Fear No Fear

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14, MEV). Jesus loves us enough to call us to Truth. As a general rule, humanity likes to say we value the truth but actually prefer to lie. In an article in Time, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania says that ‘I believe that we should be teaching our kids, students and employees when and how to lie.’ That sounds horrible (and personally, I think it is), but their point is that we lie when we have someone’s best interest at heart (social lies to save feelings); if there is no time to change (relational lies that the outfit looks good); lies while evaluating performance (opening a door to constructive criticism by not trashing them from the get go); saving them from worry (withholding truth to not ruin special occasions); and in a lack of familiarity (you’re probably never going to see them again anyway or you just don’t care if they know the truth). We generally would agree with those categories. We don’t want to be hurt. If the truth hurts, we’ll fib a little. A ‘white’ lie. Yet, all those lofty goals can be reached with the absolute and unvarnished truth – provided it is spoken in love. Jesus calls us to that kind of truth. We are not empowered to make excuses. We are not given leeway to speak something that isn’t true. We are called to truth in ALL our dealings – with ourselves as well as with other people. Self-deceit is rampant in the world. It always has been present, but we are taking to new highs with our social systems. We let people lie to themselves, build lives around those lies, and create a support system to make sure the truth never reaches their hearts. We don’t do it because we’re evil (not most of us, anyway). The motivation is to protect the person from harm. Anxiety, big feelings, trauma, or a need to restrict themselves in some way – after all, not all things are beneficial and none of us like to hear it. But Jesus is not about lies of any shade. A lie is a lie is a lie. It is the language of rebellion. God is TRUTH (John 14:6). Those who would align themselves with God will need to align themselves with the truth. It’s hard. Hearing the truth is hard. Speaking it is harder. We are in a fallen creation. One in which the first act of humanity was to HIDE (Genesis 3:7). Lies hide things. But God immediately came and called them out of hiding and into the light of truth (Genesis 3:9). It was hard. Feelings were all over the place. But God was there protecting them, loving them, ensuring they were safe and would not stay in the fallen condition, and He provided for them after they heard and accepted the truth (Genesis 3:21). Jesus is ALL about truth. For each and every one of us. It is important that we are willing to hear it from someone who loves us enough to tell it to us.