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Colin Smith: Jesus says, "I am the light of the world, and whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life." Marvelous statement. But what is he saying? He's saying the only way to have the light is to follow the light. If you don't translate what you hear into what you do, it is of no benefit to you.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, today we continue a message, "Your Struggle with Truth." Last time, as we were talking about this, you used the comment that we just heard: the only way to have the light is to follow the light. But for the person who maybe didn't grow up in the church, they hear that and they say, "What does that mean? Follow what light?"

Colin Smith: Well, here's what it means. A lot of people have the idea that you can discover Christianity as a sort of study, much as you would study botany or some other subject, that I can remain detached from a thing and just learn about it. While you can learn certain things about the Bible, to really be a Christian involves a personal engagement.

Jesus makes that very clear here, that the only way to know the light is to follow the light. Therefore, there is a giving of yourself, an opening of yourself. As you come to know about Jesus Christ, there has to be some movement that engages following him.

Steve Hiller: All right. It sounds as if you're saying as we learn, we become obedient. We take him at his word. We follow the direction and the insight that we're gaining from the Bible and see that proves out.

Colin Smith: Yeah. What I'm saying is that doesn't happen for everybody. Some people just want to keep it in the head. And as long as you're only keeping it in the head, then progress is not made. And that's what Jesus is speaking to us here.

Steve Hiller: All right. Well, speaking of here, we are actually taking a look at the topic of our struggle with truth. We're in Exodus chapter 20. So if you want to open your Bible, you can join us there as we continue the message, "Your Struggle with Truth." Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Becky Pippert tells the story of how, as an evangelist in colleges with InterVarsity Fellowship, she was trying to help a student called Sue who wanted to come to faith. But she said she couldn't because she had so many questions. Becky suggested that Sue should read the Bible, that she should tell God that she would follow him if only she could be more assured, and that she ought to attempt to do whatever she clearly saw in the Bible.

Sue started doing this. One morning, she was reading from Luke's Gospel and found the words of Jesus: "If someone steals your coat, don't let him have only that, but let him have your cloak as well." She thought that was a little strange and packed up her Bible and then later that day went to the library, where she was working at her assigned desk on her thesis.

As she was getting her books out, some guy came up to her saying that he had not been assigned a desk in the library and that he was taking hers. She says, "I thought to myself, 'God, I want to know if you're real. But is there any way of doing it other than this verse?'" She says, "I took a deep breath, tried not to swear, and said, 'Okay, you can have the desk.'"

At this point, the librarian came up and marched the two of them out to resolve the problem because she had heard some initial arguing. The result was that after deliberations, Sue got her desk back and the guy had another one assigned. After it was all over—here's the fascinating thing—the guy said to her, "Why did you say that I could have your desk?"

She said, "You're going to think I'm really flipped. But here's the reason: I'm trying to discover if Jesus is real. I'm attempting to do the things that he said. This morning, I read, 'If someone steals from you, give it to them.'" To which he said, "Why on earth would Jesus say such a crazy thing?"

She said, "Well, all I know from having read the Bible is that if you'd let him, he'd give you a lot more than a lousy desk." Then she says, "As I said these words, I just simply knew that it was all true." See the pattern? Believing leads to obeying, that results in seeing, that leads to releasing.

That is why the apostle Paul prays for believers in Ephesians, "that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened." Why would the apostle pray that for Christians? Why is he praying for Christians to see? He's praying that you will know the hope to which you have been called, that you'll know the riches of the inheritance that are yours in Christ, that you will know his incomparably great power.

The reason he's praying that kind of thing is that there are a lot of people in church world who say they believe and have no idea of the eternal riches of Christ, no grasp of his great power, no sense of the glorious and victorious hope. Because we've become stuck on a kind of believing that never gets to obeying. What remains, therefore, is just a notional faith.

"I believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit." But if that's it, what difference will that make? If you don't translate what you hear into what you do, it is of no benefit to you. Living the truth is dynamic. You find this all over the Gospels. Look at it just a few verses before in John chapter 8 and verse 12.

Jesus says, "I am the light of the world, and whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life." Marvelous statement. But what is he saying? He's saying the only way to have the light is to follow the light. Jesus is making it clear surely that there are many seekers who hear his word and believe it and yet never become his disciples.

That faith that does not show itself in obedience is hollow. It does not last. By the way, just look to the end of the chapter and see where these people who believed and didn't obey—and therefore never saw and were never released—ended up. Jesus goes on teaching them. At the end, verse 59, at this, they picked up stones to stone him. Isn't that interesting? The believers did that.

Seekers who are drawn to Jesus but do not come to the place of obeying Jesus always end up being angry with Jesus. We must not separate what God has put together: believing, obeying, seeing, and releasing. That's the way of living the truth. That's authentic Christianity. A disciple of Jesus is someone who does what he says.

