📖 Telling the truth is loving

I. It is never hateful, disrespectful, or wrong to tell the truth.

The ninth commandment states in Exodus 20:16:

“Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.”

In our culture today, we elevate feelings as the most important barometer of “truth,” so how we feel, or how we may make someone else feel, determines whether or not something is wrong.

And while we should consider people’s feelings and not go out of our way to hurt people, feelings are not Truth. We can all feel things or desire things very deeply, but that doesn’t automatically make them right. The transgender debate and the use of preferred pronouns are great examples of this.

If someone says it is disrespectful to be unwilling to call a man a woman, or a woman a man, because that person identifies as the opposite sex from what they truly are, I would suggest that any definition of “disrespectful” that requires someone to deny the truth is not a definition I could ever agree with.

Similarly, if someone claims you are “hateful” for doing so, my response is that I fail to see how telling the truth is hateful. I think it is wise to encourage people to tell the truth. It is disrespectful to force someone to deny reality.

I am not persuaded by any definition of "hateful" that considers telling the truth to be "hateful." That does not make sense to me.

I will always maintain that it is not disrespectful or hateful to tell the truth. If someone has a definition that includes truth-telling as hateful, I will always be unpersuaded by that definition of hate.

And as a helpful reminder, if someone tells you that lying is hateful, and that if you don’t lie you’re a terrible person who does not care about people, know that it is not you who is trying to impose your worldview on others; it is others who are trying to impose their worldview on you.

Feelings do matter, but they are not the barometer of what is true. Hear the word of the Lord from Zechariah 8:16-17:

“These are the things you must do: Speak truth to one another; make true and sound decisions within your city gates. Do not plot evil in your hearts against your neighbor, and do not love perjury, for I hate all this”—this is the Lord’s declaration.”

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II. We must consistently resist the idea that God’s love for us, and his redemption of us, are contingent upon our good works. Jesus' followers are called to live holy lives, but living a holy life is not what saves us.

Ephesians 1:7 states:

"In him (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”

It is Jesus’ perfect and atoning sacrifice that grants us forgiveness, and it is provided for us out of the riches of God’s grace toward us.

Your behavior does not earn your salvation.

God’s rich grace given to you in Christ Jesus does.

Matt Smethurst on not confusing spiritual growth with salvation:

“My 14-year-old is far more developed than my 2-year-old—physically, mentally, and emotionally. But she is not more my child.

Beware of justification by sanctification.”

This week’s question: Is cussing always sinful?

Have a Bible question, or a situation in your life you want a biblical perspective on? Submit it here to be answered in a future Bible Made Simple Newsletter edition.

Offensive Christianity by J. Chase Davis

(Note: I am not personally a fan of the author, but am interested in this topic)

A book for men about biblical masculinity. It’s not about being an offensive Christian man, but about being a Christian man who lives on offense.

I appreciate the call for men to act like men. We do live in an overtly feminized age that not only does not set men up to succeed, but often criticizes natural and good male and masculine tendencies in men.

Overall, it is good for resources like this to be written and produced. I appreciate the author’s emphasis on calling men to be men, and the reminder that men are different than women and should not have to act or behave like women.

However, there are some parts where I didn’t quite agree, and I felt like the author was sharing an opinion that he presents as biblical without showing how it is the biblical position. Not that it was therefore wrong, but certainly at times he assumed his case without actually making his case.

I also thought it had a strange recurrence of talking about war, almost as if war was a good and Christian thing. There are times when war is necessary, but it is a sad thing and certainly not what God desires.

In addition, the book, in my opinion, didn’t have a lot of practicality to it. It talked in theory and generalities (which are not bad things), but there wasn’t a lot in terms of specific “now go and do this” application.

The book is a quick read and helpful at points, even with areas I disagreed with. But it wasn’t as practically helpful as one would hope. I do hope we get more books like this that are not afraid to challenge men to be men, even if it is culturally unpopular, but for me this one left more to be desired.

6/10

This week on Thinking Biblically, I discuss 5 Things That Aren't Controversial in the Bible (But Are in Our Culture). Just because our culture is mushy on these topics, it does not mean the Bible is.

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P.S. Have we asked how protein feels about this?