Holding to the Truth - Martin Wiles

Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ. Ephesians 4:15 NLT

He was a hell-fire-and-brimstone preacher who held to the truth . . . regardless.

My dad preached for forty years. He labeled himself a “fundamentalist.” I re-discovered the truth of this when I listened to the only recorded sermon of his I have. He was a young man at the time, in his late 30’s. His voice undulated with passion. He preached the “unadulterated” gospel with zeal. He didn’t mince words to be politically correct; he simply preached what the Bible said. If the Bible called something sin, he did, too—regardless of what anyone else thought.

Dad held to the truth, as Paul instructed early believers to do. Only Paul included to do so with love. As early believers took the gospel into the world, they encountered pagan lies. Confronting those lies meant speaking the truth, but getting the people to listen required speaking it in love.

Spiritual truth isn’t always pretty. It can cut to the quick and raise the hackles on necks. When violating it and having someone call our hand, we can follow our gut reaction, get angry, and snap back. Truth reminds us of how ugly we can act.

The truth of the matter is we are born sinners. We may have been a pretty baby, but we had an ugly nature. It just didn’t show up initially. We didn’t arrive with a clean slate that was later corrupted by a sinful environment, although our circumstances can affect it. All Satan must do is capitalize on what is already present.

The truth is also that we will live and die the same way unless we allow God to do something about our nature. He can change it but won’t unless we agree with Him that we have sinned.

But the prettier truth is God can change us. By repenting of our sins and believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we can exchange our ugliness for Christ’s righteousness. This new nature won’t take away our struggle to obey—in fact, it will intensify it. But now God has something to work with. He can bring us into a state of obedience to His commands. A condition we could never enter before.

Have you accepted the cold hard truth about your nature?

Father, may I never shy away from the truth but speak it boldly to people who need to hear. 

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