The Plain Truth

On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

2 Corinthians 4:2b

Paul knows that truth is the most exciting and attractive thing in the world. He knows that when you come to people with the truth about themselves, about their lives, and about the world in which they live, when you strip off all the veils of illusions by which man in any generation lives and reveal the basic reality of what is there, then you get instant attention.

I have gone to a number of college and seminary campuses and spoken to Christian young people. Yet in many of these places, I found that they really do not think of the Bible as being a revelation of reality. They think of it as some kind of religious flavoring to life, a kind of a low calorie dessert which is nice, but you do not really need it. They think that the real insights into life are out in the secular world. In every one of those campuses, we have opened up the Book and taught them what it says. And every time, we have gotten an instant reaction of fascinated interest. They sit quietly and listen as though they had never heard it before. They suddenly realize you are talking about them, about their sexuality and what it means, about marriage and how it operates, about how to handle the awful load of guilt, and what to do with fear and anxiety when it ties your stomach in knots.

That is reality. That is what Paul is talking about. Setting forth the truth plainly has fascinating power to attract people. It did when Jesus proclaimed it. Everywhere he went, the multitudes hung on what he said. They said to themselves, He doesn't do it like the Pharisees and the Scribes do, quoting all those authorities. Yet what he says rings a bell within us. Something inside says, That is right. This was the universal reaction to the preaching of Jesus, because that is the truth as it is in Jesus. And that is what Paul proclaimed. He said, When you've got that, you don't need any gimmicks; you don't need to bribe people and trick them to get them to come because they are expecting something else. Just take the wraps off what God has given and they will be tremendously attracted to it.

Furthermore, he says, It speaks to the conscience. A person's conscience can sometimes reach him when his mind is rejecting truth. Paul knew that. He said we should not argue with people. He warns us, Don't get tied up with arguments, because you can't reach people that way. Tell them the truth. Depend on the fact that there is a voice inside them which God put there called the conscience, that even when their minds reject what you say will keep saying to them, Ah, yes, but he is right, isn't he? Sooner or later it will reach them.

Lord, thank you for the light that has come into my darkness. You have revealed to me that I am helpless apart from the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Help me to walk in that light. Amen.