“The beginning of sin was a lie. Adam and Eve ate a lie about God, and by the poison of the lie, they died. Their innocent-being was corrupted forever and a life that lies replaced the primal honesty that was the only thing they needed.
“Satan stole the one thing, the sole possession utterly essential to walk with God: Truth. When the serpent could merely feed the lie, all else fell.
“We have all ingested the Lie as Reality. We no longer know the lie; the lie has become the ‘truth.’ By lies we cope and exist, and so we perpetuate and permeate our world – and our own method – with Lies. Deceived and deceiving.
“There is one human responsibility before God: to be honest. It is the one thing and the only thing we can do. A child, though born with that same sin nature, has in the beginning a small window of utter honesty. But we quickly lose reality in this world of deception.
“There is one responsibility, one choice: to tell the truth, and we humans can do it. This is all we can do, for we are children. Problem is, we are so steeped in lies, we don’t know that all the world and all humanity is false. We don’t know that we also…are false at the core.
“God cannot meet with a liar. He has to first bring us to truth, to reality, and often that takes many years and much repentance. Then He can pour truth with lavish joy. He delights to destroy the Lie, if we will let Him.”
Martha Kilpatrick, Kingdom Children
Honesty is More Than Character
This section from Martha’s booklet, Kingdom Children, was tickling the back of my mind all day yesterday. I have always perceived honesty as a virtue rather than a responsibility. I was rather shocked when I first heard Martha describe telling the truth in terms of responsibility rather than character. It really shines new light on it for me!
When I don’t tell the truth, I’m a liar. But I’m not just a liar. I’m irresponsible, too! I’m not just lacking in character when I shun honesty. No, I’m shirking a basic responsibility before God. Because I am able to tell the truth, I am accountable for each time I don’t. And it’s not like I’m being held accountable in some vague, broad-brush kind of way. I’m held accountable for each abdication of my basic duty to be honest.
Honesty is Responsibility
When I look at what it means to tell the truth in that light, I realize just how broken this world really is. The telling of lies has become so normal that I am tempted to idealize an honest person when I meet him. Rather than noting the basic responsibility being undertaken, I tend to attribute all things rosy and light to him. I wonder if I’m that easy to impress? Or does honesty just stand out so shockingly today? Unfortunately I think it’s the latter.
The light still shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out.
John 1:5 PHILLIPS
Thank you, Jennifer, for presenting this excerpt from Martha’s booklet . . .I never associated honesty with responsibility — more like a character quality or biblical virtue, as you did. I’m wondering if truth and reality are synonymous. It seems that truth always evidences reality, but does reality always indicate truth? I don’t know. Another aspect is being honest about yourself (even vulnerable!) Most times you can sense when someone is not authentic, just as someone else can when I am not. And when we’re not, really that’s a lie and, as Martha says, “God cannot meet with a liar.”… Read more »