"...I began to see the trap 'honesty' can be. It had become my highest value - 'honesty at any cost.' This meant that I worshiped honesty." - Keith Miller, Habitation of Dragons"If he [was honest] for the sake of having a good conscience, he would become a Pharisee and cease to be a truly moral person. I think that even saints did not care for anything other than simply to serve God, and I doubt that they ever had it in mind to become saints. If that were the case, they would have become only perfectionists rather than saints." - Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And love your neighbor as you love yourself." - Jesus in Luke 10:27 (God's Word)
They say that the good can be the enemy of the best. It's a struggle the church and God's people have struggled with forever. We build our theologies, our moral systems, our organizational structures, our worship services, our devotional time, and one thing stands out as the thing - the most important thing, the ideal that overshadows all others.
In Habitation of Dragons, Keith Miller points out how "total honesty" can become our god. Honesty is good, but when it becomes our highest value, it trumps love. "Total honesty" isn't a concept the Bible promotes, yet it is one the church often teaches.
It sounds so good. What could be wrong with speaking the pure truth?
Corrie ten Boom
There are times when speaking the whole objective truth isn't the loving thing to do. One example comes to mind, something that has always seemed both noble and unsettling to me. In The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom tells how her family hid Jews in the crawl space beneath their kitchen. There was a secret door under a rug under the kitchen table, and when the Nazis ask her where they were hiding Jews, she believed she has no choice but to speak the literal truth: "Under the kitchen table."
And then she laughed.
It was obvious to the German soldiers that nobody was under the table, and ten Boom had a clear conscience. She had, after all, spoken the absolute truth while trusting God to take care of things. Two things about this disturb me: ten Boom doesn't seem to be speaking the truth in love but out of fear, and her laughter turned the literal truth into a lie.
I am not faulting her for what she did. Corrie ten Boom was a saint who loved the Jews and saved many from the death camps. She trusted God with her life. It was her slavish devotion to being "totally honest" that disturbed me first, and her mocking that truth through laughter that seemed both clever and disturbing. If honesty is the highest value, laughing it off like that is the moral equivalent of lying.
Still, it worked, and it's possible that ten Boom was so averse to speaking even a partial untruth that a lie would have been obvious to the soldiers, so she did the mental gymnastics, spoke the objective truth, and misled with a laugh.
The True Church
I grew up in a denomination that had separated from another denomination when it saw the truth of the gospel being compromised - men whose beliefs were outside the realm of the Reformed confessions were allowed to preach freely, while those who said that they were wrong were told to be silent. This situation wasn't much different from the one Martin Luther had faced centuries earlier.
Ever since the Reformation divided the holy catholic church in Europe, the concept of the true church has played a huge role. If the church contradicted the clear teachings of Scripture, it had embraced the lie and become a false church. And the Reformed fathers knew exactly how to define the true church:
- Teaching sound doctrine
- Right administration of the sacraments
- Right administration of discipline
They knew exactly what doctrine was sound, exactly how the sacraments should be administered, and exactly how church members with moral failings should be disciplined. And any time a denomination allowed any preacher to teach anything different or added another teaching to that exact set of doctrine, dissenters had the right and obligation to condemn it, try to change it, remove themselves from it, and purify the church.
And that's why there are so many brands of Christianity today, especially here in North America. This group left that group over some issue. Later on, another group left the first, and then another group splintered off. Two groups decided to unite - but some couldn't compromise and remained true to whatever issue it was that had been so important 100 years earlier.
I remember meeting with a local pastor from a small Reformed denomination who firmly believed that any church that didn't adhere to Reformed confessions and the unmodified Church Order of Dort was less than true - and, as believers, we had an obligation to only align ourselves with the most true church we could find.
The church, once divided over grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, is now broken over baptism, Bible translations, free will, hymns, musical instruments, spiritual gifts, women's roles, abortion, homosexuality, alcohol, tobacco, movies, gambling, racism, church order, technology, and the end times.
The Danger of Being Right
Complete devotion to truth and honesty - who could oppose that?
Jesus, for one. The rabbis had taken the Book of the Law and analyzed it, dissected it, put it under the microscope, and defined exactly how many steps constituted working on the Sabbath.
Where they wrong to define observance of the law as precisely as possible? Are we wrong to define truth as precisely as possible?
The law is good. Truth is good. Honesty is good. Accuracy is good. But none of these are gods, nor is blind devotion to them a path to God. If anything, they may feed our pride and make us less loving.
The law is good, but not because it makes us righteous or right with God. The law is good because it shows us where we fall short and need grace - not more self-discipline - to be right with God. And the law is good because it shows how we should respond to God's love and the grace bestowed upon us.
The truth is good, but not because it brings us to God. The truth is good because it's a measuring stick - and because God hates lying lips. Jesus said, "I am the Truth." God is Truth, and God's truth convicts us of unrighteousness and draws us to his love. There is a truth more important than "the truth".
The Mark of the Church
Love is the mark of God's children and of the church. The book of Acts records how the believers loved each other and made sure everyone's needs were met. In the third century, Tertullian wrote: "But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, [those outside the church] say, how they love one another...." (Apology 29:7)
The world tends to view the church in a different light today - many see us as judgmental and controlling. They don't see us as a people of peace, love, and open arms.
Why? Because the church has been strident. It has used its power to condemn fellow believers. It has used its power to shape societies and legislate morality. Over the last 150 years, "the church" has opposed slavery, alcohol, theater, women in the workplace, rock and roll, abortion, drugs, and homosexuality. In doing so, it often has judged and not loved slave owners, drinkers, theater goers, working women, rockers, abortion providers and recipients, drug users, and homosexuals.
As though Jesus didn't come to save the lost.
The true church is known for love - God's love for the world, our love for God, his love within each of us, the love we have for each other, and the love we have for those who don't know God's love.
Truth and honesty are important, but the truth should always be spoken with love among us (Eph. 4:15). Sound doctrine is important, but we need to love those who disagree with us. We should never make the church so pure that it becomes anticeptic, sterile, judgmental, and condemning.
"If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing." 1 Cor. 13:2 (NLT)"All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
"Three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love.
"Let love be your highest goal!" 1 Cor. 13:12b-14:1a (NLT)"Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins." - 1 Peter 4:8 (NLT)
The good can be the enemy of the best. If you find yourself putting anything ahead of loving God and your neighbor, remember that love is the best and keep "the good" in perspective.
Hey Dan,
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts over all. I read The Hiding Place too. I remember the scene you describe a little differently. It won't make much difference to your points, but for what it's worth, it was Corrie's sister who told the truth and every body else around the table was in total shock because they were trying to think up the best lie when Corrie's sister spoke first. I think that the sister laughed was taken more as a sign of her nervousness than any intended mockery.
Corrie's point in telling the story seems to me to have been that God honors truth telling even when it is scary and dangerous. But the rest of your article makes the best point, that truth telling that is not motivated by geniuine love and compassion is dangerous and easily damaging. I think a lot of times when people say, "I am just telling the truth in love," they know they have just hurt somebody. There is an implication that they are excusing themselves for being hurtful by claiming that at least it was honest. It all leads up to a tacit admission that love wasn't really in that "truth telling." And then they excuse themselves for being hurtful by telling the lie that love was in it.