Never Fear Speaking the Truth

Leviticus 5:1

The irony of this verse being our reading for today is not lost on me. As I sit and write this, I am dreading the fact that tomorrow morning I have to appear in court as a witness to child abuse. It is the hardest and nastiest thing I have ever had to do. I never wanted to get involved, and I have prayed so much to be left out of this whole painful situation. I have received threats from the person I must testify against, as well as accusations that to testify would be gossip and un-Christlike. Despite all this, God has not given me an out. The more I prayed to be left out of the situation, the more deeply intertwined I became. Today, I open my Bible and read Leviticus 5:1, “If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity.” Peter Guzik commented on this verse saying, “It wasn’t enough to merely not tell lies. God also required His people to make the truth known, so even if one merely knew about a lie, they were responsible to make the truth known.”

I am still not looking forward to tomorrow, but I know that it is our duty to speak the truth – even when others try to intimidate us into keeping quiet. We have a duty to speak out for others. There are no ‘innocent’ sins. Someone always gets hurt. If we stay silent, God tells us that the sin is ours as well. Many of us have been raised to mind our own business and not get involved in the personal lives of others, but scripture continually reminds us that we are accountable to one another. David Guzik takes this accountability one step further when he adds, “We can say that the same principle applies to our witness of Jesus Christ. It isn’t enough that we refrain from actively denying Jesus or lying about our relationship with Him. We must also take every opportunity to tell the truth about Jesus.” We have an obligation to speak the truth. More than that, we are given the opportunity to speak the truth. The truth may condemn the wrong doer initially, but it always sets the sinner free when they accept it. Let us not pick and choose to whom we share the truth of Christ with and let us always be willing to speak the truth and combat the destruction of lies.