Walking with the Wise #125: Two Worlds At War

“Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence,

but a false witness utters deceit.”
—Proverbs 12:17

It’s easy to defend the truth, because it will always prove true. Truth and lies both seek to present their view on reality and continually war against each other. A lie seeks to present a make-believe world where something that’s not true, is. It is a world where wrongs exist as right, there are no consequences for sinful choices, and the world is as we want it to be—not as it is. Not so with the world of truth. The world of truth presents only what really is. In the world of truth, dreams are dreams, and fact is fact. There are consequences for sinful choices, and we will be judged according to standards that we did not create nor consent to.

Those who speak the truth give credence to the world that is, and do not have to worry about being found out for having done something wrong. It is only the false witness who utters deceit who has to worry over having his make-believe world shattered by the words of truth. Lies never win in God’s sight. And while lies might gain credence for a time in this temporal world, the all-consuming light of God’s presence in eternity will expose every lie for what it is—Satan’s instrument of mass destruction.

As Christians, we must make sure that we are always “speaking the truth in love” (cf. Ephesians 4:15), testifying to the truth that God is God and Jesus Christ is the one through whom God has made redemption available to sinful man. As Paul said in the book of Acts,

“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead”—Acts 17:30-31.

The reality is that Jesus Christ is God, who testifies to man that this world is evil (cf. John 7:7) and is under God’s wrath. We know from Him and through His Word that man is destined to die once and face judgment (cf. Hebrews 9:27). Man will be judged for all that he has done and by whether or not he embraced Jesus as Savior and then lived for Him. Everyone else will be condemned to eternal conscious torment in hell.

Those who truly love truth will embrace Jesus who is truth (John 14:6), and it is through Him that they will know that they are set free from the lies of the enemy (cf. John 8:32; 2 Corinthians 4:4). Jesus is God’s saving truth, made available to us all, and it is our responsibility to live in the truth of who He is, for God’s glory, and for our ultimate and lasting joy. Amen.