The Truth That Wounds
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” - Proverbs 27:6
We have all had illusions we didn’t want broken. Some of my illusions growing up were that my best friends would never fail me, that I would play in the NFL, and that the my drumming career would shoot me to the heights of musical stardom. *News Flash!* None of those held true. But everything in me held onto those dreams, even to the point where I surrounded myself with people and rhetoric that only backed up my hopes and aspirations long after they were gone. That’s when your illusions turn into delusions. But sometimes we’re so afraid of the truth that we would rather believe the lies. We feed only on what our itching ears want to hear, denying truth when it doesn’t fit within our preferences.
In a season where I lived a life of sin, I leaned heavily onto those that fueled my mistakes and made me think my failures were justified. They showered me with metaphorical “kisses” like Proverbs mentions. They did not hold me accountable. I am grateful for the friends that cut me with the truth of God’s word.
In 2 Timothy 4:3-4 Paul tells Timothy, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
I love how the ESV uses the word “endure” before sound teaching. Sound teaching means presenting the truth, and the truth is not always easy to hear. Sometimes the truth will break us. It will convict us, strip us bare, redirect our course, and even shift our entire world-view so drastically, that we lose most everyone that once stood by us and everything we once held dear.
To endure means to stand firm, suffer, or bear the weight of something that will test you. The truth is to be endured.
When my mentors and friends called out my sinful life years ago, they were telling the truth. But guess what…it didn’t FEEL good. I didn’t get warm fuzzies in my heart as they held me accountable and struck down my deceived heart.
The truth cut me to the bone.
God’s word will do that.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:12-13)
But, people in the last days will be increasingly defiant towards the truth.
2 Timothy 3:1 describes the “terrible times” of the last days. It continues by saying they will be, “lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (2 Timothy 3:2-5)
Notice, “a form of godliness but denying its power” (claiming Christ but acting contrary to the Truth of his word)
In the following verses it says these people are “…loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth…men of depraved minds” (2 Timothy 3:6-7)
They have no anchor. They are blown by the wind and follow no bearing. Their most recent emotional passion is their guide. Think about “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth” Oh how dark the mind that fills its rooms with many things, but fails to bring a lamp.
Friends, the truth will set you free but it won’t come as a therapy massage, it will come as a surgery. God redeems and restores. He doesn’t accept and adopt your current state. You are made new in Christ.
His word says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the NEW CREATION has come: The old has GONE, the NEW is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
If you think coming to Christ keeps you the same, it doesn’t. It beautifully begins to reshape you into the new creation God intended for you to be.
But, the most obvious question remains — what is the truth? I’m glad you asked.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
Jesus is the truth. No other can save. His word stands as our greatest guide. If yuo want to be led by the truth, you must learn God’s word and study Christ’s character.
As our leading verse states, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” - Proverbs 27:6
Do not accumulate teachers to suit your own passions. Their kisses are profuse, lavish, abundant, and overflowing. Don’t become disillusioned with the taste of lies upon your lips. Spit out deceit and welcome the truth.
Let God teach you through His word, His shepherds, and His Church. We are living in the last days, but only the last of this rotten world.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)
Our help does not come from the profuse kisses of a poisonous enemy. Our helps comes from the Lord.