Our message from the Holy Spirit today is about the relationship between truth and political correctness, as those two relate to the free expression of religious belief. The tension is the pressure for truth to yield its strong foundation to the whims of political correctness. The temptation for every believer is to yield to that pressure, that tension, so that everyone would feel better and, therefore, that the believer would think himself or herself to be safer or more comfortable. As the secular pressures arise, and they are rising, against our faith, in the public arenas of the schools, the governments, the workplaces, the economies, the geo- politics of the world, we are increasingly, and heavily, subjected to this pressure to give up, to walk away from, the truth and to conform to the demands of political correctness.
In America, at least on paper by the Constitution, we are assured of God-given “inalienable” rights of free speech, freedom of assembly – the foundation of religious liberty and therefore of liberty. Yet in America, (per Ephesians 6) the principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age, the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places, and their agents, are using people to advance an agenda to destroy those God-given, “inalienable” rights that are the foundation here of religious liberty and of liberty itself. God favored America in its creation, and as with all things in His creation, America has a purpose. Securing those God-given, “inalienable” rights here was God’s way of saying that “This is how it should be done, in terms of the organization of Man and the State and God”. Yet, are we too timid to seize hold, to “harpazo” that plan of God and defend it in prayer and perseverance and the politics, the urgings of political correctness, of our days, of our generation? I pray and hope that we are not too timid. Remember from Paul’s letter to Timothy that God did not create in us a spirit of fear or timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind. You see, God created us for just such a time and place as this, and we are His, for His purposes, and not ours alone. So, stand in the gaps on the wall and defend God’s truth, defend His Son Jesus, the Messiah, yeah even in this land of the free and the home of the brave. As we discussed before the message began from the wellspring of your heart release your courage into action. Remember, it takes courage to be brave, and it takes bravery to be free, so seize your live with courage and bravery and be free in the Name of the Lord Jesus!!
Scripture grants us much insight into this business of freely defending truth. In the Old Testatment, in Zephaniah 3: 13, the Word of the Lord came to His prophet Zephaniah, saying, “The remnant of Israel shall do no unrighteousness and speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed their flocks and lie down, and no one shall make them afraid.” We, as Christian believers, are grafted into that “remnant of Israel” by the blood of Jesus, and we are similarly called to go about our work (“feed their flocks”) and live at peace (“lie down”), speaking no lies and fearing no man. We are called as God’s children to speak the truth, and in so doing to fear no man, no matter what his title or position is in the government, the schools, the military, the work place, the bank, and in that huge sea of people ebbing and flowing like the tides around us! Even back then, God said, to His people, to speak the truth without fear of the repercussions. God was saying to His people that His truth trumps all political correctness.
We find the same admonition in Proverbs 14: 5, “A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness will utter lies.”
And in the New Testament, in Romans 1: 25, we are admonished not to be among those unbelievers “ . . . who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator . . . .”
The Apostle John, in I John 2: 21-22a, writes to the believers who have followed him (see I John 2: 1, “My little children . . . .”), “I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?” John lays out the challenge of a strong Christian leader to his people (“My little children . . . .”) to stand on, and speak, the truth no matter what the circumstances are. I suspect that the phrase “political correctness” had not been invented when John lived, but he understood the concept and lived it himself.
In Paul’s letter to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who were in Colosse’, in Colossians 3: 8-10, he wrote, “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him . . . .” The call to truth applies regardless of your emotions, no matter how mad you are, and no matter what your circumstances are, both in and out of the body of believers.
Then, in the Gospel of John, we find Jesus Himself challenged as a man to deny the truth, to deny even Himself, so he could get out of a jam. But Jesus, who is the truth (John 14: 6), refused to yield to the pressures and temptations of political correctness. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Judas led the soldiers to Jesus, he asked them whom they sought and they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” (John 18: 4-5) and Jesus answered, “I am He.”
And that was just the beginning of Jesus’ test of truth and political correctness, for he knew that the Jewish church leadership were out to get him, that they plotted and sought to kill him (John 11: 53-54). And the soldiers brought Jesus from the Garden into town, into Jerusalem, and they took Jesus to Annas, the father-in- law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, then they took Jesus right to Caiaphas, the high priest, and then they took Jesus to the Roman Praetorium (the seat of Roman government and power) where he met Pilate, the Roman governor of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas.
This is where it got right down to the point, real specifically. In John 18: 33-40, this dialogue of Pilate, Jesus and the Jews and their leadership occurred: “Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, ‘Are You the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you speaking for yourself about this or did others tell you this concerning me?’ Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate therefore said to Him, ‘Are You a king then?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’ Pilate said to Him, ‘What is truth?’ And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, ‘I find no fault in Him at all.’”
The most telling things here are that Jesus was in deep worldly trouble, and from this dialogue he was scourged, scorned, humiliated and crucified. And he knew in advance that it was all going to happen. Yet he never once wavered, never once equivocated, never once tried a “little white lie”. No, our Jesus embraced the truth, He embraced the reality of Who He is, that He is the truth, and was not fearful of the Jews, nor of the Jewish leadership, nor of the Romans, nor of Pilate, the Roman governor.
Jesus followed the instruction of the Lord God (do you think He had a voice in that instruction?) to His prophet Zephaniah, to speak no lies and in speaking to have fear of no man. There were consequences because He was the truth would not abandon the truth.
It takes maturity in your faith to seize the truth like Jesus did, and not ever to abandon it in favor of your own comfort or safety. We in this generation are called to rise up and speak the truth in all circumstances, with no “little white lies” and no big ones, either. The battle of and for political correctness rages all around us. We, with some maturity in Christ, are on the front line every day. People are watching us. Our fidelity to the truth speaks more than volumes every day. Always speak the truth in love. People who know us, or who know of us, measure our reality as Christians by how we live and act, and by what we say and do. Don’t give Satan victories and leave part of Jesus’ harvest behind because of the testimony of your lives on the issue of truth. Seize the truth and hold on to it against all pressures and temptations to political correctness.
The time is at hand – and, in His earthly life, that day with Pilate Jesus had a time at hand – when we will be called out, when we will be tested, in the schools, in the workplaces, in and by the government, in and by the financial pressures on us, to find out if we will speak the truth or not, if we will say what is politically correct to make things seem better. Be prepared to choose which you will do. Realize that Satan, the father of all lies, is subtle at times, and you may need to parse your thoughts and words carefully so that you actually speak the truth you intend.
The great thing you have is Jesus. You are not like Pilate (who is like so many so-called Western thinkers and philosophers following in the Greek and Roman ways), who didn’t know the truth even when he was looking at it. Remember, John 18: 38, Pilate said to Jesus, “What is truth?” You know truth, and Pilate did not, so you are way ahead in the battle here. Don’t lose the truth and don’t get tongue-tied when you are put on the spot for Jesus. As Christians, “little Christs” as we were first called in Antioch, a constant in our lives needs always to be “truth”. Don’t let the Political Correctionists wear you down, no matter how they try. Truth wins in the end. We have the assurance of Jesus’ Revelation through John at Patmos, in Revelation 2: 26, “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations — . . . .” It is the nations who create “political correctness” and if we keep His truth until the ends of our lives, we will have power – the power of truth – over those nations. What could be better as an outcome?
God bless you and Amen+