That's the evidence of faith, that we begin to walk down that path. Christ calls us not just to believe the truth, but to live the truth. What God has joined together, let us never separate. Secondly, I want to say something pastorally about speaking the truth. The narrow path of truth we're to walk on—it's not just believing. It's obeying that leads to seeing and leads to releasing.

When we're on that path, we're called to speak the truth. Our emphasis in this whole series is on keeping the commandments. Instead of giving false witness against our neighbor, clearly, God is calling us to walk this narrow path in which we give true witness for our neighbor. That means, of course, that Christians are committed to speaking the truth.

Now, what does it mean to bear a true witness toward your neighbor? What does it mean for evangelism? What does it mean to speak the truth in relationships that we have within the body of Christ? This is a critically important question for the practicalities of our lives. I want simply to give some pastoral counsel on how this is to be done because some Christians, it seems to me, have become confused about what is appropriate when it comes to speaking the truth.

It is possible to abuse the truth. Folks who do this I call truth terrorists. Truth terrorists. You see, a terrorist is someone who seeks to destroy. A truth terrorist is someone who uses the truth in a way that destroys. There are two types of truth terrorist, and you need to watch out for them. We need to make sure that we don't become like them.

One who is simply naive and the other who often becomes brutal. One who, in holding to truth, forgets the doctrine of sin, and another who, in embracing the truth, forgets the calling to love. Let me illustrate the two for you. Early in his career as a musician, my father-in-law was approached by one of his colleagues at work, a musician in the orchestra, and invited to join a group that his friend described as a truth group.

The idea was that the group would be entirely open with each other, that they would commit to meeting together regularly. The single rule of the group would be that they would speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Sounds marvelous, right? His colleague said to him, "This is going to be a psychological experiment, and it's going to be fascinating to see what happens."

My father-in-law told him that he had absolutely no interest whatsoever in such a group and told his friend that he regarded the idea as extremely dangerous. Do you want to know what happened? There were five couples who made up the group. One of the wives in the group was a doctor who happened to be stunningly beautiful.

So, with a commitment to telling the whole truth, it wasn't long before several members of the group began to share some of their thoughts about her, which led some of their wives to share some of their thoughts about her too, if you see what I mean. You can imagine what happened. Within one year, every one of these five marriages had ended, including the doctor's, who ended up with someone else in the group.

What's the problem here? The problem is naivety, not taking account of the reality of sin. Some of the truths about you and some of the truth about me is ugly. There is only one place to go with that, and that is to the cross and to the blood of Jesus. I have found great wisdom in the writings of Larry Crabb, and I want to quote just a couple of sentences today because I found this so helpful.

He is a Christian counselor—many of us will know his name—who does, in my view, an excellent job of taking the Bible seriously. He has a book entitled *Encouragement*, which deals with building authentic relationships, an issue that is spoken about perhaps more than any other in the church today. One of his chapters is entitled "Total Openness: The Wrong Solution." And this is what he says.

"The emphasis on sharing in many churches often misses the meaning of koinonia, our shared life in Christ." Then he adds, "Any group of people, whether married couples, friends, church staff, or Bible study groups, will run into serious trouble if they emphasize self-disclosure and emotional expression as premium values." Now, he's not saying there's no place for these things. There clearly is. But it needs to be used with great wisdom.

What he's saying—hear it so that we don't miss the point here—he's saying any group will run into serious trouble if they emphasize self-disclosure and emotional expression as premium values. If that's what the group becomes centrally about, the group will be in trouble. When self-expression becomes more important than Christ-centeredness, it will not be long before there are significant problems. I think that that is a word that is desperately needed to be heard very broadly in church world today.

It is important to measure the appropriateness of what we share. Ephesians 4:29: "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up others in accordance to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." There is a place, you see, for me to share a burden, a sin, a confession with another person. But I need to measure the ability of that person to handle what I share before I do.

The second type of truth terrorist is the one who uses the truth to blast other people, either in evangelism or in confrontation. You ever meet this kind of truth terrorist? So destructive. Some people love confrontation. They love confrontation so much that they use the truth as a reason to have more of it. You know this kind of person? Guns blazing. "I just told him the truth, you know," as they explain with pleasure how they gave another person a piece of their mind.

Remember that the Ten Commandments are an exposition of what it really means to love. That is why the New Testament, of course, exhorts us to speak the truth in love. We can never separate what God has joined together. I am to speak the truth in a way that, as best I can judge, will be in the interests of the person who hears.

That means if I'm thinking of the interest of the person who hears, there will be some times when I have to muster my courage in order to confront. But there will be other times, if I'm thinking of the interest of the one who hears, where I need to restrain my impulse and hold my peace. The truth terrorist, you see, loves to come in with all guns blazing and uses the truth as an excuse for unloading in a way that can sometimes be quite brutal. There's too much of that at times in church world.

My memory went back, just thinking about this. Years ago, a young visitor came to the church I pastored in London. He was a very keen Christian involved in some ministry. For some reason that I don't remember, he had come through our town. He didn't know anybody there. He simply arrived at the church. He was on his own, and so Karen and I invited him home for lunch.

Over the lunch table, he tore my sermon to shreds and unloaded a critique on the church that he had never visited before, but had been in for just one hour, a critique of the church that I would describe as substantial. He justified to me the use of this one hour—the only hour I've ever spent with him; I do not even honestly remember his name, though I remember his impression well—he justified the use of this one hour as a zealous Christian on the basis that we are called to speak the truth.

Now, here's the interesting thing. This is many years ago. Remembering what he said, I actually have to agree that some of his most penetrating criticisms of my sermon were actually right. I agree with them myself. I didn't see it then. He spoke the truth. But it was not kind. It was not appropriate. Love is not rude.

If Jesus Christ had revealed to you everything that was wrong and needed putting right in your life on the day you were converted, you and I would be absolutely devastated. The wonderful thing is that the God of truth is not a truth terrorist. He leads us in his light. That's why—and this is important for us as we become more senior Christians—don't expect as you grow in your own maturity that a new Christian will learn in one week what God taught you in 20 years.

Learn to weigh the effects of what you say in the light of the trust that you have earned and the relationship to which you are committed. Paul says in the New Testament, "Let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." We're to get off the broad road of destruction.

We're to walk the narrow path of truth, realizing that that's not just a matter of believing, but it is a matter of obeying that leads to seeing and releasing and puts us in the position where we're called to responsibly speak the truth to one another. We're to do it in love. We're to learn wisdom. We're not to become truth terrorists.

The very last thing just in these moments is that we rejoice in the truth. Love does not delight in evil, Paul says in that famous passage in 1 Corinthians 13, but rejoices in the truth. If you're serving in the army in Iraq, how can you rejoice in the truth? If you've just been bereaved, how can you rejoice in the truth?

Some of us may be looking at our lives right now and saying, "I don't see how I can rejoice in truth. My life looks pretty grim." Listen, there is truth for you to rejoice in. All history is moving to the day when Jesus Christ will be revealed. Evil is already cursed, and one day, it will be completely destroyed.

Jesus Christ, who is the truth, is exalted in heaven. Every one of his promises is faithful and true. In this dark world, he shines his light onto you. He calls you to take that next step forward as you walk in and follow the light of truth.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. And that's really a vivid picture in today's message, isn't it? The idea of a truth terrorist. I know that after I heard this message, this picture has come to mind several times when I've been in conversation with other people. It's been helpful to realize that, yes, we are called to speak the truth. But that doesn't mean that we just open our mouths and say whatever crosses our minds. We're called to speak the truth in love.

Today's message, "Your Struggle with Truth," is part of a larger series called "The Ten Greatest Struggles of Your Life," a look at the Ten Commandments. If you miss any broadcast in the series, come and listen online at OpenTheBible.org. You can also listen to the entire series by ordering it on CD. Ask about "The Ten Greatest Struggles of Your Life" when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365. Or you'll find ordering information online at OpenTheBible.org.

Whether you listen to Open the Bible on the radio, online, through the podcast, or however you've connected, it's all made possible through your generosity. As you give a gift of any amount this month, we'd love to send you a copy of a book by John Stott called *The Incomparable Christ*. Colin, what's the one thing that you'd like people to take away from this book?

Colin Smith: Well, Jesus once asked his disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" That is the most important question I think that any of us could ever answer. When you settle in your mind and your heart who Jesus is, you've really laid a foundation for your life and for everything else. You can rest the weight of your life, your death, and your eternity on him.

Peter's answer to that question, when Jesus said, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter said, "You are the Christ." Now, this book, *The Incomparable Christ*, really lifts up who Jesus is, how he's presented to us in the New Testament, how he has been understood throughout the history of the church, how he's inspired people through the centuries, and how he will be when we see him in his power and his glory when he returns. It's a marvelous book. I think it's the best book you can read about Jesus, *The Incomparable Christ*, and I think that people will be greatly blessed by this book.

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to send you a copy as our way of saying thank you for financially supporting Open the Bible this month. You can call and give over the phone. The number's 1-877-673-6365. That might be easier to remember as 1-877-OPEN-365. And our website is OpenTheBible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time. Open the Bible Weekend is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Guest (Male): Who in your life needs to know the God of the Bible and might be willing to open the Bible with you if you asked them? Most people can think of someone, and many are finding that someone in their life is open to this invitation: "Would you be interested in opening the Bible with me?"

*Fly Through the Bible* is a short, simple, and shareable book that will help you open the Bible with a friend, a neighbor, or a loved one who needs to know Jesus. It's also freely available online. *Fly Through the Bible* has 15 short sections, each with five discussable questions that will open conversations around the Word of God. For more information, visit OpenTheBible.org/fly. That's OpenTheBible.org/fly.