The Truth Will Set You Free

A woman goes to the butcher shop to buy a chicken for her Sunday meal. It was late on Saturday and the butcher has only one scrawny chicken left. He puts it on the scale. “Three pounds,” he says. “Oh, that’s too scrawny! Don’t you have something bigger?” the woman asks. The butcher pretends to rummage around looking for another chicken, and then puts the same chicken back on the scale, while pressing with his thumb. “Three and a half pounds,” he announces. “That looks better,” says the smiling lady. “I’ll take them both.” It’s an old joke with a big lesson about being truthful and how deception can lunge one into an embarrassing situation. I’m not the smartest guy in the world, and even though I’ve been accused of being too honest and truthful about things, I have found throughout life being truthful is easier than trying to remember the last lie I told, and to whom I told it. It’s easy to exaggerate and expound on a subject with untruth in hopes of getting to the head of the class, but the truth finds you out when proof is demanded.

[John 8:31-32] “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” The indictment of Isaiah against his generation, a people who had temporarily succeeded in turning truth upon its head, is no less applicable today: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight” (Isaiah 5:20-21). Though Isaiah’s generation perished in captivity the truth continued to march on. Their calling “evil good; and good evil” did not make it so. We face a similar challenge today, when right is called wrong and wrong is called right; while God, oddly enough, is portrayed as one of the world’s larger problems. Everything we once thought was true is now decried as false; all we once thought to be false is now lauded as true. But never forget this: truth will prevail. In the final analysis, when all has been said and done, when once-powerful nations have long-since crumbled into the dust of oblivion, God’s truth will prevail. The empire of the Caesar’s is gone; the legions of Rome are decaying in the dust; the avalanches that Napoleon hurled upon Europe have melted away; the pride of the Pharaohs is fallen; the pyramids they raised to be their tombs are sinking in the desert sands; Tyre is now only a rock for bleaching fisherman’s nets; Sidon has scarcely left a wreck behind; but the Word of God still survives. All things that threaten to extinguish it have only aided it; and it proves every day how transient is the noblest monument that man can build, and how enduring is the least word that God has spoken. Tradition has dug for it a grave; intolerance has lighted for it many a fire; many a Judas has betrayed it with a kiss; many a Peter has denied it with an oath. Many a Demas has forsaken it, but the Word of God still endures. Men may deny truth’s very existence. They may denounce it and demonize it. They may debate it incessantly. But truth will prevail. “Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders. My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through your law. I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws. I hold fast to your statutes, O Lord; do not let me be put to shame. I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free” (Psalm 119:27-32). Jesus said, “I tell you the truth...” and I believe him.