Bear the Light of Truth

omans 1:18, 19 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

Lee McIntyre, fellow at Boston University’s Center for Philosophy and History of Science wrote, “It’s easy to have a misconception about what post-truth means. And to say that we live in a post-truth era doesn’t mean that truth doesn’t matter anymore, or that no one cares about truth. It means that we live in an era where truth is at risk, where we’re in danger of losing sight of what truth means. In my book, I define post-truth as the political subordination of reality. So, I think of post-truth as a tactic that’s used by authoritarians and their wannabes to control the flow of information so that they can then control the populace. It’s intended not just to corrupt our belief in some specific thing that’s true, but really to undermine the idea that we can know truth outside of political context.”

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the world is increasingly intolerant of reality and truth and now more than ever we need to boldly stand for truth. June is a challenging month for the faithful. The pressure to accept “social norms” is at a fever pitch this month. Everywhere we go we’re bombarded with messages, images, décor, products, advertisements, and the like, promoting an idea that fully contradicts what God Himself established.

Often not knowing what to do, a large portion of Christians tend to slink into the background hoping no one will ask what they really think about it all. Perhaps, because Christians desire to extend grace and compassion, they are prone to inaction as the world embraces an ideology that negates reality and truth as God has established it. “We don’t want to offend. We don’t want to cause strife. After all, “we think to ourselves, “Jesus said, ‘blessed is the peacekeeper’” or so we convince ourselves. With that we try and pacify that nagging feeling that something “ain’t” right.

The negation of (and persecution of) truth is a serious offense in the eyes of God. This outright rejection of reality and truth creates a doom loop that causes the “rejector” to spiral deeper and deeper. The exponentially increasing distance from God this creates will manifest itself with the unrelenting march toward human degradation. Boy, do we see that coming to fruition before our very eyes.

We must stand, as Paul cautioned, unashamedly for the truth and for the Gospel. In this month-long celebration of “Pride” the pressure is high against the Good News of Jesus Christ. However, we must stand boldly for truth, despite the consequences. Do not hide the light of truth under a basket, rather, raise it as high as you can with the same love, compassion, confidence, and tact that Christ used when facing off with those who opposed Him. We should never allow ourselves to cower when the truth of God is being maligned.

Peter was threatened for declaring the truth of Jesus by the Pharisees in Acts 5:28, 29: “’We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,’ he said. ‘Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us responsible for this man’s blood.’ But Peter and the other apostles replied, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’”

I would like to end with this: there is no greater love and compassion than to share the good news of Jesus to a perishing world. I pray that we all may find ourselves ready to both speak and live the truth boldly and lovingly, moved and inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. Go forth and bear the light of truth.