Seemingly the world is full of lying and deceit and every news story seems to be paraded with the lie. That should be the case towards the end times. There is no respect for the truth in high places of power or even in everyday conversation. Where the lie is there can be no fellowship either in the world or in the church! Paul is describing the new and old man here and admonishes the church "you see the Jews but you know not Christ." We too must know that we have been sanctified in Christ and must live as such as the lie reeks havoc in our lives. We must speak and walk in the truth!
There is no greater temptation than to lie because it is beneficial to the flesh that does not like consequences. Where the lie is you find fellowship with the devil who is the lie. He may find no place in our lives to further the lie however. When you step out of fellowship with the Spirit with the lie you grieve the Spirit who is the Spirit of TRUTH! The lie in our mouth grieves Him! You can understand why the lie reeks havoc....not being able to hold the hand of God and the devil at the same time. Paul uses the word "falsehood" in this passage. We have the word "Sudo" which is fake. Anything that is fake or not reality we must put away. It is a knock off, a fake, not genuine! Paul says put off the fake and put on the truth! Why are we always attracted to the sudo? The knock offs? Because they are easier to get! We tell the lie to deceive for our flesh. The truth is painful. The truth hurts! (especially the truth about me!)
The truth alone enhances fellowship while no relationship can be had on deceitfulness. Wherever the lie is the relationship we have in Christ is broken! To the neighbor I must speak the truth in love. (both in the church and beyond as he is the neighbor.) We stand in the fellowship of Christ and must speak the truth as it is in His word. We speak the truth about God and whatever His word talks about and it extends to the neighbor.
The lie has so many forms it is hard to talk about all of them. The coloring of the truth, partial and half truths, inflection, outright perjury and the list goes on and on. Put them ALL away as they are sudo, not the truth and the whole truth! We do these things sometimes however in our families and to our neighbor. We may not be discouraged in our obligation to the world, but we must also understand that they live in the lie and deceit for the lust of the flesh always. But we learn Christ "having been taught by Him" says the Apostle Paul. He teaches us the truth as it is in Christ Jesus...that we have been saved and stand in HIS fellowship without room for the lie. Can you pray to God when you lie? It interrupts fellowship! We must speak the truth about God and the neighbor as we LIVE in that fellowship with God and one another. To speak the lie we must stand OUTSIDE that fellowship to do it.
In fellowship to the Living God we stand in fellowship with ALL of our relationships. If we make room for the lie, we make place for the devil and it DESTROYS! Speak the truth in love. You can only do that when you TELL THE TRUTH!!!
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"Blessed Accusation" II Samuel 12:7&13From time to time before we partake of the Lord's supper we stand on a threshold of a few weeks of self examination. It is also a good practice to do once in a while. Definitely not an easy task as we must...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
The Spirit of Christ LD20 & John 16 This is not the 1st Lord's day of the catechism that deals with the Holy Spirit. We were taught of the Trinity of God and that the Holy Spirit is very God of very God. LD20 finds us at the end of the...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
"The Alpha and Omega" Revelations 1:8 We live in fearful times and the world has possibly never seen a time like this before. Historians will even point you to past worldly things, but these things seem to be happening on a greater scale and...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
"Admonished to SHINE!" Matthew 5:14-16 Early in the sermon on the mount you find two profound statements from the Lord. 1- You ARE the salt of the earth and 2- a light of the world. He is speaking about the citizens of the Kingdom. Riches are...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
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"Patient Confidence" Psalm 27:13-14 Many claim this Psalm as a favorite in their lives as we read it often in times of distress. "The Lord is thy light...be of good courage!" The Psalmist speaks of his foes who are slanderous and the fear and...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
"Our Benefit in Christ's death" LD16 & I Cor. 15:20ff We approach this Lord's Day from a broad perspective instead of dealing with all of these individual things separately. His death: We need to be careful when we speak about Christ's dying....[ abbreviated | read entire ]
"Words of Mutual Comfort in death" I Thess. 4:13-18 There is no occasion like death and the graveside to press upon us what will happen at the end of the ages. When one dies, God gives a heavenly house for the soul but often with the body we tell...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
"Born Unto the Lord!" Ezekiel 16:20 As our children are enrolled in school and schedules that are somewhat different than expected at times we turn to this chapter. We deal with schedules, changes in it, and sometimes ask ourselves "why do we go...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
