"Do you want the truth? You can't handle the truth." We have all heard this quote at some point in our lives if you are at least over the age of 15. Truth is something that we must all come to grips with whether we like it or not. Many go through life not ever really thinking about what they believe for various reasons. Maybe they just don't care. Maybe they think they have everything under control. They know it all. But maybe they are scared of the truth. As my last blog said the truth hurts but sometimes we have to endure it for the sake of truth. Recently a friend and I were discussing how we both agree on what it takes for a person to discover what they believe. You have to first think about it. Then you have to learn about it and finally talk about it. All of these elements help us to solidify our beliefs. But we must have the desire for truth. (hence the title...)
It was not until college that I was faced with the challenge of my beliefs. Being that I go to a Baptist college I am not talking about non-believers challenging my faith. I am talking about some of the tough, sensitive doctrinal issues in the church that most would rather sweep under the rug. I have dealt with many of these such as infant baptism, women in ministry, and election or predestination. Some might think that infant baptism is not that touchy but it is when you were baptized in the Episcopal church and raised in the Methodist church, both of which practice infant baptism. That was one of the harder discussions I have had with my mom. I had to decide what I believed to be biblical baptism. It wasn't until college that I heard someone tell me they did not agree with a woman in a certain position in church. Once again I had to take my stance on one side or the other. And then came "election." Yes, I said "election." This one proved to be the more difficult of the three. Election is one of the hardest doctrines to deal with especially when you have grown up on the opposite side of the fence. I ended up doing my senior paper on it this semester but I enjoyed it because I wanted to know the truth.
I had grown up on one side of the fence having never looked over into the other yard next door. All I knew was my backyard. When someone picks you up and shows you the other side it can be an eye opening experience. Being faced with these issues I had to decide what I believed to be "truth." I thought about them, learned about them, and talked about them. Interestingly enough I have jumped the fence on every one of those issues. It's not easy to deal with these issues most of the time because of our upbringing. And it's a hard pill to swallow sometimes when you see that scripture clearly points one way when you've been pointing the other. But that can also make it easier. If scripture says it, I believe it and rest upon the truth of God's word and the inerrancy of Scripture. Faith and trust in God's Word are sometimes the only things that allow us to believe what is written in the Bible. It is not a book filled with fairy tales and happy endings everywhere you look. There is suffering and pain, disease and sickness, murder and rape, judgment and death. But if we believe God's Word to be truth then we accept these things and trust that God had a reason for all that happened in these 66 books. These are what many Christians do not want to know about Scripture. We cannot want to know some but not all of the truth. God wants us to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Over the course of my short college career I have developed an appreciation, love, and desire for truth. I believe we all need to have this same attitude towards truth. John says that we have been commanded by the Father to walk in truth (2 Jn. 1:4). To walk in truth one must know the truth. But if we do not desire to know the truth what a miserable life we will lead trying to walk in that which we do not desire. I do not believe that is the way Christ desires for us to lead our lives. To walk in truth is to live by the commands of God (2 Jn. 1:6). The primary command he writes is to love one another. Truth and love are inseparable; they are dependent on one another. We are responsible for the commands which have been revealed to us (Deut. 29:29). We have been given truth in God's Word and we are to WANT to learn it, WANT to apply it, and WANT to defend it as Jude says. If we do not want the truth what good is it to us? None at all.
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