Do you ascribe to the truth? How much falseness are you willing to accept or let slide? Do you spread false information? Do you put on a false personality? Are you supporting false stances? Would you prefer to know the truth? Do you do your best to speak the truth?
Falseness is all around us. It is not just in the make believe of television shows. It shows up in our workplaces, schools, politics, and even in our churches. Why? We are human. We make mistakes. We are tempted. We fail to do proper research. We like juicy rumors.
One of the biggest contributors to falseness is the fact that people like to talk too much. The writer of proverbs states, “Even fools who keep silent are considered wise” (Proverbs 17:28) and “The mind of the wise makes their speech judicious, and adds persuasiveness to their lips” (Proverbs 16:23). The wisdom of these proverbs can be restated as: Talk less and listen more.
The Apostle Paul tells us to put away falsehood. In other words, stop lying, put on a false personality, and speaking half-truths. He says we are to speak the truth to others. Yet, he does not give us license to be rude, crude, or offensive in telling the truth. We are to tell others about the good news of Jesus, but not beat them over the head with the Bible.
When we pair the proverbs with Paul’s teaching, we see that truth and wisdom requires us to be sure we know what we speak is truth, which requires us to verify what we think we know. Not only that, but we are to spend time taking in the information, processing, balancing it against God’s Word, and determine if it is useful to pass along. If it is not useful, why tell someone else? What good is it to you if I tell you a web application contains millions of lines of code written in multiple languages?
Setting aside the falsities all around us and speaking only truth is not simply a good thing to do because Paul tells us to. It is also following the example of Jesus. He spoke truth to tell people about God and to turn their hearts to him. Our goal should be to do the same. It is what we are called to do.
I pray we all set aside falsehood. I pray we speak the truth to others in love. I pray each one of us seek to follow Jesus’ example of speaking what is edifying to others and builds them up. Set aside falsehood. Speak the truth in love. Be wise. Edify others. Build others up.
Ephesians 4:25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.
Marty Pressey 