over, I asked “Has everything you told me been the truth?” She broke into tears, “Nobody ever believes me.” I felt bad that I had questioned her. Yet before her next interview she wrote to confess that she had lied. It wasn’t until about the fifth interview that I was getting the actual facts. We talk about the Spirit of truth, but it’s another thing to be truthful. The Bible exhorts us, “Having re nounced the hidden things of dis honesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God de ceitfully.” Last week I was talking to a man who had difficulty control ling his employees. He would never really tell them what he thought of them. He was misleading them. They had the impression that their work was more sa tis fa c to ry than he thought it really was. He explained, “I didn’t want to hurt their feel ings.” Getting by with the least amount of trouble at the moment isn't always the most exped ien t thing. Too often we only say what's convenient. While we may call it “diplomacy” Scripture refers to it as lying. Why is it so much simpler to mislead people rather than to level with them? In our last message we spoke of the young couple who had developed a wall of coldness between them. They had worked hard saying to each other what they thought they wanted to hear. And yet, it gave them such a sense of isolation from each other. Shouldn’t a husband feel as if he can believe his wife, and vice versa? Can’t we take a person at his word ? Sometimes you know perfectly well that the individual is going to go off and pout if he hears the truth. Why not just shade the truth a lit tle bit? It has been my experience that many of the human relations prob lems with which we’re confronted are based on untruths. The Bible
has the only real principle for living, “Renounce the hidden things of dis honesty. Commend yourself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God with the truth.” The man who walks in the Spirit of God is one who has a drive within him toward the truth. He doesn’t walk “in craftiness.” Occasionally, someone knowing I’m a psychologist, will say, “I’ve a friend who needs help. I’m so con cerned about him. I’m planning a dinner party and would like you to come. I’ll see that the two of you sit next to each other. Maybe you can strike up a conversation, and find out what’s troubling him.” Now, isn't that clever? Really, it’s nothing more than craftiness. Someone who’s walk ing in the Spirit isn't trying to maneuver people. In addition we are not to “handle the Word of God deceitfully.” In Christian circles, ask people what they think of the Bible. You’ll get pretty much the same answer, “Oh, that’s the greatest Book there ever was.” The problem is we only give lip service to loving the Word. There are a lot of things in it that we don’t like to read. There was a man whose wife was very discourteous to him. He was mad at her. “Why should I be gracious toward her?” he reasoned. The Word of God in dicates that we ought to be walking in a spirit of grace (II Peter 3:18). This biblical principle just made him mad. We cannot be dishonest about what our attitude is toward the Word of God. I t must be our standard for life, consciously, knowingly and de liberately. The man who walks with God will truly yield himself to the Holy Spirit. We are not to handle the Word of God deceitfully, but by a manifestation of the truth. We should be able to commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. This then is a real principle for victorious Christian liv ing.
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