Can We Handle the Truth?

Note: This was actually the post from Thursday, May 12 that seems to have disappeared in the recent Blogger glitch. I'm reposting it for today and will resume posting on Monday, May 16. Thanks for your support and your readership. I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to share God's word with people from over 65 countries around the world. As always, feel free to comment on any post.

1 John 5:13-20 (21)

There is a climactic moment in the film “A Few Good Men” when the character played by Jack Nicholson nearly screams at the one played by Tom Cruise, “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!” That’s one of my favorite moments in all of film. Our reading from 1 John is not filled with screaming, but it is a profound declaration of what it means to be God’s people. “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true” (1 John 5:20a).

Of course the one “who is true” is God and it is in the ministry of Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit that we are given the opportunity to recognize that truth and what it means for us. We cannot fully understand it, cannot grasp it completely, but we can move in the right direction and can allow it to affect who we are. This is not for the weak of spirit. For once we have gazed into the truth, into who God is, we will know things about ourselves that we probably would rather not know. This is a part of the balance that we find in God, the tension between judgment and grace. Part of God’s truth is bound up in condemning us for our failures, holding us accountable for where we have gone astray. But a part of God’s truth is also to be found in the forgiveness we receive from the very same God in whose Son we find our hope.

Can we handle this truth? That’s a good question. There may be times when we must look away lest we become overwhelmed by God’s majesty. But at other times I believe we are able to see and feel the truth like the hug of a loved one or the stirring of compassion deep in the heart, leading us to share what we have encountered. So yes, I believe we can handle it, indeed are called to stand before it and to carry it with us and to be motivated by it. God’s truth is that which endures, and when we wrestle with it we are blessed by the endeavor.

Prayer: Lord, help us to see and to know your truth and to live according to your will. Amen.