The honesty epidemic

by Emma Strelan Werner

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One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offence they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15).

Read Deuteronomy 19:14–21

We face an honesty epidemic. Words like ‘truth’ and ‘fact’ are increasingly twisted until they’re practically meaningless. We have watched in horror as world leaders blatantly make false statements with no apparent repercussions.

But it’s not just our leaders. I’m sure we’ve all been caught at least once repeating a story we saw online, only for someone to point out the obvious lie we’d swallowed because we didn’t bother to check where the information had come from.

It’s just too easy. Too easy to repeat something because it sounds good. Too easy to share a ‘fact’ that paints us in a better light – regardless of whether it’s true.

However, this honesty crisis has been going on a lot longer than the rise of social media. Since the very beginning, God has known that we’re prone to twisting testimonies. So, when in Deuteronomy, God brings the nation of Israel together and tells them they will represent him to the other nations as his ‘holy, chosen people’, he sets up a very careful judicial process for the maintenance of honesty, with serious retribution for those proven to be falsely testifying (see verses 18–21).

In an era in which the ability to broadcast your message the loudest and strongest is taken as proof of its truth, our decision to stand as a community that takes discernment of truth seriously (especially among ourselves) is a powerful witness to the world.

Perhaps that means taking the extra time to follow an article’s sources. It means admitting that serious abuse has happened in faith communities claiming to offer safety. It means listening just as carefully to the church newcomer’s negative experience as to the leader who’s been around for 20 years, and who everyone insists ‘would never act like that’.

Let’s be a community who values truth, a people who resist the temptation to weave facts into the narrative that suits us. That way, when we proclaim the ultimate truth – that Jesus saves, people will listen.

Holy Spirit of truth, help me to resist the temptation to let facts become things I pick and choose for my own gain. Give me discernment and wisdom in the information that I hear. May we, the church, be bold in proclaiming you as the ultimate source of truth. Amen.

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