Neglect of Truth = Neglect of Christ: “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” John 18:37. Early yesterday morning, while texting with a friend, he made a passing remark that lingered in my mind throughout the day. “We live in a time when most people simply repeat what they’ve been told to believe.” Our topic was eschatology, but his observation goes beyond any one subject, it speaks to all that touches truth, eternity, and the word of God, to the very things that reveal what we believe and manifest where we stand, exposing the spirit of a generation content to repeat what it has heard, rather than to open the Scriptures and see whether these things be so. This is no light matter, for these things concern life and death. Truth is nothing to dabble with. The Scriptures speak with utmost clarity about those who depart from it, and with equal severity toward those who treat it lightly. It is not only the false teacher who perishes, but the one who is content to drift along without concern for what is true. Christ Himself spoke of this dreadful indifference, “let them alone, they be blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” Matthew 15:14. Let that word “both” sink in. It is not only the deceiver, but the deceived; not only the one who speaks the lie, but the one who is content to follow it, who perishes. This is no side issue. To be careless with truth is to be careless with Christ, and to neglect Christ is to neglect salvation itself. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation.” Hebrews 2:3.
We have grown strangely indifferent to truth, and by truth, I mean not mere facts or opinions, but the Scriptures themselves, the gospel of grace, the revelation and unfolding of Christ throughout all the Word of God? But indifference to truth is never harmless; it ripens into delusion. What begins as neglect soon becomes corruption of mind, and the heart that will not love the light will, in time, lose the perception to see it. When truth is persistently refused, delusion becomes both judgment and reward, judgment for rejecting light, reward for loving darkness. Paul describes the fearful outcome in solemn words, “and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” II Thessalonians 2:11-12. And before we excuse ourselves as having no “pleasure in unrighteousness,” thinking this warning could never apply to us, because after all, we live decent lives, perhaps better than most, let’s look again. This pleasure in unrighteousness is obviously not a description of outward lifestyle, but of inward disposition. Paul is exposing a moral delight in falsehood itself, an unrighteous believing, not merely an unrighteous behaving. It has little to do with immoral living and everything to do with immoral believing, a heart content to rest in error while imagining itself safe. That same deception still walks among us. It hides behind morality and religion, content with appearance but void of truth. And in such a state, distraction becomes our comfort, activity our refuge from honest examination. Zechariah 7:11-13.
Why have we become so busy, so preoccupied with life, that we no longer stop to examine what we claim to believe? Perhaps we are too comfortable in our routines to be disturbed by truth, or too faithful in our church attendance to ever question whether or not what we believe has any basis in the scriptures? When truth is forgotten, the standard of judgment disappears with it. The difference between right and wrong becomes blurred, and our decisions are guided more by sentiment than by Scripture. Slowly the heart stops seeking what is real and begins to chase what is fashionable, what is praised by the crowd and passes for truth in the eyes of men. And so, we just drift through life, unseeing, untroubled, unaware; blind to the fact that we are drifting at all. Ephesians 4:14. It seems easier not to notice, for ignorance feels like safety, at least until the tide of “life” turns against us, and we awaken to find how far we’ve just “drifted” away. And as we attempt to look through the haze of our own indifference, we may find ourselves holding an empty bag, or worse, a bag filled with hollow sentiment, a bag with holes through which every substance of truth has slipped away. We’ve blended in so well that we scarcely appear different from the world, content to live as others live, think as others think, and hope vaguely for the best. A life full of motion yet void of meaning; a “faith” observed in form, but lifeless within. “He that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.” Haggai 1:6.
Then, when nothing matters but truth, when all that counts is Christ Himself, we will discover too late that we have drifted with the tide and lost our way. May we be reminded of the fact that the current of this world moves quietly, seldom disturbing those who are content to drift with it. Indifference to truth may seem harmless, but it ends in the same ruin as deception. To neglect truth is to die the same death as those who openly deny it. And this is the heart of the matter, when truth is neglected, Christ is neglected with it, for He alone is its source, its center, and its life. John 8:31-32. Truth matters because Christ is the Truth. Our treatment of truth is nothing less than our treatment of Christ. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6. Such words should cause every heart to tremble, for truth is no matter of opinion, it is a matter of life and death. May the Lord be merciful, and direct our steps to Christ, to truth, and to the only thing that truly matters. MPJ