this truth to really sink in. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). I can’t overstate how freeing it has been to “get it,” knowing that it’s not about what I can do for the Lord, but rather, what He wants to do in me and through me. Understanding this makes all the difference, every minute of every day!

Can We Handle the Truth – with Grace?

“You can’t handle the truth!” This classic line from the film, “A Few Good Men,” resonates today because it seems many people have problems handling the truth – or even recognizing what it is.

Truth faces uphill battles these days. We hear claims of “fake news” or “fake facts.” (And that’s just from kindergarten classrooms!) Politicians point to each other, and the mess – I mean, mass – media with accusations of fabricating falsehoods or intentionally distorting the truth. Entire websites are devoted to propagating fictitious news stories, sometimes disguised as satire. Outrageous “reports” get posted on social media, and darned if hundreds of people don’t fall for the hoaxes. It’s increasingly hard these days to distinguish truth from fiction.

The old quiz show, "To Tell the Truth," recently revived,
capitalizes on the transitory nature of "truth."

In the midst of this “truth crisis,” the quiz show “To Tell the Truth” has been revived. It originally ran from 1956 to 1968, featuring guests with unusual occupations or personal distinctions, as is the case with the newer version. In each segment, one guest is telling the truth. The other two are imposters, posing as the person to be revealed., By asking a series of questions, panelists seek to discern who’s telling the truth and who’s not. Sometimes, the charlatans appear more truthful than the real deal.

Believers today are also wrestling with truth, but in a different sense. The truth has always been bedrock to Christianity. Jesus Christ claimed, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). We are convinced as well that the Bible is God’s inspired Word, His truth about who He is, who we are, and how we should live. Jesus prayed for His disciples, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).

Because of this, we assert the truth is non-negotiable. At the same time, God didn’t call for us to bludgeon others with the truth, wielding it as a spiritual club in our attempts to persuade others to understand and accept it. Because inherent to the truth of the Scriptures is His unconditional love and His grace, the Lord’s unmerited favor extended to all who will receive it. This leads to a tension – the struggle to balance God’s revealed truth with His grace, which no one can earn or deserve.

Because it can feel awkward to present both at the same time, many of us tend to lean toward one or the other – black-and-white, unyielding truth, or grace, which often seems more welcoming. But as pastor J. D. Greear recently noted (and others before him), we haven’t the option of choosing one or the other.

Greear stated, “Truth without grace is fundamentalism; grace without truth is vapid sentimentalism.” Both are indispensable to the gospel message. But it’s a great tension – presenting the truth in a gracious manner, as well as discussing grace in the light of God’s truth.

I’ve wrestle with this often. I’m inclined to be blunt, speaking the truth from the Scriptures as I’ve come to understand it, firing from the hip. To borrow Greear’s terms, none of that “vapid sentimentalism” for me. However, a 100 percent dose of truth, without the softening effect of grace, can come across as harsh, legalistic, judgmental, rigid and insensitive. When I was first confronted with God’s truth, thankfully it was offered with an equal portion of grace.

Jesus never minced words about the truth: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Many of us have experienced this in our own lives, finding the teachings and principles of the Scriptures are not restrictive, as some would contend, but liberating, affording us the joy of becoming what God has intended for us to be.

Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus made bold, seemingly outrageous claims that if untrue, would earn Him status as either the greatest liar in the history of the world, or insane. He was neither. At the same time, the gospels often show His interactions with others as being filled with love and compassion. He sought to relate to people exactly where they were – not where He wanted them to be or thought they should be. Our approach in presenting His truth to others should follow His example.

This is why 1 Peter 3:15 admonishes: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” We’re to hold fast to the truth – that Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord, the only way to God. But we’re also to respond to those who inquire about our faith with grace, “with gentleness and respect.”

Another of my favorite evangelistic verses expresses it this way: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6). Just as Jesus always responded with the right words for the right occasion, our prayerful desire should be to do the same whenever opportunities arise. Then, others may be able to handle the truth they hear from us.

Is It Time to Reconsider ‘Freedom’?

Who doesn’t like “free,” right? Maybe a free item when you purchase one like it – buy one, get one free. Maybe a free stay at some resort hotel, the only caveat being that you endure a very persuasive sales presentation. Or maybe a free lunch, free education, or free health insurance. There’s a lot to like about “free.”

So it’s appropriate on this Independence Day to pause and consider what the whole notion of “freedom” is all about. We’re celebrating the virtues of equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and other “unalienable Rights.” The Constitution’s Bill of Rights consists of amendments written to protect many of these rights, including freedom of religious expression, free speech, freedom of the press, freedom to bear arms, and others.

These days, however, it seems the very concepts of freedom and liberty are under attack, being redefined by political and social agendas. The Constitution itself has come under fire by segments of society set on reshaping its meaning to accomplish their ends.

What does it truly mean to be “free”? When talking about liberty and freedom, how are we to understand these terms? What are the parameters, limits and boundaries within which we must exercise our freedoms? Is it time to reconsider, to revisit these questions?

It would seem interpretation of these freedoms – separated from what the Declaration calls “their Creator” – is subject to the whims, wiles and winds of ever-changing social mores. Even how our revered Supreme Court defines them depends on its current liberal-conservative makeup. Rather than serving as a constant, a standard and guide for “We the People of the United States” in our quest “a more perfect Union” and to “insure domestic Tranquility,” our Constitution and what the Founding Fathers meant when they wrote it has become a moving target.

I’ve always appreciated a very simple definition of freedom as “being free to do as we ought, rather than doing whatever we want.” The freedom to drive on the highway, for example, should also involve the constraint to drive at a reasonable speed, pay attention to what’s happening on the road, obey traffic signals, and show courtesy to other motorists.

