.The tradition of swearing the above oath when you take to the witness stand probably goes way back to Roman times and was very common by the 13th century in our English courts of law. People who didn’t tell the truth were not penalised for perjury until the 16th century. Prior to that the thought of God’s vengeance coming upon those who perjured themselves was enough to stop the liars.
The Apostle says we must put on truth-saying.
“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we are all members of one body.” Ephesians 4:25
Over the last decade with the rise of the internet there was the opportunity for accurate, incorruptible journalism. At a click of a button we could fact-check the facts! This was a new era of honesty. It hasn’t turned out like that has it?
We have new words like ‘fake news’ emerging because world leaders tweet about it all the time.
Recently a UK TV station, Channel 4, brought out statistics that show only 4% of the UK population can spot fake news as fake! Are we so gullible?!
Let us be people of the truth. Truth takes longer than fake but that is the journey we need to be on.
We need to be honest to God because He is Truth; honest to ourselves because living a lie is means you never have the freedom to be who you are and as Paul says honest to one another
If you are afraid to speak the truth then you don’t deserve to be in the position to speak it.
Bono, U2, in 2017 reflecting on the impact the Psalms has had on him over the years and why he believes Christian musicians should be more honest said this, ““I want to hear a song about the breakdown in your marriage, I want to hear songs of justice, I want to hear rage at injustice and I want to hear a song so good that it makes people want to do something about the subject … (the Christian artists who are afraid to sing the honesty of the Psalms) are not giving expression to what’s really going on in their lives because they feel it will give the wrong impression of them.”
People’s perception of us has overpowered our willingness to speak the truth because of the establishment of pride at the centre of our lives.
You may lose friends. You may be dismissed. But the only way to be free is to speak the truth. That is in regards to God, to yourself of course but also to as Paul has already told us to do it in love, to speak the truth to a friend.
Do you have a friend who will be truthful to you?
You wouldn’t dream of leaving your home without first washing, would you? You would never go to a friend’s house stinking to high heaven because you couldn’t be bothered to have a wash that day, would you?
The problem is people who don’t wash get used to their own smell. Their stinky, pongy, stainy smell becomes to them naturelle. Everyone needs someone who will say ‘My friend, I love you so much I need to tell you, you stink.’
People have friends who speak the truth behind their backs but thank God if you find a friend who will speak the truth to your face.
Your best friend is a friend who will wound you to keep you.
Proverbs 27:6 Wounds from a friend can be trusted
When my children were small I hurt their feelings, I made them cry, I didn’t break them but I wounded them so that today they are in a position to become all that they can become.
Missions Paul 