"Thus, your enemy have I become, telling truth to you?"
-Cold is in actuality the absence of heat. You can have a lot of heat, white-hot heat, medium or low heat, or no heat (which is absolute zero, and which would of course feel unimaginably cold, but in the end is still not a negative opposite but rather the absence of that which is the positive). Whenever you describe yourself as feeling 'cold', what you are actually experiencing is the relative lack of heat. Similarly, darkness is in fact absence of light. It is not a thing, but more accurately the state where the positive energy is less than fully present (or has been hidden or removed). Could it be that falsehood then is that situation where the Truth is less than fully present? Of course here we are dealing not with physical energies but rather we have journeyed now into the realm of the mind and spirit. Of metaphysical realities. Unprovable by any quote-unquote conventional scientific method. Unseen, untouchable, but nonetheless quite real. Immaterial, but at the same time not that way at all. Just as relevant (if not more so) to life and eternity as any material thing. And as truth goes missing, that which is called the lie begins to encroach. Half-truths. Hyperbole. Exaggeration. In its sub-zero, darker manifestations, we descend in falsehood, deception, out-and-out bold-faced lies. And the enemy of our souls, the one who would and does oppose the Truth (not to mention the One Who authors it), is aptly known as the father of lies. He is hell-bent indeed on hiding, twisting, obscuring, snatching away the Truth. The lie is a thought or statement which is relatively devoid of truth, is it not? It is of course more than simply a non-truth, inasmuch as sandwiched between those two dark slices lurks a rebellious desire to intentionally avoid the Truth. And here we arrive at the core of man's full-of-sin-yet-abysmally-empty heart - the evil desire to avoid the Truth (and the One Who IS Truth).
-Truth is...real, timeless, unchanging, incontrovertible fact. It is bedrock, sure foundation. Bankable, trustworthy. Uncompromising, unrelenting. Absolute. Certain(ty). Assurance, conviction - and it brings conviction. No uncertain terms. Generally (and ultimately), truth prevails, because God is truth, and He always prevails. Truth is a ruthless dictator, a majority of one - there are no elections, no voting or polling, no democratic rule, this. Truth is metaphysical light, illuminating hearts and deeds. Truth is a measuring rod, a plumb bob - a sure indication of how straight is my heart and life. Truth is a black and white sharpie, but way more permanent - completely so. Truth is a hammer, sometimes shoring up families and friendships but sometimes driving wedges between them, a no-holds-barred fork in the road. It makes enemies of brothers, and brothers of enemies.
-But yes, God is truth. All truth originates in and flows from Him. And His Word is truth. Because He spoke it, of course, and in Him there is no hint of hiding or twisting the truth. No deception. No lying. No shadowy darkness whatsoever. All those are manifestations of fallen, broken responses to Truth. Yes, the world follows that great deceiver in rebelling against the Truth (and the One Who authored it), exchanging the Truth for a lie, and living into that in separation from God. The way I respond to truth in my life and heart and in any given circumstance is ultimately inseparable from my pilgrimage home to (or away from) One Who is both the Author of truth and the Author of my soul.
-And here we find where the Galatians were getting sideways with Paul. It was because they had gotten sideways with the Lord, and were ultimately channeling that part of them which had been born-the-first-time hell-bent on avoiding the Truth (and the Author thereof). They were embracing a lie, beginning to try and earn favor with God and maintain right standing with Him though self-effort, embarking on a path apart from the One Who is the Truth, the one-and-only Way. And despite having embraced this lie, having journeyed some distance away from truth in their lives, they thankfully have a faithful friend in Paul, a devoted shepherd who is willing to point this out to them, to put the hammer down, to bring truth to bear on their waywardness. Paul was committed by the grace of God to the Truth, to Him and to declaring Truth, to speaking the truth in love. When someone speaks truth into your life, you can respond in one of two ways. You can respond in humility, and face and embrace and acknowledge the Truth (and thus the One Who authors it), or you can respond in pride, bowing up against it as well as against the one who delivered it. Apparently the Galatians were choosing the latter...
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