In the Open

February 2024

Dear Friends

Have you ever been blamed for something you did not do?  Even for a minor classroom offence the false accusation can sting.  Especially if others knew who really threw the ball of paper but no-one was prepared to speak up.

For the postmasters who were accused of theft, their anger and despair must have multiplied as the years went by without a way to prove their innocence.  And that is just one example among many in our country where people seem to have concealed, distorted or spun the truth to suit themselves.  How can we live in such a nation without despair?

Here’s three convictions that, if they were widely held, would transform life in a world of lies:

1. Objective truth exists.  Whatever is true is true for you and it’s true for me.  There’s no such thing as ‘my truth’.  Believing that truth is relative leads to the depressing conclusion that nothing is certain and no-one’s word is better than another’s.  But there is truth that is objectively, eternally, truly true because there is an eternal God who is not part of creation and who knows and speaks the truth about all things.  “I am the Lord, and there is no other … I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right.”  (Isaiah 45:18-19)
   
   
2. Always speak the truth.  With very few exceptions (like preventing enemies causing harm) we should always speak truthfully.  We do this because we want to live in an honest nation, and because we don’t want to destroy ourselves by giving lies a foothold in our hearts.  But most of all we speak the truth because God commands it: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.”  (Exodus 20:16)
   
   
3. Trust God to judge justly.  Human justice is always prone to fail; no-one can discern the truth about everything.  But God will judge justly.  No facts will be forgotten and no cover-up will survive.  God knows every keystroke on every Horizon terminal in every Post Office.  “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened … [They] were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”  (Revelation 20:12)

Perfect justice is appealing, until we remember that our own lies will be exposed too.  How will we survive such an examination?  Can God forgive and still be a just judge?  I’ll answer that next month.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows