SCANDALOUS
June 17th, 2022
LOVE…Joyfully Celebrates Honesty (v. 13:6)
1 Corinthians 13:8, 13, ‘Love never stops loving. It extends beyond the gift of prophecy, which eventually fades away. It is more enduring than tongues, which one day will fall silent. Love remains long after words of knowledge are forgotten…Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope and love—yet love surpasses them all. So, above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.’ (TPT)
Love takes pleasure in the flowering of truth. What a beautiful picture I envision of a blossoming bouquet of genuineness, mixed with virtue and trustworthiness, the many colors of love.
I don’t know at what junction in my life I decided that lying was acceptable and dishonesty didn’t matter (unless you got caught in the lie, of course). I didn’t grow up in a home where not telling the truth was necessary, i.e., like to protect myself from getting beaten or where my parents lied so it set a standard for me or I was being threatened or dared. For whatever reason, from early on, I spun some amazing tales. Maybe it was the storyteller in me, I don’t know, but it wasn’t long before I could tell a lie easier and quicker than the truth, and years upon practicing years later, I sometimes couldn’t discern the truth from a lie. It has cost me a lot, and it has cost those I love a lot as well.
There is a fable about a little boy who cries ‘Wolf’ one too many times, but in truth, it really isn’t a make-believe story. It truly does happen when someone can tell a lie or make up a story or embellish an event, and eventually people begin to wonder what is truth and what is untruth. Sadly, over time, they begin not believing anything at all. There have been desperate times in my life when I fiercely needed to be believed, but my past history had taken me beyond the realms of credence. It had removed character and integrity that might have once blossomed had it been nurtured instead of falsifying things and making up stories. I learned that half-truths are still lies and there is nothing halfway about honesty. Therefore, when I needed to be believed in, I was no longer credible, and I found myself alone. Our actions bear consequences, and sometimes, those consequences can last a lifetime, and come with a life sentence. What cost so much was not necessarily a story I spun, but rather, the lack of character and integrity in my words and actions that bankrupted me.
Why do I tell you this? Because when Jesus arrested my heart several years ago, He took all the dishonesty in me, the lack of character and integrity, and He nailed it to the cross. He loved me just that much! to set me free from a life of deceit and duplicity. I try really hard now to make my words mean something real, to have meaning that is clarifying and authentic, above and beyond reproach. I try to live in a manner that always images Jesus and my desire is to emulate the fragrance His love expels.
I have been given much, so much is required, and what that means to me is to forgive those who lie to me, who trample my belief in them the way that I once did with those in my life who tried on my behalf to trust me. It doesn’t mean that I excuse someone’s dishonesty, but I understand enough to understand it, right? and to walk with them on the same path of forgiveness and change, which hopefully for them too, leads to integrity and honor.
Today I love the truth! Because the truth truly does set us free, FREE INDEED!
1 John3:18, ‘Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth.’ (NIV)
So many weddings happen every year during the month of June; so many ‘I do’s’ are spoken that eventually become ‘I don’t’s’, because we understand so little about love, God’s love, and the truthfulness of it, the honesty of God that sets people free. What would happen if we too loved like that: lived honestly and practiced integrity?
