Tell Me - and SHOW Me - the Truth

Tell Me – and SHOW Me - the Truth
by, Charles W. Christian

"I am the way, the truth, and the life." - Jesus in John 14:6

Have you ever had bad experiences regarding the truth?  I have.  I have witnessed struggles among my brothers and sisters in Christ regarding telling the truth.  I have been lied to.  And, I have lied. 

My bad experiences have not come from the truth itself, although the truth can be uncomfortable at times.  Jesus spoke of knowing the truth so that the truth could set us free (John 8:32).  Of course, Jesus was not simply speaking of a set of principles or even a group of “facts.”  He was speaking of Himself: when we know Jesus, we know the Truth that is foundational to all that is right, good, loving, and true.  Part of this implies that knowing Jesus and taking Him seriously in our lives guides us in becoming people who speak and live the truth.  That last part – living and “doing” the truth – is actually a phrase found in the Bible.  So “truth” is something we speak (we tell the truth) and something we do (live out the truth).  How do we know what that is?  The answer: Jesus.  We know how to consistently tell the truth by following and imitating Jesus.  We know how to consistently live the truth by following and imitating Jesus.  God, through the Holy Spirit, gives us the opportunities and abilities needed to do this as we grow.

The Challenge

The challenge in regard to speaking and living the truth is that it is quite simply easier to substitute truth for a lie.  Again, I am not simply talking about believing a set of false principles over true principles, although this can be part of the equation.  It goes much deeper than that.  We are in a world that makes it easy to speak and live untruthfully.  It is sometimes even encouraged.  We are told we should have it our way and take control.  These become reasons we invoke for setting aside Christlike priorities, saying whatever is convenient for the moment, and treating people as simply a means to our own ends.  In short, it is contrary to all that is of Christ and is therefore a life of lies. 

This has plagued humankind from its beginnings, of course.  It is, to put it bluntly, a key element of our own story that needs repair.    

The Solution

However, our story does not end with our self-deception.  The same God who is truth truthfully proclaims Himself to be our redeemer.  God, by the power of the Holy Spirit and through the person and work of Jesus Christ, comes to set our lives right.  He comes to help us move from living a lie (the lie, for instance, that says our way is the best way) to embracing and living out the Truth (that the ways of Jesus are the ways of authentic living and truth).  In years of encountering Christians in the church and in academics, I have seen wonderful examples of men and women whose top priority is to live in a Christlike way: to exchange the convenient ways and even popular ways of going about their lives for seeking to live in a way that maximizes the love of Jesus Christ in their lives.  Sadly, I have seen those who approach even the life of faith as “just business,” and people who see other people as simply a “means to an end.”  This severely cripples their witness and the impact of the Church. 

What is the Truth?

As a battered and bloody Jesus was standing trial before the Roman governor Pilate in first century Jerusalem,  Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?”  Jesus responded to Pilate by telling Pilate that truth is found not in a set a principles, but in the person and work of Jesus Himself, since Jesus is about the primary purposes of God.  Likewise, we as Christians answer the same question by ultimately pointing to Jesus Christ: His ways and His goals.

For Jesus, people were more important than things.  This is Truth.  For Jesus, telling the truth meant doing so in love.  Separating honesty from genuine compassion and concern is not the whole truth, according to Jesus.  Furthermore, purporting to be loving without being genuinely honest was also not the whole truth.  For Jesus, the redemptive purposes of God outranked the world’s definition of priorities, success, and even wisdom.  This is Truth.  For Jesus, God’s desire for His Kingdom and purposes to spread throughout the earth in genuine redemption of all creation was the only real definition of “success.”  This is Truth.  He is Truth.  He is the Way.  He is Life.