Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS,….

 

I have become continually amazed by the world and its outlook on truth. I know that I have been raised since the beginning of my childhood with a reverence and absolute submission to the truth. That is to say, that I am hard pressed to lie. This is something so deeply ingrained into my body that if I were to attempt to blatantly speak falsely, I fear I might have a seizure.

 

Yet, when I have not before realized what a blessing this is, or how very different this attitude is from the majority of everyone else that I know. For them (and I am speaking of people that I have known for a very long time), lying is perhaps to be frowned upon, but it is something they can and will do under certain circumstances. The line is even grayer when we come to things such as white lies, or, my latest realization, lies of haste or ignorance.

 

The true comprehensive nature of truth has begun to astound me. At first, when I was younger, I used to think that truth was simply speaking what one was certain of. Now, I know that it goes so much more deeply than that. Truth, and how it ties into integrity, is something subtle, but something so plain and obvious, that I think many people miss its subtly, and hence miss the truth.

 

The verse I have quoted today makes a nice analogy. Notice that truth is that thing which upholds and protects and binds all the other armor of the Christian. Without truth, the rest of our defenses are hardly secure. There is an all encompassing and pervasive nature in the way we look at truth. Whatever philosophy we hold with regards to the application of truth, and our outlook on integrity, we can be assured of its creeping into everything in our lives. The smallest aspect of our live will certainly find a rooting and foundation in the way we examine truth.

 

I urge anyone who reads this not to lightly throw off a serious consideration of truth simply on the grounds that such a concept is easily mastered. I tell you that it is not so easily mastered. Examine integrity, and examine the ramifications of honestly and fully trying to live under the freedom of total truth and integrity. You might find it a surprise.