Stand on Truth, Even When it Hurts

We live in an age that does not love the truth. As a matter of fact, people will do anything they can to prevent someone from speaking it: they will threaten to excommunicate you (there’s a movement out there calling to “excommunicate the opposition” in politics right now), in some countries (and even here in the US), they will threaten or take you to jail for your social media posts, and in increasingly occurring cases, threaten violence or death. The world hates the truth (mainly because it encourages everyone to chase their truth), and it has done so since the keys were handed to Satan.

You see, in the beginning, all was perfect, God ordered the universe, set its laws and boundaries, named every star in every galaxy by name, and called it all “good” and “very good.” We rebelled against our creator, trying to be our own gods and deciding for ourselves what was good and evil (by eating from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; it wasn’t about the fruit, it was about obedience), and in doing so, we ruined God’s perfect world (not that God wasn’t able to maintain perfection, but He gave us the world to rule, and we turned it over to sin). Ever since, we’ve toiled and strove against one another, we’ve sought to dominate one another for the brief span of time we occupy this space, and we’ve continually sought to be our own gods (or at least create gods that conform with our viewpoints), and destroy those who oppose the truth. From righteous Abel to today, the men of the world want to destroy those who desire to go back to the beginning, to God’s rule and righteousness.

People don’t love the truth, speak it anyway. People will, like Cain did with Abel, try and destroy those who seek to live righteously, even if nothing is said; live right anyway. People will oppose and try to silence those who live their convictions; stand firm in them! People will especially hate and reject the truth of God if they’ve already determined who they think He should be; live for Him and stand on His word anyway. Do not be silenced. Do not be intimidated. The worst they can do is kill the body, but Christ holds your soul! They will threaten us, our families, our livelihoods and our homes, but if the Lord is our helper, what can man do to us?

Hebrews 12

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.