To Tell The Truth

"To Tell the Truth" was a classic television game show from 1956 to 1968 in which a person of some notoriety and two impostors tried to match wits with a panel of four celebrities. The game's objective was to try to fool the celebrities into voting for the two impostors. Some of you will remember this black and white show and may have played along at home. Telling the truth is no game, especially in this day and time.

Today, there is an oddity at work; people do not want to hear the truth and are content to go about their business, ignoring the issues that enslave us. We are busy trying to make a living in the highest inflated economy since 1981, and we love our distracting entertainment. If we learn the truth about the issues, we will have to act on that truth, and that takes a lot of time and effort. It is easier to "go along to get along," the mantra of most American churches.

Thus, if the government barks the command to shut down our “non-essential” churches and stay at home, we don’t bat an eye nor look for the truth behind the directive. We are not interested in the facts, just in getting along with the least “muss and fuss.”

God calls Christians to a higher standard than “going along to get along,” He calls us to the truth. In Ephesians 4:25 (NKJV) Paul states, “Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.”

Before his conversion, Paul persecuted Christians, thinking he was acting in the truth of God. At his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, he beheld the truth of God face to face. He then began his ministry of telling the truth of God to the Gentiles throughout the Roman Empire. Quite a disruption of his life! His nature compelled him to actively engage in telling the realities of the gospel. Notice his motivation in 2 Corinthians 5:14 (NKJV), “For the love of Christ compels us.”

Withholding the truth is equivalent to collusion with deception, whether regarding the validity of the gospel or the reality of our times. We have attributed this quote to Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” In actuality, the utilitarian philosopher, John Stuart Mill, expressed the thought when he delivered an 1867 inaugural address at the University of St. Andrews and stated:

“Let not anyone pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”

Our contemporary culture is not so different from previous ones, though we think we are much more sophisticated and intelligent. We have the same distractions as past generations: idolatry, entertainment, lethargy, and political manipulation through fear and brainwashing, for when we hear a lie long enough, we tend to believe it. Our culture needs to hear the inconvenient truth regarding our issues.

Biblical truth is the basis for all truth. The Bible thoroughly equips us for every situation, according to 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Just as our Founders, if we apply the scriptures to our lives, we will overcome the lies and disinformation we face.

Here is the problem, it is not always easy or convenient, to tell the truth to people. You have probably experienced that most people do not want to hear anything contrary to what they have accepted as accurate. They do not want to hear that the media exaggerates Covid numbers or that the Covid shot causes tragic side-effects, including death. Yet, the evidence is there, and people reject it because it doesn't fit their narrative. They are actually intellectually dishonest in rejecting the facts.

It would be easy for us to be silent, but that is not an option. In addition to Bible passages, listen to these two of many quotes on truth by our Founders :

Benjamin Franklin:

We perfectly concur with you in sentiment, Sir, “honesty is the best policy.” Endeavor to speak truth in every instance.”

Thomas Jefferson:

Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. Truth can stand by itself.

Speaking the truth using biblical principles is a noble gesture, but God requires even more of us. In Ephesians 4:15 (NKJV, emphasis added) Paul wrote:

15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—