Dear BPCWAians, The theme song for this year’s Online Family Camp is “I would be True”. This was chosen to reinforce our church theme for this year, which is taken from 1 Tim 1:19 – Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck. The first line of this hymn begins with “I would be true, for there are those who trust me”, echoing the theme’s emphasis on holding faith and a good conscience. God called Satan the father of lies in John 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it”.

What being true means. Abiding in truth is not just about being in a Biblical church and not compromising Biblical truths. That is an important  part, but for the believer, it is not complete. It is about the obedience to the 9th commandment. Exodus 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Some of the ways the Westminster Larger Catechism further explains it is “the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man. . . and from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully, speaking the truth, and only the truth, in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things whatsoever . .. keeping of lawful promises; studying and practicing of whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and of good report.” These are certainly high standards, but they are God’s standards. We possibly may have heard of the familiar sworn testimony that requires the person to declare that he will speak “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” But being true is not merely about not uttering a lie to another person, or merely doing what we promised. The ninth commandment is about being wholly sincere and honest, in all our speech, actions, thoughts and intentions. The Westminster Divines accurately address a key issue in this commandment – that of being sincere. It is not just avoiding lying, not just an outward portrayal of truth, not just being factually right. But is about the truth in what you do, say, and how you behave in all honesty towards man and before God. Are we pretenders? Do we strive to hide the truth for personal agendas and self-motivated reasons? If so, then we are not abiding in the truth, though our lips and even actions may seem to portray that we are.

How we typically fall into the trap of not abiding in truth. Can we actually be guilty of breaking this commandment and yet think that we didn’t? Sadly, yes. How? Here are some examples that we should all take heed to when it comes to abiding in truth.

1) Thus far, most Christians would probably agree to what the above Westminster Larger Catechism statement states. But agreeing to it does not mean that we will do and practice it – especially when truth comes at a cost to ourselves,  or when it denies us of what we want. Do we conceal the truth when it is asked of us, because we know that the truth will disadvantage us? A common attitude is when we are approached after doing something wrong, we divert attention from the fact that we had actually done something wrong. We may not lie, but instead we turn others’ attention to things that do not require us to address our deception and avoid consequences. This is like when 2 children were disobedient to the parents. When one of the children are questioned if he did it, the child does not answer that question but instead, the child tells the parent that his sibling did it. Was the information told to the parent inaccurate? No. But it was a cover up of his own sin and putting the blame on another. This is what I mean when I say that we withhold truth because it will disadvantage us. It is still a transgression of the ninth commandment.

2) We also fail to abide in the truth when we have done wrong by giving excuses to deflect the blame of why we did not keep our promise. We use excuses like it was an exceptional case, though it was not the true underlying reason that caused to the transgression. Giving excuses to give the impression that we did not do something wrong is another common form of breaking commandment number nine that the Christian needs to be sincerely conscious about.

3) Or we can also just keep silent or tell half-truths to cover up. A child may think “I did not lie!” – though he did, by withholding the truth. Or a student who broke school rules, when questioned by the teacher, instead of admitting that he had indeed broken the school rules, may just keep quiet for a long period of time, hoping that the need to answer the teacher’s question can eventually be avoided. The child did not speak a lie, but this is certainly not abiding in truth.

4) Then there is withholding truth from others. For example, in the case of    a worker in the office, when asked by his colleague how to do a certain task needed for the latter’s role, feigns ignorance that he knows how to do it – though he actually knows how to do it at the back of his hand. Why would  the worker do that to his colleague, though the colleague is genuinely trying to do his job well? The worker could do that so as to put his colleague at a disadvantage and be on the upper hand.

We will look at several other common areas of how we fail to abide in the truth, but yet portray that we are. We will also look at the consequences of not taking heed to the warnings of not abiding in the truth.

Prov 12:22 Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.

Yours in our Lord’s service,

Pastor