Do You Love The Truth?
Many lawyers charge $300 an hour for their services. The New York Times made nearly $100 million in profit in one quarter this year. The accounting firm Deloitte reported $59 billion in revenue for 2022.
In some industries, if you can skillfully present the truth - or at least appear to do so - there's a handsome reward.
The same principle is true for pastors.
Unfortunately, a lack of financial transparency makes it impossible to evaluate the net worth of the wealthiest pastors in the world. However, the evidence suggests that some pastors have used their preaching ministries to accumulate tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
I am unfamiliar with this level of financial success.
But in my heart, there's the same existential tension between loving the truth — and loving how the truth can benefit me.
Have you ever been tempted to use the truth to gain an advantage in a marital dispute? Or did you exaggerate a story at a dinner party to impress a friend? Have you tried to escape a bad situation by telling a partial truth? Or my favorite - used your knowledge of the Bible to gain status at church?
In sworn testimony, a witness promises to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It should have been sufficient to ask for "the truth." But no, we had to clarify that we wanted the whole truth. We had to specify not to mix facts with falsehoods.
So, do you love the truth? Or do you love what the truth can do for you?
In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character pretends to be great. By reinventing himself and his history, he hopes to gain wealth, status, and love. Eventually, his lies are exposed, his friends are disillusioned, and Jay Gatsby's life has a tragic end. Gatsby's life was like a firework - invisible at first, a bright spectacle of light, then it all faded into nothing. Though he hoped to escape from his meager beginnings, his inability to accept the truth and live with integrity doomed his efforts.
We're stuck: If our hearts are false, we don't know what to do with the truth. At worst, we manipulate it. At best, we keep it at arms-length.
But who can handle — and tell — the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about their lives?
Given how hard it is for us to handle the truth, Jesus' self-disclosure is astonishing: "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).
And Jesus saw through image management. He said the religious leaders of his day understood the Mosaic Law: they were closely acquainted with the truth. Looking at them from the outside, they appeared to be righteous. Yet inside? They were "full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity" (Matthew 23:27-28).
Sometimes, I'm skeptical of Jesus. What kind of lunatic thinks they are The Truth? Did he have a Messiah complex - or was he The Messiah?
But what's startling about Jesus is how he demonstrated his claim to be the truth: through sacrificial love.
He identified with the poor, the vulnerable, the weak, and the marginalized. Instead of flaunting his deity, he claimed a dependence upon God the Father and a life animated by the Holy Spirit. Rather than amassing wealth, he allowed his own life to be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver. Instead of establishing a palatial residence on the Sea of Galilee, he remained an itinerant preacher. He didn't ingratiate himself with the high-status elite. Rather, he offended the powerful with his relentless advocacy for those they had oppressed.
We know that all humanity attempts to use Truth to advance their aims.
And so when The Truth appeared in human flesh? Everyone with power and influence tried to co-opt him for their agendas.
When they failed, they used lies to execute him. Pilate asked, "What is truth?" but Jesus chose silence: he refused to use truth to serve himself. His life was irrevocably committed to the flourishing of others.
The power of lies comes from their alliance with death. But in Jesus' death and resurrection, he has exposed this as a hollow threat. It is the Truth that lives forever.
As we encounter Jesus, God invites us to reconsider if we love the truth.
Do we want to live at war with the truth?
Or do we want the truth to set us free?
If we admit our falseness to God, he will fill our hearts with the Truth.
At another point in the Gospel of John, Jesus says, "If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
Jesus is inviting us into the path of wisdom. Why? Because reality is not aligned with our desire to be independent and self-important. But when we humble ourselves in allegiance to the Truth, God liberates us.
It's a fundamental shift in our hearts:
Instead of managing appearances, we're made righteous.
Instead of being false, we're made whole.
Instead of ignoring uncomfortable truths, we speak up for the poor, the vulnerable, and the oppressed.
Instead of boasting about what we know, we delight in who we know.
Instead of trying to own the truth, we rejoice that we belong to God.
Instead of using truth for our agendas, we see how the truth is integrated into God's purpose to restore everything.
Truth confronts us with a choice: to use it for personal gain or to allow it to transform us into the image of the One who is Truth.
While the world entices us to exploit truth, the lasting freedom we crave comes from an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ — who is not only the Truth but also the Way and the Life.
What will you do with the Truth?