Speak The Truth, No Matter The Cost
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(16) These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; (17) do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord.’ (Zechariah 8:16-17)
In our world today, we see many people who, when they speak the Truth, according to God’s Word, our secular society will attempt to downplay and discourage the speaker to include throwing insults, denigrating the speaker and his or her family, and even threaten the speaker through intimidation, by direct threats or in ‘doxing’ the person (making public their home address or their phone number), or attempt to ‘track’ the person and follow them for the sake of harassing them. One recent example is Kansas City Chiefs’ kicker Harrison Butker, who spoke the Truth at a commencement speech for Benedictine College in Kansas, and has received such threats and an official doxing at the hands of the Kansas City municipal government.
Nevertheless, the Lord requires that we would follow Him to speak the Truth, and act appropriately to His precepts. Whether we face persecution, ridicule, or even threats, we are to stand up for His Truth, and for our fellow Christians who are speaking the Truth to the secular world. We find the Lord’s command for this in Zechariah.
Zechariah was a prophet and a priest of post-exiled Israel who lived roughly around 550-475 BC; he was part of the ‘building team’ of the Second Temple, and his writings were Messianic or Christ-centered. Zechariah 8 is a promise by God to bless Israel and Jerusalem, but there is an ‘if/then’ statement, ‘if you do these things, then God will bless you’; the ‘If’ portion being verses 16 and 17. God is adamant to bless His people, as He was in punishing them for disobedience when allowing the Babylonians to take them into exile seventy years earlier. However, like the blessings being an ‘if/then’ proposition, so are the consequences of disobedience, or ‘If you disobey God and His Word, then you will suffer consequences as a result of your sin.’
The consequences of sin are not always provided during our mortal lives, and the blessings may not always come prior to our passing. God never guarantees that living for Him and doing the things of God will bring a shield of protection from mortal harm, it is only a protection from Eternal punishment that the Lord promises. Nevertheless, God requires we speak Truth, live according to His Truth, and have sound judgement in any decisions we make. We should keep our promises and never scheme against others, even (or especially) our enemies or foes.
Our example is Jesus Himself. On trial in front of the Sanhedrin, Jesus was asked if He indeed was the Messiah (Mark 14:61). Jesus could have said no and perhaps avoided the crucifixion. Being God, He could not go against His own Word and so answered ‘I am’ (Mark 14:62) and thus sealed His earthly fate on the cross. Harrison Butker, like others before him, knew his words based in Truth may create a maelstrom of controversy and hatred, but in a model of Christ spoke the Truth anyway.
Why do people risk such hatred or woes upon themselves? It is because being obedient to God’s Word and condemned by the world is better than being obedient to the world and condemned by God. Such condemnation from the world is not final nor is it fully encompassing. Even as the world condemns, there are those who hear the Word and see Christ in the actions of the persecuted and come to the Lord’s saving grace. The world’s condemnation is temporary, while God’s condemnation is eternal, and it is up to each Christian to live in obedience to God and speak the Truth so others, who are currently condemned by God in their sins, will accept Jesus and be condemned no more.
