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LOVING THE TRUTH
What is it that causes some people to love the truth in such a way that they want to know it and are willing to stand for it even though it may cost them friends, family and even their own lives? Let us not downplay the importance of truth: let us not say that doctrine divides and that Christians should not be concerned about teaching. Truth is important! Remember that the Lord Jesus said that He and His truth would divide humanity. He said: “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law,” (Luke 12:51-53). The truth that sets some people free (John 8:32) also divides those who love it from those who hate it. Paul foretold the yet future coming of a man he called the “Wicked,” saying: “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10). Notice that this evil being will have followers: “them that perish:” and that they perish “because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.” We learn from this that for a sinner to be saved they must have received the love of the truth. Here we have it again! Men do not generate within themselves anything good – not even a love of the truth. Loving the truth is not a natural result of being a child of Adam. It is received as a gift – as a talent, for instance. It is bestowed by God – given to those to whom it pleased Him to provide it. Will we never learn? “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,” (James 1:17). Have we not learned to think and to say with Paul that all the things that cause some people to be saved originate in God Himself? Paul wrote: “For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). And so we ask: do you love the truth? Why? It must be that God bestowed that love of the truth upon you. It must be God that caused you to be different from those careless and unconcerned folk to whom the truth means nothing.
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