To Tell The Truth

During the end of my pastorate in Cleveland, I was bi-vocational for a period of time, teaching fifth grade in a Christian school. On the first day of classes each year, I gave the obligatory speech about expectations for the year, including classroom rules. One of the things I attempted to instill in my students was to never lie to me, because once caught lying, from that point on, what they said would always be in doubt. For my part, the consequences of the truth would go much better than lying about it and then the truth coming out later (it almost always does).

There was one student out of four years that didn’t get it. In fact I’m convinced he lied so much he didn’t even realize he was lying. This made for an interesting year.

I tell this story to make a connection with where we are today. Not telling the truth seems to have become so easy that many people don’t even bat an eye. We don’t even call it lying. Here are some examples: little white lies, half-truths, not telling the whole story, selective reporting, etc. Can you see where this goes? It is so prevalent that “fact-checking” has become a necessity. 

Unfortunately, some church folk are just as guilty. Rather than “speaking the truth in love,” is replaced by acquiescence out of fear of offending. Transparency is replaced by manipulation to get our way or promote our cause. There are quite a few scriptures that speak about truthfulness.

Ephesians 4:25 says, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” And Proverbs 12:22 says, “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.”

I am looking forward to six weeks from now when I will have listened to or watched my last political ad. Both sides are guilty of misrepresenting the truth, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Promoting their own ideas and solutions is replaced by attacks and demonization the opponent. But this is not limited to the political realm. It has divided families and even divided churches. It manifests itself as “if you don’t agree with me, it’s my way or the highway. 

We are not going to fix the political divide anytime soon. But we’d better be working at being truthful and honest and pointing people to the Prince of Peace. It may sound trite, but it’s not the elephant or the donkey, but the Lamb who will bring this all to an ultimately peaceful end. Oh, what a day that will be!

‭