The Honest Truth

Lately I've been reading through a compilation of articles written by G.K Chesterton.  I have found to follow his long and slow moving train of thought to the end, all my continued attention is required.  Today I was particularly impressed with his observations shared in a particular paragraph and felt like saying, "Hear, hear!" because Chesterton was spot on.  The distinction he made between not telling lies and telling the truth is an important one, whether in public school or not.

"Touching the morality of the public schools, I will take one point only, which is enough to prove the case.  People have got into their heads an extraordinary idea that English public-school boys and English youth generally are taught to tell the truth.  They are taught absolutely nothing of the kind.  At no English public school is it even suggested, except by accident, that it is a man's duty to tell the truth.  What is suggested is something entirely different:  that it is a man's duty not to tell lies.  So completely does this mistake soak through all civilisation that we hardly ever think even of the difference between the two things.  When we say to a child, "You must tell the truth," we do merely mean that he must refrain from verbal inaccuracies.  But the thing we never teach at all is the general duty of telling the truth, of giving a complete and fair picture of anything we are talking about, of not misrepresenting, not evading, not suppressing, not using plausible arguments that we know to be unfair, not selecting unscrupulously to prove an ex parte case (a proceeding conducted for the benefit of only one party), not telling all the nice stories about the Scotch, and all the nasty stories about the Irish, not pretending to be disinterested when you are really angry, not pretending to be angry when you are really only avaricious.  The one thing that is never taught by any chance in the atmosphere of public schools is exactly that--that there is a whole truth of things, and that in knowing it and speaking it we are happy." (Chesterton, G. K. All Things Considered. CreateSpace, 2018. page 78)

In secular societies like Australia and the United States, talk of duty is almost wholly rejected unless speaking of your duty to yourself to do and say as you please.  Duty is a dirty word because it strongly implies a subservient position of a person with an obligation to others.  When it comes to speaking the truth it is a duty before God who created mankind, gave us minds to think, consciences to consider, and mouths to speak.  There is an enormous difference between avoiding telling lies and honestly telling the truth.  Fear, insecurities, the desire to be accepted and pleasing can stand as insurmountable obstacles to the naked truth.  It is entirely possible to avoid lying and never come close to actually speaking truth.  Jesus claimed to be Truth personified, and thus His followers ought to love, speak and walk in the truth.

Jesus provided us an example of what speaking the truth in love looks like, for His bold statements and probing questions were with the glory of God and the good of others in mind.  Since Jesus knew the hearts and thoughts of men, He could have used this to His advantage to humiliate adversaries and seek favour by catering to man's skewed opinions.  Too many times I (and probably everyone else) have been careful to avoid telling lies rather than speaking the honest truth.  I have cared more about a potential adverse reaction someone might have to it rather than being motivated to speak honest truth because with this God is well pleased.  There is a necessary place for the considerations of the thoughts and feelings of others and tact, but this does not justify cloaking truth with convenient half-truths which could rightly be called lies.  Since we are of the Truth, we ought to walk in truth, love in truth and speak the truth rather than avoiding telling lies.