Do you love the truth?

They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.” - 2 Thessalonians 2:11,12
 
Do you love the truth? When you think about the truth vs. a lie do you instantly think about words or speech? We think of someone “telling” a lie or “speaking” the truth, right? And indeed, we should be truthful in our words. But there is a deeper truth that God wants to instill in us. There is a state of being, established and rooted in truth that God wants to bring us into. Listen to what John 1:6 says “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.” We see time and time again, preachers and public figures who lead double lives. Outwardly they speak the truth, but in private they are “walking in darkness.” And I do not say this as a condemnation of those who have fallen, but as a warning to us all. Because we all have the exact same tendency. We want to look good on the outside. We want others to see what we wish to be. But God says we lie and do not “live out the truth.” In 3 John 1:4 we are exhorted “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” If we are to “walk in the truth” we must love the truth. And Jesus said “I am the truth.” Before his crucifixion, as Jesus was standing before Pilot, he said “the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth.” And in John 8:18 he says “I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me."
 
There are two reasons I am faithful to my wife. One is that I fear God and the other is that I love my wife. In our Christian walk, our faithfulness should be based on the same principal – our fear of God and our love for Jesus. And there is so much to love! And we love him because he first loved us. Jesus not only always told the truth (which he certainly did), but he always IS true. Every word, every expression, every action and every moment of every day… He was true. He never pretended to be one way and then acted another. He never put on a false demeanor to elicit a desired response. Everything about him was always true.
 
So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I humbly offer this admonishment with all sincerity and with full knowledge that I too am in need of the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit… we need to love the truth. If we do not, we will most certainly fall. We are living in an age when a spirit of deception is beginning to sweep the globe. It has only just begun. I know this deep in my being to be true and I see it clearly. There is a “powerful delusion” clouding the minds of the unregenerate. It is taking over those who are not “walking in the truth.” It is happening right now. There is a falling away of many – and they don’t even know it is happening… because they do not love the truth. I beg and plead with you – do not be one of these tragic numbers. If you speak the truth in this age, you will be called a liar. If you live righteously and stand for righteousness, you will be hated. But stand fast. Love the truth. Be true. For those who endure to the end… Well, listen to what Jesus said:
 
“You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” – Matthew 10:22
 
And like the Apostle Paul we will be able to say:
 
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” - 2 Timothy 4:7
 
May it even be so, in Jesus’ name.
 
Amen