Virtue In Knowledge Publications

Do You Love the Truth?

    "...they did not receive the love of the truth, so as to be saved."  II Thess.2:10

    Do you love the truth about yourself?  Do you love the truth about your sinful condition before a absolutely holy God who hates sin?

    If we don't love the truth about our self and the true condition of our life and heart, this passage goes on to say that those who don't really love the truth about their heart will be deceived into believing what is FALSE.

    It is crucial to understand the importance of this issue.  If you don't have a passionate desire to know and love the truth about yourself, you are really not saved.  You can't be saved if you don't love the truth about your true condition before God.  Honestly seeing, admitting and repenting from your sin is ESSENTIAL to your salvation.

    If we are not totally honest about our sin and standing before God, we are doomed to living a lie.  Here's why truth and honesty are SO VERY important:

    - Satan is a liar and the Father of lies (Jn.8:44) telling the first lies in the Garden of Eden.  All lies therefore originate from his influence.

    - Whereas God is Truth (Jn.1:14; 14:6), His Word is Truth (Ps.119:160) and it is impossible for God to lie (Heb.6:18).

    - Pr.6:16-17 tells us that there are seven things that are an abomination to God- the first is a proud person (someone who has haughty eyes) and the second is - a lying tongue.   "Abomination" is the strongest word in the Bible for what God hates.  This is VERY serious in God's eyes.

    - "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal faithfully are His delight." (Pr.12:22)

    - Pr.6:12 tells us "a worthless person, a wicked man, is the one who walks with a false mouth."

    - In the last book of the Bible, God tells us that ALL liars will burn in the fires of hell. (Rev.21:8)  Notice it says ALL liars.  Big liars and small liars will suffer the judgment of God.  People that tell dirty lies and those that tell little white lies will join Satan in hell.  Any and ALL liars will be sent into the fires of hell.

    - "Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who is the friend of lies and practices lying." (Rev.22:15)  Notice, first, that God puts liars in the same categories as sorcerers, murderers and the immoral.  That must make lying pretty serious, right?

    Secondly, notice that God says those who practice lying also are the friends of lies.  Remember, this is God's estimate of man.  You can't be both the friend of God and the friend of lies.

    - "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against ALL ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." (Rom.1:18)  To "suppress the truth" is to believe and live a lie.  Unsaved man loves lying and hates the truth.  (Rom.3:13)

    - "... men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." (Jn.3:19-21)

    - True followers of God live a life of total honesty and obey the truth by following the example of Christ who "NEVER had ANY deceit in His life" (I Pet.2:22) and obey the commands of God that say:  "Laying aside falsehood, continually speak truth." (Eph.4:25) and "Stop lying to one another, since you laid aside the old self with it's evil practices." (Col.3:9)

    - The first sin judged in the early church was the sin of lying. (Acts 5:3)  And Ananias didn't even speak a lie to anyone, he just acted deceitfully and God killed him for that.

    So why does man not love the truth?  One reason - Man is proud and selfish and like Satan, wants to do his will versus God's will.

    Rom 2:8 says "to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness and indignation."  Selfishness does not love the truth and will only use it when it helps them get what they want.  Selfish people can accomplish their own agenda much better with lies, than with truth.

    So, in what ways do we not love the truth and live a life of dishonesty:

    - If you in any way minimize, downplay or excuse sin, then you do not love the truth.  To love the truth means you love light and wish to see your sin exposed, (Jn.3:21) so you can immediately repent from it to get back into fellowship with our loving heavenly Father. (I Jn.1:8)

    Psalms 66:18 says - "If I regard (see) wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."  If we see our little white lies and do not repent from them, we have NO fellowship with God and He doesn't hear our prayers.

    In Luke 23:39-43, God shows us the difference between two similar criminals.  Why did one thief on the cross go to hell and one go to be with Christ?  Both were terrible wicked men.  Both were suffering for their crimes.  So what was the difference?

    One was honest about his condition, and the other was not.  The one criminal was honest because he had a measure of the Fear of God (v.40).

    What is the fear of God?

    Pr.8:13 tells us - "The Fear of the Lord is to HATE evil, pride, arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth I hate."

    What is a perverted mouth?  A perverted mouth is a lying mouth.  God views any deviation from the complete truth as a perversion of truth.  Do you?

    This thief began at some point to hate sin and lying.  He was totally honest about his true condition before God and was willing to admit that his terrible sinful condition and the rightful penalty he was paying for that sin.  

    This Fear of the Lord is ESSENTIAL for pleasing God and entering into fellowship with Him.  (For more on the Fear of the Lord, see previous studies.)

    To love the truth means you are totally honest about your sin, past and present and will call it exactly what God calls it.

    If you say you made a mistake, instead of confessing and repenting (turning from your sin), then you do not love the truth.

    According to I John 1:9, true confession means to say the same thing about our sin that God says about it.  When we call our sin something other than what God calls it, we are not only deceiving our self, but lying to God.

    I Thess. 1:9 shows us that repentance is not just feeling sorry about our sin, but involves godly sorrow and grief over the fact that you have offended a Holy God and dishonored His Name.  True repentance is a new commitment to turn away from that sin forever in the power of God and to follow the Lord in obedience, regardless of how you feel.

    If you excuse or blame shift your sin, then you do not love the truth about yourself.  Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden when confronted with their sin by God, sought to blame others and excuse their sin, for which God expelled them from the garden.

    Total honesty in speech and life is critical to not only our salvation, but our ongoing fellowship with God.  Without it, we have NEITHER!

    "He who conceals his transgression will not prosper (spiritually), but he who confesses and forsakes them will find confession.  How blessed is the man who fears (the Lord) always, but he who hardens his heart his heart will fall into calamity (evil)." (Pr.28:13-14)

    God says - Repent and turn from your sin of lying and dishonesty.  Seek by the power of the Holy Spirit, (not your own self effort), to walk in and speak only truth in love. (Eph.4:15)  It is not enough to just speak truth, but must seek to let the life of Christ (the living truth) live within us.  Christ, not only spoke the truth, but lived a life of truth.

    This MUST be our primary goal and sole purpose.  To have the selfless life of Christ live with in us.  If we seek to only speak truth, and not repent of our selfishness, we will use truth for our selfish ends, instead of seeking the kingdom of God in everything.  The true followers of God live and speak the truth whether it benefits them personally, or not. (See Ps.15:1-5)

    Remember, knowledge alone changes nothing.  The nation Israel and it's religious leaders (the Scribes, Pharisees and Saducees) had superior knowledge, yet they failed God miserably and also failed to enter the kingdom of God.  Jesus said - "Unless your righteousness far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall NOT enter the kingdom of God." (Mt.5:20)

    What do we need then?  The power of God that Christ our example had.  Jesus had the filling of the Holy Spirit (Lk.3:22) and the grace of God was upon Him. (Lk.2:40)  Only the grace of God can deliver us from the sin of deception and every other sin. (Rom.6:11-22)

    "God is opposed to the proud, but gives His grace to the Humble.  So humble yourself under the mighty hand of God."  (I Pet.5:5-6)

    If you have NO victory over sin, then you are not under grace.  Humble yourself, to come under the grace of God.