Why we must strive to seek and love the truth
"OUT" of love for the truth…"
These words open the foreword to Martin Luther's 95 Theses. Love for the truth is not so easy as it sounds. Love for the truth makes a demand upon us.
It demands honesty.
It demands humility.
It demands holiness.
Honesty – because the truth cannot be dealt with deceitfully.
Humility – because the truth must be permitted to do its work in us first.
Holiness – because the truth cleanses and so emancipates us. This is how the truth sets us free.
The very first of Luther's 95 Theses states: " When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent' (Mt 4:17), He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.'
Luther's Theses go on to state that the value of inner repentance is evidenced by our outward behaviour.
The best place to learn more of this is, of course, in the book of James.
Love for the truth is both a spiritual and a moral keystone. It is truth that shines its uncompromising light upon us.
It is truth that requires a response to that searchlight whether it is illuminating an awful plight of others or a shortcoming in us.
Once truth declares it, ignored it cannot be. The scope of truth is vast. It is newsworthy. Its range these past days includes 20 million people in Pakistan, three young men in Castlerock, one civil servant, a village torn asunder in 1972 and, by no means least, our daily individual behaviour regarding the smallest of matters.
Every day truth does its work. It does it consistently without wavering or without discrimination and every day our love for the truth is measured by our response to what it reveals.
Of course, at the very root of how we deal with truth is what we think of the personification of truth.
"I am the way, the truth and the life," were the words used by Christ to Thomas.
Truth could only be embodied in a sinless person. And, when it comes to the forgiveness of sins, that too may only be bestowed from the hands of a sinless Christ.
Christ completed His words to Thomas thus: "No man cometh to the Father, but by me."
In man's search for truth, two things dominate: knowledge and justice. We want to know the facts and we want fairness.
Inquiries are set up with this purpose. Legal cases are heard with this purpose. What they conclude and what justice they deliver is not always palatable, nor at times is it considered right either!
But, we must never succumb to the temptation to not love the truth, nor should cynicism drive us from seeking the truth.
Truth should be more apparent in the clergy than a clerical collar. Truth should be engraved deeper than the badges of the forces of law and order. Truth should be the chief portfolio of government ministers.
Truth should be more obvious in a layman than his neck tie. Truth should be the prized accessory of choice of a woman.
As Proverbs puts it: "Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the tablet of thine heart."
And when Luther's old enemy, Mother Church, sends her visitor to Scotland in the next few weeks to be greeted, I hear, by an actor dressed as John Knox - for the love of truth I hope the actor will speak as well as dress the part.
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Monday 13 February 2012
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