The Two Sides of Truth



If it’s truth, how can it have two sides?  The truth sets us free.  But, sometimes the truth isn’t what we want to hear.  The truth can be a blessing and sometimes it cuts, but what it cuts is the stuff we were clinging to that wasn’t real or right or would leave us exposed.  There is joyful truth and painful truth, but always, the truth sets us free.

Hebrews 4:12  ESV  For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The book of Revelation hasn’t been one I’ve been excited about.  I’ve studied it.  I like some of it, but most of it is hard for me to read. It promises that anyone that reads it aloud and keeps its prophecy will be blessed. (Revelation 1:3) It’s hard on my heart to see the trouble coming. 

 2 Thessalonians and Daniel also prophecies of the end time evil and the character traits of the Anti-Christ, False Prophet and Lawless One.  I’d rather read about love, forgiveness, grace, mercy, miracles and Jesus.  That other stuff is heavy.

Avoiding the fullness of truth leaves us exposed to be deceived. 

 If I didn’t recognize the traits of Satan’s deceptions I wouldn’t recognize the times or to know how to set myself apart from being entangled with it.  I am kept free by the knowledge of what to avoid, even if it was hard to read about.  It also removes my fear.  I know certain things have to happen prior to Jesus’ return.  It’s the truth.  It isn’t pretty, but it sets me free from fear because it was known ahead of time and like I said, there are parts of Revelation that I do like, like when Jesus returns.

There was a time when my husband played for a professional soccer team.  It was known that the current owners were going to be folding the team or selling it.  A man came in from another country and said he was planning to purchase it.  The team players and staff fawned over this man.  He said he was of the family of the owners of Harrod’s of London and other grandiose stories.  He hosted a huge party and had it catered in a penthouse suite in a large hotel for all of the players and staff. He had television interviews aired.  Everyone was eager to cater to him in hopes that he was saving the team and keeping it going.

One staff member didn’t cater to him.  She doubted him.  He knew it and said to others that she would be the first one he fires when he takes over the team.  She was young and amazingly unthreatened. She didn’t cave in.  She did some background checking.  It wasn’t as easy then because we didn’t have all of the technology to do it as we do now.  But, she discovered that his identity was false. 

He left town.  He left unpaid hotel bills.  He stiffed the restaurant that catered all of the elaborate food for the event that he hosted.  He left us all in shock, except for one.  One person that wasn’t willing to cling to any false hope.  She looked for truth no matter how disappointing it may be that this man wasn’t really going to save the team. 

Knowing the traits of end time evil keeps us from falling for what is false.  Also, knowing what is Holy to God and walking in His righteousness through His Spirit keeps us better able to walk out of our sinful pasts.  Thinking God is “okay” with things that He says He isn’t doesn’t free us from an underlying guilt.  The truth is what sets us free when we confess the guilt. 

I had a tooth that I thought had chipped.  I was afraid to look at it.  I didn’t want to see how bad it was because if I did, I knew I would have to address it.  I avoided feeling the tooth or looking at it for a couple of months, even to the point of feeling that I needed to floss, but I didn’t because then I would have to look.  If this seems extreme to you, you need to know that I have a hard time with seeing my body in rough condition.  When my children were born I was offered a mirror to see their birth just as they were being delivered.  I swiftly motioned it away with my arm and told the nurse that I didn’t want to see.  I didn’t want to see that much truth.  I would see the child when they got here. 

I ended up with a toothache that progressed to excruciating.  I knew I would have to feel the tooth and look at it.  When I did, the tooth looked fine.  It was smooth and whole.  I had ended up needing a root canal because I had allowed that little piece of food to sit in there that I should have flossed out a long time ago, but I didn’t because I was afraid to see something I didn’t want to see because I believed it to be awful.

How often do we try to avoid or not face the bad or our own bad?  By avoiding it, something else bad can get in there and get stuck and then we end up with something far worse.  But, once I checked out the tooth I could begin to know the full reality and get the true needed help and  get it fixed.  I was finally set free of the fear of a bad break, but I had to deal with getting the mess I had made by avoiding doing what was right with a now painful cleaning out with a root canal. 

The truth sets us free.

Children that have been told there was a Santa start to reach an age where they question it.  They don’t really want to know and yet they do want to know the truth.  As disappointing as it is when they hear it, there is a relief. They don’t have to succumb to the game and the effort of holding onto something that was starting to not feel real and the embarrassment of that.  The truth sets them free.

When I thought more about the power of truth both in its joy and in its harder to face view, I remembered that the armor of God in Ephesians says that we are to put on the “Belt of Truth.”  Belts keep our clothes on.  If we didn’t have it, we could become exposed, embarrassed or tripped up by something not being secured.  I move a whole lot freer when my belt is well fastened.  We’ve seen people not wearing belts and allowing pants to drag.  Have you seen them try to run?  They become tangled up and sometimes trip and fall.  Calling Truth a belt is pretty powerful. 

Doing a quick glance in the back of my Bible for study verses that had the word truth in them, it revealed row after row of examples.  What I found was that a large amount of them were in verses where Jesus was saying, “I tell you the truth…” 

John 14:5-7   5 Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?" 6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. 7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."…

This is basic.  The Father existence of God in His holiness is not to be met with sin.  In His coming as Christ as God with us as Yeshua, “God Saves,” He gives His blood to remove the sin so that we can be with Him.  He came as a Son, as man and God, and in that flesh is the portion of Son-ship to His own fullness of God-ship and creator as Father.  He is the way by His sacrifice and saving blood in the form of man so that we can be with Him in His Holy fullness as Father.  No one comes to the Father and the supreme Holiness of Him except by His blood as Christ.

I get concerned when I read how many will be deceived in the end times.  We should spend time in the Word looking at the truth and reading all that Jesus says when He says, “I tell you the truth.”  Also, we should read who will be deceived and what they will be deceived by.  We need to know the tactics of the enemy in order to be on the defense and the offense.  It takes both.  It takes knowing truth on both sides however joyful or hard it may be.  But always, it will set us free.

Reviewing the Scripture and reminding ourselves keeps the truth on our heart and mind so that when words that come that are twisted or fuzzy and maybe even a false feel-good are presented we are able to quickly identify the deception in it or research it to see if it is validated in God’s Word.  We need to do a bit of a background check. The Word also helps us not to fear or become hopeless in the times of darkness.  Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.  Sending a child to bed that is scared of the dark with a flashlight can help them sleep peacefully, freed from fear. They have a light when they need it.

Jesus’ power reigns in His Word and Truth by the breath of His mouth.

2 Thessalonians 2:8  And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

John 8:31  To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”