The Outcome of the Truth is the Right Outcome
One main reason that people lie is that they are attempting to control outcomes. But outcomes are never really in our control, and thinking they should be is a recipe for misery. We don’t need to think about outcomes because God is already doing that. “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD” (Prov 17:1). And who else but God even could do that? Think about it. There are a million, billion, trillion things that God is doing at any given moment. Your situation affects and is affected by countless other situations involving other people and other processes. You could never unwind it, at least not 99.9% of it, and the .1% you can see is more than enough to keep you busy.
So what do we have? Process. How we live will determine a lot. If you want the best outcomes possible, though they are barely predictable, you must walk straight. You must obey God and move in such a way that is pleasing to him. Jesus told us exactly how to do that: seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Mt 6:33). Follow God, and walk. If you do this, you will love the outcome, thought you had not been able to predict it. Walk according to principles, in this case, the principle that the outcome of the truth is the right outcome, and you will love what God does; you will be strong, and you will like yourself. Don’t you want to see what God has in mind for you? Don’t you want to see what he thinks is the best life for you? Trust him.
How does this relate to other people? It relates because, remember, we are in the business of building trust. As you relate to others it is important that you have integrity. This means that you must not lie to anyone. You must act right towards others. It also means that you must not lie to yourself. This should be fairly obvious by now. But the next part might not be as obvious to you: you must not allow others to lie to you and get away with it. Why? Because you are committed to truth, and this will serve you well.
Now we are getting into the realm of courage. You must walk honestly, but you must also walk courageously. It takes courage to tell the truth, especially when there will be pain involved. If you aren’t willing to tell the truth, then it means you either do not trust God, or you have not worked trusting God into the place in your mind and heart that makes your decisions. It takes constant vigilance and practice to do that. Dont’ quit.
But it also takes courage not to allow anyone to lie to you. The simple reason for this is that it will be uncomfortable. If you call them on their bull, they will not like it, and they might not like you. If they are a worthy heart to get close to, then they will appreciate your honest and brave feedback. If they are not, you don’t want them around anyway. If you have up until now lived your life in such a way that you closely monitor people around you for signals about your own worth in their eyes, because you were taught to live that way: people-pleasing, then this will be difficult. But pressing through and learning to do this will change you like almost nothing else.
Look at what they said about Jesus:
Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances (Mt 22:16).
This is incredible. The literal translation of that last part is, “for you don’t look at faces.” If you tend toward people-pleasing, then you are an expert at reading faces. Jesus didn’t try. He just said what needed to be said in the most loving but direct way possible. Granted, it can be helpful to see how people are reacting, to read their faces for the sake of understanding their feelings, but searching for approval so that you can form your opinions (which will not be your opinions) is to shirk responsibility for being an image-bearer, because being an image-bearer requires you to have your own opinions, that is, your own judgement, or if you like, discernment.
Knowing this is not half the battle. It is at best 5% of the battle. 95% percent is in the doing. Most people know what is right, and yet almost no one changes. People that live like this, truly righteous and just in their approach to other people, are extremely rare. Instead they are scheming, lying, manipulating, coercing, evading, resenting, and in the end, hating. It is a form of hate to treat people dishonestly for any reason. It is the most loving thing you can do to act in relation to others with total integrity.
Integrity is a great word. It means “whole.” Think of the math word integer, a whole number. Anything else is fractured and fragmented. If you are a fragmented person, you will not feel strong, and you will not like yourself much. You will have no good reason to have genuine self-esteem. You will depend on the approval of others and your ability to hide the truth from yourself. You can try, but you will fail, and God does not like it, especially after sending his Son to die so you can, among other things, be honest. Have hope; break off the bondage of untruthfulness.
Thou Shalt Not Kill
Another way to see that value of human life is to realize God’s hatred for murder. From Genesis 4 we see that the taking of a life runs contrary to God’s ways and nature. The law is crystal clear on the matter. God reserves the taking of a human life for himself alone. Even when the state or an army is authorized to do it, it is by the power vested by God to protect an individual entity from doing so. And if God so values life, so should we.
Thou Shalt Not Steal or Covet
When considering how to treat others, consider that God tells us in the Word that it would be wrong to take or covet another man or woman’s possessions. Why? Because it belongs to them. More accurately, it belongs to God who has given it to them for stewardship. In that sense it belongs to them, and what belongs to others, we are not allowed to appropriate for ourselves. They have special value by nature of being possessed by one of these image-bearing creatures with intrinsic value and, as it turns out, inalienable rights. It is not just to take something from someone just because you can.
Incidentally, this is how we know it is OK to own private property. God’s command to protect it means that he sees it as under our authority. God gives a lot of credence to what is under the authority of one his image-bearing creations. Consider that the reason the whole world, including all the people in it, were cursed at the fall was because Adam rebelled, and Adam was in charge of everything. So Adam went down, and now the “whole creation has been subjected to futility” (Ro 8:20). “For as in Adam all die.” The good news is that in the very same way, “in Christ, shall all be made alive” (1 Cor 15). All we have to do is put ourselves under Christ’s authority and he replaces Adam. Everything owned by a person is considered under a person’s authority. God protects it with his law so that it is not right to take or covet something that belongs to another.
Tomorrow let’s look at what the Bible has to say about treating others better than ourselves and how that relates to what we have been saying about justice, dominance, and trading value for value.
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