I have always maintained that one of the reasons Jesus enjoyed perfect sanity and peace (besides the fact He was the Son of God) was because He always told the truth. Think about it. He walked through every day without pretense, always saying exactly what He wanted to say. There were no hidden motives in Jesus and not an ounce of deceit.
“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
1 Peter 2:22
“He walked the earth in perfect alignment with who He was.”
He walked the earth in perfect alignment with who He was. Sometimes people hated Him and sometimes people loved Him. That never changed how He felt about the people all around Him. He had plenty of energy and love to do the will of His Father. He didn’t get depressed or discouraged. He wasn’t lonely or needy.
The days He was here were not stressed or rushed. He didn’t roll His eyes after particular people would walk away or talk behind people’s backs. He didn’t defend Himself or let people’s accusations ruin His day.
“He made fools of smart people by simply telling the truth at all times.”
He made fools of smart people by simply telling the truth at all times. It was shocking and disarming. So in Jesus, we see how a human is actually supposed to live. He lived in truth, we often live in pretense.
Definition of pretense-an attempt to make something that is not the case appear true.
Pretense-the root of our misery. Pretending is hard. Pretending for long periods of time is one of the most exhausting things a human ever does.
- We pretend our home life is great, when it’s falling apart.
- We pretend our children are happy, when they are miserable.
- We pretend we are okay, when we are dying inside.
- We pretend to be flexible, when we are actually control freaks.
- We pretend to be confident, when insecurity is making us crazy.
- We pretend we don’t care what people think, when people’s opinions can completely ruin our day.
“For the Christian, pretending is doubly deadly.”
For the Christian, pretending is doubly deadly. We have the Spirit of God inside of us and He is called The Spirit of Truth.
…the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
John 14:17
“Truth lives with us and is in us. Simply stated, we have THE lie detector inside of us at all times.”
Truth lives with us and is in us. Simply stated, we have THE lie detector inside of us at all times. We can’t get away from Him. He is living in the very center of our being. Before Christ we had a strong family resemblance to who we followed; the father of lies, the devil.
When Jesus was on the earth, the Jews were arguing with Him and in Jesus fashion, He told the truth (not the way to win friends and influence people).
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
John 8:44
“Lying is so natural to us because of the nature we have at birth.”
Lying is so natural to us because of the nature we have at birth. No one has to teach a child to lie. We have to teach them to tell the truth. We have to go against what is natural to them all the time. That’s why parenting is hard. We are trying to reshape their nature.
Now that we belong to God, the Spirit of Truth is in us. However, we still live with our own nature that longs to be socially acceptable and liked. They are at war. Scripture plainly says to be friends with the culture is to be an enemy of God. (James 4:4)
“Here lies the very root of a Christian’s misery. Most of us are out of alignment with who we are and we don’t even know it.”
Here lies the very root of a Christian’s misery. Most of us are out of alignment with who we are and we don’t even know it. We say what we should instead of the truth and our soul starts to shrivel. We pretend we are fine when we actually need to say what’s on our minds, and lies start to put out the light of the Spirit of Truth inside of us.
We are meant to walk in this world in the power of the God who is in us. Righteousness comes from what we believe about God. What we truly believe will produce action…always. If we believe God and His Word, we will stand on it no matter what. If we believe lying is wrong, cowardly, and deadly to us and all of the people God loves, we will tell the truth…even if it costs us everything.
“For a child of God to pretend is actually hypocrisy (to wear a mask).”
For a child of God to pretend is actually hypocrisy (to wear a mask). It is the very opposite of what we should have; an unmasked face shining with the presence of God.
To live in truth brings energy, life, and freedom to us. As we walk in freedom, others get to experience the Spirit of Truth and many will become free.
Instead, we worry about being politically correct and hurting people’s feelings. Nobody told Jesus that. He never said anything to be mean; that’s sin. He said the truth because He is the truth and He is love; they come as a pair.
“Anyone can be full of truth and intolerable to be around.”
Anyone can be full of truth and intolerable to be around. Only the Holy Spirit is equally grace and truth. To shove truth down people’s throats with judgement and without love is one of the greatest misrepresentations of God there is. Every face we look into was formed by God. They are fearfully and wonderfully made. We should never forget the gravity of being God’s representative to a soul for which He gave HIs life. A person in line with God will not be mean, they will be honest. There is a world of difference.
As we adjust to the Spirit and start to walk in total honesty, something beautiful happens inside of us. The Spirit of Truth will tell us the truth about ourselves first. He will show us our own hypocrisy, perversion, murderous thoughts, deceit, jealousy, two-faced tendencies, and any other anti-God state we naturally live in. As we agree with Him and get in alignment with Him, we can relax. We can stop pretending to be anything at all except complete losers, emptied of self-righteousness and filled with real righteousness.
…but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
Proverbs 28:1
“We will become wonderful counselors because we will see through people’s pretense because we have had to face our own.”
We will become wonderful counselors because we will see through people’s pretense because we have had to face our own. A soul that has willingly been stripped naked before God is powerful in this world because they have nothing to prove and their desire is to help others come to true freedom.
They will listen to others and zero in on what is killing that person because God has had to kill (or is killing it) it in them. They will tell the truth about themselves first and then tell the person the truth about what they see in them.
“There is no time for self-pity (an emotion straight from hell).”
There is no time for self-pity (an emotion straight from hell). When we help people feel sorry for themselves, we are doing nothing to help them. God has every answer to all we need; and we should help them get to God through truth.
We are like a blood vessel. The blood vessel is not the blood but it carries the blood every place it needs to go in a body. We are not the Spirit of Truth, but when we are in alignment with God, we are the vessel God will use to bring the Spirit of Truth to the Body of Christ. When we function that way, there is no discouragement, neediness, or running out of energy. We become fountains of God’s Living Water and we are one with the trifecta of truth; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Only those who walk in truth can live in the light of God’s presence. People pleasers may be considered the nice ones, but they tell people what they want to hear. In doing so, they destroy themselves and others in the process. We can try to make it sound good, but it’s living a lie.
That is the root of our misery.
