The Beauty of the Truth

Image by Tom Adams

For the law was given through Moses;
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

~John 1:17

I originally posted this in a closed Facebook group created by a good online friend, a man I have never met in person but through a decade and more of wrestling with each other over ideas I think I can truly call a friend. Anyway his original question in the thread in which I eventually posted this was why people immediately dig in their heels to new ideas or to change of any kind, as a kind of default response.

"Faith in the beauty of the truth... the belief that somehow the real truth

is not only as good as (the opinions) you have left behind,

it must be much better, even if you don't understand what it is.

This is the real dividing line in humanity, far more so than

ascribing to any particular version of the truth. There are some

who believe that the truth must be beautiful and that the world,

however flawed and ugly, is meaningful. And you don't start out knowing

what that beauty of truth and meaning in existence is,

you must continually push into it.

And there are some who don't believe this, and this is the real divide in the human race.

If you think it is all meaningless, then the point is to avoid the pain

that you know is out there waiting for you. If you believe it is meaningful,

however limited your understanding of that meaning may be, you will

embrace pain for that meaning, for the beauty of truth, which you believe ultimately to

really be beautiful and not pointless and ugly.

And to approach what can be a very painful and ugly world with that attitude

is not a matter of anything that can be decided logically.

It really is a matter of faith."

People who truly have faith in the beauty of the truth, who continually correct themselves in pursuit of the truth, and who have faith that existence is not pointless are probably closer to God than a lot of Christians. Saying that you believe in God and his Son Jesus Christ is alone of little value. Many grievous sinners have also said that they believe, people who defend their sin while they claim to belong to God. Some have been murderers, rapists, and molesters. According to some, how recklessly you sin and how brazenly you defend your sin doesn't matter - as long as you say you believe Jesus died for your sins, you are somehow covered.

I do not believe that. If you say you are God's and say you preach God's word, and yet you brazenly and unapologetically sin, you are just an evil hypocrite. There may be some unfortunate condition in life that excuses such behavior, but certainly such people should close their mouths and not claim to follow Christ, much less teach about God. It is better to be honestly and unrepentantly evil than to be evil while wrapping yourself in the cross.

The Children of God are continually corrected and chastened by God, and humbled by God. May all His Children express their undying gratitude for that blessing. And the Children of God continually push into the beauty and truth of God and into his righteousness and into the glory of obedience to Christ. Not thinking they already possess knowledge and virtue in fullness, but constantly seeking God and seeking to know His glory more and to be obedient more and to understand the Gospels more clearly.

The other side of this is that if you do not listen to this correction and chastening, He will remove his Spirit from you. 

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,

while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes

so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word

I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.

Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you,

you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away

and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned."

~John 15:1-6

I fall short in many ways. But I do not say that I don't, I know I DO. I know what I ought to do, too, but laziness and apathy kicks in. I don't say these are virtues, they are weaknesses and I know they are. I probably fall short in ways that I don't even know about yet, I am guessing I will learn what these are when I have cleared my plate of the things I do know. But how you overcome these weaknesses, is to continually push towards the beauty of the Truth. Slowly, gradually, this glory of God becomes so important in your life that you hate anything that diminishes your unity with that glory. This is how it is with me, I am weak and continue to not do the things I should and to do the things I should not, but my strength to conform myself to God's will grows as my love for the glory of God grows. Love for and faith in the beauty of the Truth.