Enemies of Truth - Part 1

The following is from a devotional published in TableTalk and written by Rebecca Vandoodewaard. When we look for our enemies, sometimes we don't have to look too far.

What comes to mind when you think of someone who is an enemy of the truth? Richard Dawkins? Joseph Smith? Hollywood celebrities? What about a woman at church? Your brother? You?

An older Christian once warned me, "Even Christians can be enemies of truth." We know that we battle the world, the flesh, and the devil - those are three categories that we can rattle off. But it's easy to think of ourselves in the right camp and others in the wrong one. We make reality black and white in ways that it is not. Thinking of a believer - of ourselves - as someone who can actually oppose truth is deeply sobering. Here are three ways that it can be true.

1. We are enemies of truth when we refuse to hear the truth. This tends to come in two forms: not listening to someone tell the truth or refusing to accept it. Maybe we're not will to take the time to actually hear; other priorities seem more urgent. Maybe we're afraid of what will happen if we do listen; understanding will require humility, repentance, and change. Maybe we do listen and understand, but we refuse to admit that it applies to us. Truth can be uncomfortable. It can mean that we've been wrong. Whether truth comes to us through Scripture reading, through preaching, or through the wounds of a friend, when we treat it like an enemy, we become the enemy.

We'll cove the other ways over the next two posts.