by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2024
(Nov. 18, 2024) — It is heartbreaking.
I was a newspaper editor for ten years, albeit a small New England weekly covering three towns, but we took pride in accuracy.
Facts mattered.
Truth trumped the scoop.
If we wrote something wrong, we corrected it.
Today, we have news all the time, and truth sometimes. Fact-checking has seeded new vocabulary such as misinformation, disinformation, and fake news. (If it’s fake, is it news?)
To artificial intelligence, add artificial information.
I long for objective journalism.
Newscasting is ripe for a harvest of the genuine.
This is where we come in, you and I. Jesus gave us Good News to broadcast. The Gospel is truthful because He is the truth.
Don’t demur, “The problems are pervasive and I’m not persuasive. What can I do? I’m nobody. I can’t…”
We have news all the time, and truth sometimes.
Jesus has given us all a ministry: Tell the truth. It requires no spiritual gifts, no special anointing, and no exceptional skill. Truth-telling is our responsibility—all of us. There is no excuse.
“Putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” said the Apostle Paul, quoting the Old Testament prophet Zechariah, who added, “render judgments that are true” (Ephesians 4:25, Zechariah 8:16).
Paul told us how to go about it, “Speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).
He also told us why. Truth-tellers hold back the headwinds of deceit, cunning, trickery, and false messaging (Ephesians 4:14).
As important as true words are, I’ve learned that living the truth is more so. When words and life don’t match, hypocrisy is the charge.
This is especially challenging for the passive-aggressive, like me.
Early on I developed the habit of being slow to answer questions and hesitant to join conversations. The silence sculpted a reputation that “still waters run deep” but actually it masked my craving for approval. I used the interlude to weigh the ways to answer before I settled on what I thought they wanted to hear.
Consequently, I balked at disagreeing with wrong assertions and made agreements I didn’t want and knew I wouldn’t keep. My strategy left the impression I was easy-going and easy to get along with. But I was treacherous.
The words of Jesus demolished the scheme.
If it were not so, I would have told you. —John 14:2.
Jesus not only told the truth, He is truth come alive. He united words with action. His at-one-ment of truth and conduct heals their division in the one who believes in Him, a harmony that fulfills the ancient promise:
They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action… —Jeremiah 32:38-39 (NIV)
How refreshing for a world awash in deceit.
How different from our usual, which Paul describes: The good I want to do, I don’t and the evil I don’t want to do, I do. (Romans 7:19)
Do you want to be an influencer?
Tell the truth.
Do the truth.
Demonstrate a mended heart.