* Nothing But the Truth
(Posts with preamble asterisks * are for a more general audience. . . not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
Max Lucado from his book ‘Just Like Jesus’ writes:
A woman stands before a judge and jury, places one had on the Bible and the other in the air and makes a pledge. For the next few minutes, with God as her helper, she will “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
She is a witness. Her job is not to expand upon nor dilute the truth. Leave it to the legal counsel to interpret. Leave it to the jury to resolve. Leave it to the judge to apply. But the witness speaks the truth. Let her do more or less and she taints the outcome. But let her do that—let her tell the truth—and justice has a chance.
The Christian, too, is a witness. We, too, make a pledge. Like the witness in court, we are called to tell the truth. The bench may be absent and the judge unseen, but the Bible is present, and the watching world is the jury, and we are the primary witnesses. We are subpoenaed by no less than Jesus himself: ‘You will be my witnesses—in Jerusalem, in all of Judea, in Samaria, and in every part of the world” (Acts 1:8, italics added).
We are witnesses. And like witnesses in court we are called to testify, to tell the truth we have seen and heard. And we are to speak truthfully. Our task is not to whitewash or bloat the truth. Our task is to tell the truth. Period.
There is, however, one difference between the witness in court and the witness for Christ. The witness in court eventually steps down from the witness chair, but the witness for Christ never does. Since the claims of Christ are always on trial, court is perpetually in session, and we remain under oath. For the Christian, deception is never an option. It wasn’t an option for Jesus.
What God Can’t Do
One of the most astounding assessments of Christ is this summary: “He had done nothing wrong, and he had never lied” (Isaiah 53:9). Jesus was staunchly honest. His every word accurate, His every sentence true. No cheating on tests. No altering the accounts. Not once did Jesus stretch the truth. Not once did he shade the truth. Not once did he avoid the truth. He simply told the truth. No deceit was found in His mouth.
And if God has his way with us, none will be found in ours. He longs for us to be just like Jesus. His plan, if you remember, is to shape us along the lines of his Son. (Rom. 8:28). He seeks not to decrease or minimize our deception but to eliminate our deception. God is blunt about dishonesty: “No one who is dishonest will live in my house: (Psalm 101:7).
Our Master has a strict honor code. From Genesis to Revelation, the theme is the same: God loves truth and hates deceit. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Paul lists the type of people who will not inherit the kingdom of God. What he portrays is a ragged assortment of those who sin sexually, worship idols, take part in adultery, sell their bodies, get drunk, rob people, and—there it is—lie about others.
Such rigor may surprise you. You mean my fibbing and flattering stir the same heavenly anger as adultery and aggravated assault? Apparently so. God views fudging on income tax the same way he views kneeling before idols.
The Lord hates those who tell lies but is pleased with those who keep their promises. (Prov. 12:22)
The Lord hates . . . a lying tongue. (Prov 6:16-17)
[God destroys liars . . . [and] hates those who kill and trick others. (Ps. 5:6)
Why? Why the hard line? Why the tough stance?
For one reason: dishonesty is absolutely contrary to the character of God. According to Hebrews 6:18, it is impossible for God to lie. It is not that he has chosen not to lie—He cannot lie. For God to lie is for a dog to fly and a bird to bark. It simply cannot happen. The Book of Titus echos the same three words as the Book of Hebrews: “God cannot lie” (Titus 1:2).
God always speaks the truth. When He makes a covenant, he means it. And when he proclaims the truth, we can believe it. What He says is true. Even “if we are not faithful, [God] will still be faithful, because he cannot be false to himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).
Satan, on the other hand, finds it impossible to tell truth . . . (kdm’s thought; unless Satan’s use of truth, as deceit becomes ‘bait’ that leads to his more sinister agenda of lies and spiritual chaos ). If you’ll remember, deceit was the first tool out of the devil’s bag. In the Garden of Eden, Satan didn’t discourage. He didn’t seduce her. He didn’t sneak up on her. He just lied to her. “God says you’ll die if you eat the fruit? You will not die” (see Gen. 3:1-4). . . .
It still does. Daniel Webster was right when he observed, “There is nothing as powerful as the truth and often nothing as strange.”
Wages of Deceit
Perhaps the question shouldn’t be “Why does God demand honesty?” but rather “Why do we tolerate dishonesty? Never was Jeremiah more the prophet than when he announced: The heart is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV) How do we explain our dishonesty? What’s the reason for our forked tongues and greasy promises? We don’t need a survey to find the answers.
For one thing, we don’t like the truth. Most of us can sympathize with the fellow that received a call from his wife just as she was about to fly home from Europe. “How’s my cat, she asked.
“Dead.”
“Oh, honey, don’t be so honest why didn’t you break the news to me slowly? You’ve ruined my trip.”
“What do you mean?”
You could have told me he’s on the roof. And when I called you from Paris, you could have told me he was acting sluggish. . . . . Then when I called you from New York he was at the vet. Then, when I arrive home, you could have said he was dead.”
The husband had never been exposed to such protocol but was willing to learn. “OK,” he said. I’ll do better next time.”
“By the way'” she asked, “how’s Mom?”
There was a long silence, then he replied, “Uh, she’s on the roof.”. . .
The plain fact is we don’t like the truth. Our credo is You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you squirm. Our dislike for the truth began at age three when mom walked into our room and asked, “Did you hit your little brother?” We knew then and there that dishonesty had its consequences. So we learned then to cover things up. . . .
Lucado, Just Like Jesus, World Publishing (Nashville: A Thomas Nelson Company), 1987,88,91). p. 103-08
