Skip to main content

Truth

             Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, (Ephesians 6:14a)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.  (II Corinthains 1:3-4)

If you listen to popular advice about hard times and comforting someone, you’ll hear the majority of the focus on not saying anything, but just “being there.” Job’s friends sat with him saying nothing for seven days. What a waste! They could have done something useful but they sat there. I could be wrong but being a further drain on the household probably isn’t the best way to comfort someone.

The next thing the advice tells us is that we’re supposed to grant validity to what the person claims is true. Now, I can see agreeing that the person may feel as though his/her life is over, but not with agreeing that it is over- unless you intend to kill him/her. No, agreeing with lies or errors in thinking does no one any good. It sets the victim up for further pain. Truth can be told gently or with compassion, but even if the person will not accept the truth, there is no good to be done by withholding it or rejecting it ourselves.

Truth is the first piece of armor that Paul suggests we put on - not compassion, not pity, not even love. Love may be described as the motivation of our warfare, but it’s not part of the armor. Truth is the first piece. And the belt is the piece of one’s armor on which one’s tools are kept. That means that truth is vital to our self-defense and to our strengthening those around us. It needn’t be brutal, but it must be truth.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more