The absolute authority on freedom, in my view, is what God has revealed in the Bible. It started in Genesis, when He told Adam and Eve, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden (of Eden), but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:16-17). From the get-go, God gave the first couple considerable latitude in their choices of food, with a single exception. But they decided that wasn’t enough freedom. They proceeded to exceed the limits of the freedom they had been given, and we’ve been pushing those boundaries ever since.

God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites, as well as all succeeding members of His eternal family, to instruct in how to have healthy, growing relationships with Him and everyone we meet from day to day. His intent wasn’t to be restrictive, but rather to provide a means for insuring what He might have termed “domestic tranquility.”

Commandments like “you shall not murder,” “you shall not steal,” “you shall not lie,” and “you shall not covet your neighbor’s possessions” (Exodus 20:1-17, Deuteronomy 5:6-21) don’t seem unduly harsh, do they? Especially in light of Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:33). However, many still find the commandments offensive. Especially ones that insist that we have no other gods before the one true God, should not worship idols, or “misuse the name of the Lord your God.” And for some, “do not commit adultery” is particularly problematic.

But without question, the Bible offers a plan for experiencing genuine freedom and liberty, a way to “be all that you can be,” as the U.S. Army marketing slogan used to promise years ago.

The apostle Paul wrote, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). What did he mean by “a yoke of slavery”? Paul explained that in another of his New Testament letters:

“Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life…. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life” (Romans 6:13-22).

In the gospel of John, Jesus made another clear assertion about freedom – freedom that’s not affected by changing philosophies and ideologies. He focused on freedom that can’t be redefined by government, society or political correctness when He declared, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:32-36). We can be free to be and to become everything God has called us to be.

So as we celebrate the freedoms we have enjoyed in this nation known as the United States, we ought also to be grateful for the freedom we can have in Christ that spans eternity, transcends traditions, and crosses all gender, racial, ethnic and cultural barriers.

Believing is Seeing

Sunrise at Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Alan Cash)

The adage tells us, “Seeing is believing.” This particularly applies to our physical world, in which we make observations and draw conclusions based on what we’ve seen. Prior to the initiative and inventiveness of Orville and Wilbur Wright, mankind suspected it might be possible to fly but as every effort failed, it seemed a hope beyond belief. After the Wright brothers demonstrated human beings could in fact travel aloft, albeit for only a short distance at first, others saw, believed and pressed forward to discover what it would require to travel by air.

Of course, some still feel a disconnect between sight and belief. They’ve seen planes in flight, perhaps even close-up at an airport, but refuse to board a jet for fear it will crash. Even though many more people die annually in car crashes, while plane accidents are relatively rare, they’d sooner walk a tightrope than get on a plane. Seeing doesn’t always correlate to believing.

There are times when the antithesis of the adage is also true. A child stands at poolside, looking simultaneously at the water and open arms of a parent who urges, “Jump!” The little girl gazes around, weighing her options, probably thinking, “Daddy, you’re not raising some fool. That water’s deep, and I’m little…. I’m not going to jump.”

Yet after persistent parental pleadings, the toddler casts childlike sense to the wind and, believing in daddy – even though the water still seems threatening – leaps and is captured by her parent’s waiting hands. Believing and trusting in the parent, the girl finally “sees” her father protecting her from the watery depths.

Decades ago C.S. Lewis, one of my favorite writers, and a very astute thinker, made this observation; “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” Lewis – a former atheist – found that believing is seeing.

From a spiritual perspective, this is the conundrum. We’re asked to believe – and trust – in a God we can’t see. From a scientific, empirical sense it’s true – we can’t prove the existence of God. At the same time, neither can you prove scientifically or empirically that God doesn’t exist. The spiritual is not confined or controlled by physical laws. So you can either conclude, “I can’t see God, therefore He (or she, or it) does not exist,” or you can decide even though you can’t see God in physical, quantifiable form, you’ll believe in Him just the same.

Think about it this way: Do you believe in love? Can you prove the existence of love in a scientific way? No, you can’t. You can observe its effects, but you can’t categorically “prove” love – after all, people do “fall out of love,” don’t they? Maybe they weren’t “in love” to begin with; they just liked what they got out of a relationship and when they tired of it or it stopped meeting their needs, decided it wasn’t love after all so it was okay to bail out of it.

In the same way, while God can’t be observed in a test tube, Petri dish, microscope or telescope, we can observe His effects: Compassion shown to people victimized by disease, disaster or tragedy. People who give generously to people, as well as causes, that can offer them absolutely no personal benefit, other than the joy and satisfaction of knowing people have been helped and causes advanced because of their kindness. Individuals giving up lucrative, comfortable careers and lifestyles to immerse themselves in alien cultures with strange languages and unfamiliar customs to assist the less fortunate in the name of Christ.

We all have an inner sense of right and wrong. We admire acts of selflessness and humility. We applaud the “good Samaritans,” so-called because of a biblical parable, who go to great lengths to come to the aid of those in distress. No, we don’t have to believe in God to abide by some moral code, but where do those values come from in the first place?

Years ago I took a step of faith, committing my life to Jesus even though I had no clue what that would mean. As it’s turned out, it has meant much, much more than I could ever have imagined. As I’ve been hoping to share through this blog over the past six years, similar to what Lewis wrote, I believe in Christ as I believe the sun has risen – because by Him, and through Him, I see everything else.

Or as Jesus said even more eloquently, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Free not to do anything I want, but free to progressively become everything He wants me to be.