REALITY

How would your behavior change if you had total knowledge of reality? This is an intriguing question which is the underlying theme of some of our most popular lore. Dicken's A Christmas Carol and the repetitively shown It's a Great Life both have this question as a subtheme. With Scrooge it was a negative view as opposed to the character in It's a Great Life, who was led to see the value of his virtue.

Two truths are brought out by these stories: (1) mortals are not fully in touch with reality, and (2) if we were it would greatly modify our behavior. Let us consider these.

(1) What we see around us is not reality. The apostle Paul stated that "our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12).

We cannot see the spirit world. We cannot see all of the negative ramifications of our sin. In many cases we are totally ignorant of the irritations that we might impose upon others. Our own selfishness often keeps us totally in the dark as to many of our sins which take a lifetime of spiritual maturity to surface to a point of self realization. Alternatively, often we become discouraged when we do not recognize the value of our righteous living.

(2) A better perception of reality would improve our behavior. Jesus put it this way: "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" (Jn. 8: 31-32). The world teaches us that education and self realization will give us this better perception of reality. But this is an indulgence in vanity, as discovered by Solomon (Ecclesiastes -- the whole book).

Instead it is the truth of God's word which provides the mirror to our souls (James 1: 22-26). It and it alone provides us with insight into the real world -- that which is eternal (Eph. 3:4), and the propagation of this word has been entrusted to the church (Eph. 3:10).

To remind you of an astute observation suggested by Brother Creel some time ago: If we could all spend just one day -- maybe just one minute -- in hell, it would change our behavior dramatically.

But we cannot. For this would take away our free will. Our righteousness should not depend upon our escaping an eternity of hell; it should be motivated by our love for God in response to our sure and certain knowledge of His love for us (Rom. 5:8). Let us continue to study and meditate upon His word, and live our lives prayerfully, that this might become a reality.