Truth

He cried out (1:24) 

"'In Spirit and in truth' can be translated as 'breath and word'," our voice coach said. He was showing us how to use our bellows, as he called them, the bottom of our lungs, to carry our words so that we could easily be heard. The sound is fuller, smoother, clearer and, as a result, more attractive. 'You will no longer sound like Anne Widdecombe' as he put it.

The unclean spirit's words were true. 'Jesus of Nazareth...the Holy One of God' is Jesus spot on. And yet the intent is malicious. By exposing Jesus too soon, the whole project of salvation is put at risk. Jesus can neither deny nor accept the titles so he simply shuts the spirit up. 

It is all too common to use truth to get an unjust or unkind end: to expose to ridicule or to bully into submission. That's why courts require the 'whole truth', as partial or partisan truth can be even more deceptive than lies. The Ephesians are encouraged to 'know the whole truth and tell it in love' (1:15). Are we ready to speak truth only in love? And to learn the art of silence when we cannot?



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