True Pasta

Well the truth of the matter is...

We hear those words fairly often. The truth of the matter. And that, if you were unable to be with us last Sunday, was the biggest part of our discussion. Truth. You see, in the second chapter of II Thessalonians Paul describes "those who are perishing..." He says they are perishing because they "refuse to love the truth". And later in the chapter Paul describes the Thessalonians people chosen by God to be saved through the sanctifying work of the spirit and "through belief in the truth." And so it seems that truth is a central issue. Those who refuse to love the truth are perishing and those who believe the truth are chosen for salvation.

It comes as no shock that truth is a critical concept for every person, whether they want to admit it or not. In fact, we talked about my little "Truth Syllogism" which follows below:

1. Truth is Foundational
2. Truth Can Be Confusing
3. Therefore- We Had Better Be Careful!!!

(It's not a perfect syllogism in the classic sense, but it will work for what we are doing here... if we agree on #1 and #2, then #3 follows)

It is not hard to conclude that truth is foundational to our lives. The things we consider to be true make all the difference in the world as we move around from day to day. And if ever something we held as true for a long time dissolves in front of our eyes, it is devastating. Any kind of betrayal comes to mind- if we think for years and years that person x is our very good friend and then find that they have suddenly turned on us, we are hurt and crushed and angry. What we thought was true, we suddenly find is false and our world gets re-defined.

As for the confusing part... again, it does not take long to see why people get confused about what truth is. Dave Pugh said well that, at least on a certain level, the prevailing conditions go a long way to define truth. Given a set of circumstances, thing A or Thing B might be true. But if the circumstances change, then thing A or thing B may no longer be true. I used the example of traveling from Indiana to California. At one time in history, it would have been a true statement to say that the trip from Indiana to California would take months at best. That is no longer true because the conditions have changed. So at least to some extent we have to live with truth that changes with the conditions.

But then there were other people on Sunday that mentioned that they thought truth was absolute and unchangeable. And I think that it is important that we remember that while some things may change with conditions, there are other kinds of truth that don't change. I think all of us would place God's Word into that category. I think all of us would put God's promises in that category. They are absolute and unchanging. But we can even see this "black and white" kind of truth in other things.

A lot of you may remember the case of Caylee Anthony- the little girl from Florida who disappeared mysteriously. Her mother reported it after 3 months of Caylee being gone. Then that December her body was discovered buried in the woods not far from her house. Last I heard the mother was in prison having been arrested for the crime, but was admitting to nothing. And so, the authorities were embarking on their journey to find "the truth" about what happened to Caylee. Now, let's think about this. How is this "truth" going to be established? There will be (has been) testimony, evidence, theorizing, conjecture, deliberation, and some conclusion about what a court or a jury is convinced is true. How closely will that "story" match what really happened? We will never know. When all the while, there is a "real truth" about this case. There is someone, assuming they are still alive, who knows EXACTLY what happened to Caylee.

And so it is true with most actions of man. We either did or did not do such and such. We either did or did not say so and so. Even before we get to the level of "heavenly truth" we find that some things are either true or they are not. Period. No gray area. And then when we do get to "heavenly truth" I think we find even less, or more likely, NO gray area.

This truth thing. It is confusing. And part of the reason it is confusing is because of our dual citizenship. We are part of a created, temporary world. This world is governed by rules and laws put in place by God and established by man. The laws of physics seem pretty black and white to us. Every time I have dropped an egg it fell to the floor. There has never been a time when I lost my grip on an egg and it just hovered there in front of me, (but then I have never been on orbit in the space shuttle- then the conditions change and the rules are not the same and.....ARRRG! My brain hurts!!) So, as long as we are a part of this world we will have to "put up" with some of those conditional truths. It is just a part of living here. But at the same time, we are guided by a truth that is black and white, absolute, and unchanging. Because we are children of the King.

We do need to be careful with the truth. We need to be careful where we get our truth. We need to be careful what we do with it ourselves. We must discipline ourselves not to bend it or break it. We must respect it. We must guard it. We must apply it. It is foundational.

Just Keep Swimming...

Jon