The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth

1 John 2:1-6 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

“Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies.” Quote from Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), an Anglo-Irish writer, poet, playwright and physician.

Sadly, the quote rings loudly of the mentality and ethics held by far too many. Lies and deception are so commonplace we are stunned when we hear and recognize the truth. I do not need to list the reasons people justify lying…we all know them and have at one time or another used all them ourselves. Before we were walking with Jesus Christ, we were numbered among the liars and deceivers. Since choosing to follow Christ…sadly, we are numbered among the liars and deceivers. We just think we have better motives now for the half-truths, omissions, and assumptions we allow people to believe, right? Wrong!

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

There ya go…the rationalization some Christians use to let themselves off the hook for their sins. “But”, you might say. “it is scripture!” Of course it is…and Jesus will stand as our advocate for us when our shortcomings slap us in the head. But read on… Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. This may sting, Friends, but in case you missed it, He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Harsh? Perhaps…but why is it we would want use Jesus as our ‘life preserver’ per se, if we really KNOW Him? I can’t imagine that Jesus would want His Bride to be known for being deceptive and sinning while waving the ‘Jesus flag’, can you?

But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. That’s where we should be… in Him…not using Him as our scapegoat as in the days before He died on the cross for us.

He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. Jesus didn’t deceive or lie or lead people down the merry path of sin and destruction as He paraded through waving His own ‘Son of God’ flag. He IS truth! He IS love! He IS mercy! He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

“Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies.” has NO place in the life of a person who abides in Christ. This hits me hard because I'm guilty of that. Quoting myself, "My private life is just that...private." I do not believe we need spill our guts to everyone we know but there is a fine line between maintaining my need for 'privacy' and allowing people to believe that which is not true. Sadly, some people ask questions out of curiosity more than concern and are lying to themselves when they pass it off as such. Holy moly! Fine line, indeed!!

Standing for Truth

Isaiah 59:15 Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.

I write a blog called Truth in the Morning and the ministry God gave me to do is called Truth in Love World Ministries. He named them; I didn’t, so you can see how the subject of truth is non-negotiable for me. I ran across an article by A.W. Tozer that resounded in my spirit and today I am sharing it. There is a lot of ‘black and white’ in my bottom-line world and it is often not appreciated by others. Once I stepped into the pure light of Christ out of the gray fog in which I lived in the world, there was not a lot of room for gray anymore. It could not stand up to the pure light of His righteousness. Here is what Tozer had to say.

In our culture today there seem to be only two absolutes: (1) that there are no absolutes except that there are no absolutes; and (2) everything must be tolerated since there is no absolute truth. Painful and uncomfortable as it is, we must stand up for truth.

We have developed in recent times a peace-loving, soft-spoken, tame and harmless brand of Christian of whom the world has no fear and for whom it has little respect. We are careful, for instance, never to speak in public against any of the false cults lest we be thought intolerant. We fear to talk against the destructive sins of modern civilization for fear someone will brand us as bigoted and narrow. Little by little we have been forced off the hard earth into a religious cloud-land where we are permitted to wing our harmless way around, like swallows at sundown, saying nothing that might stir the ire of the sons of this world. That Neo-Christianity, which seems for the time to be the most popular (and is certainly the most aggressive), is very careful not to oppose sin. It wins its crowds by amusing them and its converts by hiding from them the full implications of the Christian message. It carries on its projects after the ballyhoo methods of American business. Well might we paraphrase Wordsworth and cry, "Elijah, thou shouldst be living at this hour; America has need of thee." We stand in desperate need of a few men like Elijah who will dare to face up to the brazen sinners who dictate our every way of life. Sin in the full proportions of a revolution or a plague has all but destroyed our civilization while church people have played like children in the marketplace. What has happened to the spirit of the American Christian? Has our gold become dim? Have we lost the spirit of discernment till we can no longer recognize our captors? How much longer will we hide in caves while Ahab and Jezebel continue to pollute the temple and ravage the land? Surely we should give this some serious thought and prayer before it is too late--if indeed it is not too late already.

In an age where we worry more about being politically correct and fear being labeled ‘intolerant’, I am concerned we have strayed to the left of truth and taken our eyes off the pure white light of God’s Word. Light and darkness cannot coexist. There is either one or the other.

I John 1:5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

Father, give me courage and boldness to lovingly and graciously stand for You in my sphere of influence. May I be Your ambassador.