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The Battle for Truth
We are bombarded with information and stories every day. Some are served up with a smile, and others with anger and a side of fear. These stories affect us, even the ones we hate and reject. Many, if not most, of these stories are impossible for us to fully verify, so, in the end, we pick and choose what we want to believe for any number of reasons.
The truth begins to sound like a muffled voice lost in the crowd. It is easy to feel like the psalmist when he cried out in frustration, “I said in my alarm, ‘All men are liars!’”. We start to wonder if there is any way of hearing the truth or if the truth exists at all.
Muddling the waters and making people wonder about the truth - is, and always has been, the Devil’s game. Ever since the garden when the serpent asked Eve, “Did God really say…?” obfuscation and lies have been our daily bread, or so it seems. But is that assessment of the situation accurate? Not necessarily.
The empty tomb of Jesus defeated that old serpent. Jesus is the way; he is THE TRUTH and the life. Though the truth may not be the loudest voice in the room, it is by far the most powerful. But before we can speak it, we need to hear it. The noise inside us is often more distracting than the noise around us. But - if we can quiet our hearts to listen to the truth, we can then be a voice of truth to others. We can be peacemakers in a world at war. As Paul explains to the Corinthians:
For though we walk in the flesh,
we are not waging war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh
but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion
raised against the knowledge of God,
and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
being ready to punish every disobedience,
when your obedience is complete.
2 Cor 10:3-6 [ESV]
It has often been said that “The truth is its own defense.” I think that old saying is true but incomplete, as is the case with all cliches. For the truth to stand, it must first be declared. In this passage, Paul describes his method of warfare against evil. It is not fought in the flesh. It is fought with truth. His warfare carries divine power and destroys strongholds. What are these strongholds? Arguments and “lofty opinions” raised against the knowledge of God. Paul is using the truth to shatter powerful lies aimed at preventing people from finding the knowledge of God.
The sheer number of lies and the speed with which they multiply and disperse in today’s world can sometimes make it feel like we are trying to hold back the ocean with a broom. But this is yet another lie. The truth has divine power. The truth, like God, simply is. The truth can not be destroyed; it is reality, and it will ultimately prevail.
How are we to fight the battle for truth?
Again, Paul has advice for us all. This advice comes to us from his letter to the church in Ephesus.
Rather, speaking the truth in love,
we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint
with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly,
makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Now this I say and testify in the Lord,
that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their minds.
They are darkened in their understanding,
alienated from the life of God
because of the ignorance that is in them,
due to their hardness of heart.
They have become callous
and have given themselves up to sensuality,
greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
But that is not the way you learned Christ!
Eph 4:15-20 [ESV]
We need to speak the truth, but we need to speak the truth in love. Love is - benefiting others at my expense; it is not - proving I am right no matter what. The truth both builds and destroys. It destroys the lies that enslave the ones we love and builds the body of Christ. But we face real dangers when confronting the lies of this age. So, I will leave you with a bit of encouragement from the book of Proverbs.
Answer not a fool according to his folly,
lest you be like him yourself.
Answer a fool according to his folly,
lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Prov 26:4-5 [ESV]
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
As with all Hebrew poetry and especially in the wisdom literature, wisdom is found by balancing ideas. These two verses placed side by side are not a contradiction they are to be held in tension when deciding what to do. I would interpret them as: Be careful when arguing with a fool or you might become one yourself.
This week let’s be speakers of truth without forgetting the goal.
So, speak the truth in love.
Be careful out there.
Have a great week!
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
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By Tom PossinWe are bombarded with information and stories every day. Some are served up with a smile, and others with anger and a side of fear. These stories affect us, even the ones we hate and reject. Many, if not most, of these stories are impossible for us to fully verify, so, in the end, we pick and choose what we want to believe for any number of reasons.
The truth begins to sound like a muffled voice lost in the crowd. It is easy to feel like the psalmist when he cried out in frustration, “I said in my alarm, ‘All men are liars!’”. We start to wonder if there is any way of hearing the truth or if the truth exists at all.
Muddling the waters and making people wonder about the truth - is, and always has been, the Devil’s game. Ever since the garden when the serpent asked Eve, “Did God really say…?” obfuscation and lies have been our daily bread, or so it seems. But is that assessment of the situation accurate? Not necessarily.
The empty tomb of Jesus defeated that old serpent. Jesus is the way; he is THE TRUTH and the life. Though the truth may not be the loudest voice in the room, it is by far the most powerful. But before we can speak it, we need to hear it. The noise inside us is often more distracting than the noise around us. But - if we can quiet our hearts to listen to the truth, we can then be a voice of truth to others. We can be peacemakers in a world at war. As Paul explains to the Corinthians:
For though we walk in the flesh,
we are not waging war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh
but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion
raised against the knowledge of God,
and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
being ready to punish every disobedience,
when your obedience is complete.
2 Cor 10:3-6 [ESV]
It has often been said that “The truth is its own defense.” I think that old saying is true but incomplete, as is the case with all cliches. For the truth to stand, it must first be declared. In this passage, Paul describes his method of warfare against evil. It is not fought in the flesh. It is fought with truth. His warfare carries divine power and destroys strongholds. What are these strongholds? Arguments and “lofty opinions” raised against the knowledge of God. Paul is using the truth to shatter powerful lies aimed at preventing people from finding the knowledge of God.
The sheer number of lies and the speed with which they multiply and disperse in today’s world can sometimes make it feel like we are trying to hold back the ocean with a broom. But this is yet another lie. The truth has divine power. The truth, like God, simply is. The truth can not be destroyed; it is reality, and it will ultimately prevail.
How are we to fight the battle for truth?
Again, Paul has advice for us all. This advice comes to us from his letter to the church in Ephesus.
Rather, speaking the truth in love,
we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint
with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly,
makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Now this I say and testify in the Lord,
that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their minds.
They are darkened in their understanding,
alienated from the life of God
because of the ignorance that is in them,
due to their hardness of heart.
They have become callous
and have given themselves up to sensuality,
greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
But that is not the way you learned Christ!
Eph 4:15-20 [ESV]
We need to speak the truth, but we need to speak the truth in love. Love is - benefiting others at my expense; it is not - proving I am right no matter what. The truth both builds and destroys. It destroys the lies that enslave the ones we love and builds the body of Christ. But we face real dangers when confronting the lies of this age. So, I will leave you with a bit of encouragement from the book of Proverbs.
Answer not a fool according to his folly,
lest you be like him yourself.
Answer a fool according to his folly,
lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Prov 26:4-5 [ESV]
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
As with all Hebrew poetry and especially in the wisdom literature, wisdom is found by balancing ideas. These two verses placed side by side are not a contradiction they are to be held in tension when deciding what to do. I would interpret them as: Be careful when arguing with a fool or you might become one yourself.
This week let’s be speakers of truth without forgetting the goal.
So, speak the truth in love.
Be careful out there.
Have a great week!
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe