TRUTH. WHAT A SAD INDICTMENT that we must promise, by an oath, that we will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help us God. The grand, troubling, assumption of that oath is that we do not usually tell the truth. Our natural propensity is not toward speaking the truth, but rather toward, cover-up, fibbing, coloring the truth, stretching the truth, oh let’s call it for what it is: lying or worse, deceit. OUCH!
This problem has been with us since we got thrown out the Garden. In fact, was it not a lie, by the Chief Liar, that got all this going. Remember, it was Satan who said to Eve, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:3-5) There is some truth in what Satan said, but it was definitely not the whole truth. It sounded right enough to Eve that she fell into the trap, as did Adam, as do all of us.
So, how do we return to being the truth-tellers that God created us to be? It starts with surrendering our lives to the One who is the Truth, Jesus Christ. Apart from Him, and the Holy Spirit working within us, we are truly what author M. Scott Peck called, “People of the Lie.”
With the Truth at the center of our lives we must then develop a habit of truth-telling. Wesley Pippert writes, “One of the most effective disciplines I know is not to do something the first time. . . Not to do something the first time is a tremendous bulwark to not doing it later.” A wise old wag once said, that if we tell the truth we can have a short memory. The issue is lying begets lies, so the best thing to do is not to start.
And that’s the truth. Honest!