A couple of decades ago, I went through a Perry Mason binge. It seems that every episode’s courtroom scene showed a witness being “sworn in.” I have never been to an actual trial, so I do not know if it continues to happen. An official of the court would walk over to the witness, hold up a Bible and ask, “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? So, help you, God?”
Given the political correctness of our day, things have changed. But there is still a question of honesty given. The court does its best to insist upon truth; opinions and hearsay will not do. At stake is justice for the offended and freedom for the accused. The truth matters a lot!
To say “the whole truth” is a little ambiguous. That phrase implies a portion of truth can be withheld, leaving the complete truth distorted. The truth is a whole. If anything is missing, it is not the entire truth. The part of the truth that is not revealed distorts the part that has been made manifest.
Where there is distortion of the truth, there is distortion of freedom. Where truth abounds, freedom also abounds. Where truth is hidden, so also, freedom will be hidden. Both truth and freedom exist in equal abundance but are only enjoyed as the pair are known and lived authentically.
When the truth is rejected, hidden, or distorted, freedom is diminished. Both yours and the people around you, friend or foe. Even to the point of total evaporation of freedom. Where truth is manipulated by personal preference, freedom is also exploited for personal gain.
If you are at-bat for your baseball team, and the pitch is coming at you at 80 miles an hour, and you forgot your prescription glasses in the dugout, you can be 95 percent sure the ball is coming at you, but it’s that last five percent that will inform you exactly where it will be and when it will get there. You may know a lot of truth and a lot about the truth, but if you don’t know all the truth, the whole of it, you will have collisions with the missing truth. The incomplete truth will cause hurt to the people dearest to you and equally to those folks you don’t care one way or another about.
I think there are three categories of truth, “contrived” truth, “discovered” truth, and “revealed Truth.” Revealed Truth is what God has shown of Himself in the Bible. Discovered truth is what God established with His ordered creation as natural laws. Contrived truth is what Adam and Eve established just before they lost their freedom of living in Eden.
Contrived truth how I think life ought to work for my advancement.
Discovered truth is information the Creator has hidden for humans to find as they rule His Creation with Him.
Revealed Truth is Jesus, the Christ, the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit, teacher and companion.
You can choose to live from any of the three categories of truth, but I have discovered only Truth sets me free from the oppression of a contrived life and launches me into the excitement of discovered truth.
My life with Jesus has evolved and continues to develop. I am not bold enough to say I have matured, but I have seen the desire of my heart morph. Today, my deepest longing is “to know the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth. So, help me, God!”
I encourage you to read and ponder John 8:30-42 but leave you with verses 31-32.
“Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.””
Photo – Taken at the top of Pine Mountain outside Whitesburg, KY, October, 2020.
Baldwin Heirlooms 