So, The Truth.
“Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is truth.”
Sanctify means to set apart as sacred. We are set apart as sacred in this dark world by Truth.
The only way we could be the light of the world, living sacrifices, and have our conversations always be full of grace and seasoned with salt is if we are sanctified by the truth. Since the only offensive weapon we’re given in Ephesians 6 is the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, it would be good to know how to wield it.
There have been seasons of my life where, in the heat of battle, I have drawn my Sword and it was only 6 inches long.
I hadn’t been renewing my mind, making sure I had the mind of Christ, taking my thoughts captive.
Our pastor talks about getting perspective, but leaking perspective.
I leak.
My brain is so prone to self-absorption and the lies of this world.
But when I feed it Truth? His Spirit in me resonates with the Spirit of His Word.
Deep calls to deep.
Truth prevails.
And it sets me apart as sacred out in that dark world.
And when I can tell I’m leaking, well, I can feed my brain more Truth!
That is how we can, as my friend says, “leave potato chips everywhere we go.” Our conversations will be seasoned with salt. It will bring out the God-flavors of the world. And hopefully not in a stiff, awkward way. And definitely not in an unkind way. But because it is oozing out of us in a natural way. We have truth in our inner parts (Ps 51:6).
What does all this have to do with media?
If we are oozing truth, we will have discernment when watching, reading or listening to media. We can talk about issues with our friends who don’t know God and come from a biblical perspective.
We can be aware of the kinds of things our kids will hear about in school and beat their peers to the punch. We can talk through things with them first so they will filter anything after that with a godly perspective.
We can inject truth at home into any curriculum that needs it for our kids.
We can help our kids understand their friends’ perspectives who don’t know God and help them see where the differences lie.
(All these kid ideas are from watching and reading about and listening to parents ahead of me.)
We can train ourselves to have a biblical view of the world. We can so know the truth that we automatically do critical thinking with what we see and hear and recognize any lies in it.
In that way we can be sent into the world and yet set apart as sacred by Truth.
Of course this does not mean all media is good to go as long as we’re oozing truth. Some is a horrible, corrupting influence on our brains. Some is dark and evil and straight from the pit of hell.
We don’t need discernment or critical thinking for that kind of media; we need to run away from it!
I also want to say something about knowing Truth versus doing Truth. The Pharisees knew all the truth they could, and yet Jesus – the One to Whom all that truth pointed – stood in front of them and they missed it. They missed Him (John 5:39).
If Bible Study was all we needed to know Jesus and be sanctified by Truth, they shoulda been good to go. But we are told to do the Word. To confess our sins to one another. To expose our hearts to Him and ask Him to heal us. To love one another and weep and rejoice and break bread and share our faith and be the Body.
Community is part of being sanctified by Truth. Others and the gifts they’ve been given can redirect us. They can encourage us to continue. Help us keep our focus. Give us a context in which to do the Word.
Then together, we can take The Truth to our dark world into which we are sent that desperately needs to know He is reconciling all things to Himself.
And they are welcome to respond to that invitation.