You Can't Help a Liar
- 2009 May 08
I originally wrote this column in February 2007 and in the process of doing some research came across it this week. The message is timeless.
Recently I spent time with someone involved in ministry to students. Occasionally he is faced with difficult disciplinary decisions when the young people break the rules of the group. “I’ve dealt with everything you can imagine. Every sort of sexual sin. Cheating. Breaking the law. You name it, I’ve seen it,” he said. There is an established set of procedures in place to deal with those who get in trouble. And very often they are able to help the young people make amends and set their lives on a new path.
You
can’t help a liar. You can help anyone struggling with any sort of sin
as long as they tell the truth. But you can’t help a liar because you
can’t trust anything he says.
The situation is compounded
by the fact that when most of us get caught, we confess as little as
possible. And that leads to the second key point. One sign of true repentance is when “they tell you something you didn’t already know.”
If you knew A + B + C, but the person then adds D + E + F, you know
their repentance is deeper than just “I’m sorry I got caught.” True
repentance always involves coming clean, and coming clean means owning
up to the whole pattern of wrongdoing, not just to the thing you
happened to get caught doing. God desires “truth in the inward parts”
(Psalm 51:6) or as Eugene Peterson puts it, “truth from the inside
out.” It is very hard for all of us to come to this place of total
honesty with God and with others. For most of us, it is a continual
battle to be transparent in all our dealings, especially when we have
sinned. David’s prayer in Psalm 139:23-24 speaks for all of us:
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
You can reach the author at ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.