On my last post we have seen that while several things can be apprehended by the mere agency of the intellect, others demand the intervention of the heart. Such are the truths related to morals and spirituality, as well as the principles related to the Christian Faith. In these realms the heart occupies a place of utmost importance.
We have also observed, at the light of Mark 8:17, that there was an absolute incompatibility between hardness of heart and spiritual understanding, and that the moment we resist a specific truth, truth as a whole becomes hard to understand. I am referring here to that category of truth which can be understood only through the agency of the heart, of which Jesus says:
For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice” (John 18:37).
But why all moral truths should be hard to understand if a person resists only a single moral truth? This is precisely the question I want to answer in this brief post.
The principle of unity
Do you know that the word “truths” doesn’t exist in the Bible? It is always used in its singular form. And if peradventure some translations use it in plural, it is not found in the original texts. I am not saying it is wrong to use the word truths. I am only saying the Scripture puts emphasis on its unity. Let me explain.
Imagine a square, and inside that square all what God believes to be true, that is to say, all that is truly true and nothing else. Now let us call this square “the body of truth”. It follows, and this by logical necessity, that there can only be perfect unity within that body. In other words, inside the square there can be no tension, no discrepancy, and no contradiction, because the most basic characteristic of truth is self-consistency.
Now, where such a unity is found we have a principle which can be stated as follows: Each part is one with the whole, and the whole is one with each part. Therefore the way a person deals with a single part influences the whole as much as the way he deals with the whole influences each part.
The principle of unity in the Scripture
The best example manifesting the principle of unity is related to the trinity. Since the three Persons are truly one, the things affecting the One affect the Others and the things affecting the Others affect the One. It follows that what moves the Father moves the Son, and what touches the Son touches the Father.
Several Scriptures confirm this principle. For instance, at the end of John 5:23 we read: “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” When Jesus walked on the face of the earth several people despised Him, and being self-deceived thought they were honoring the Father. Therefore the eternal Son had to correct them, pointing out that where there is true unity such dichotomy cannot exist.
John 14:7 confirms the principle: “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” Here again we are reminded that to profess to know the One without knowing the Other is impossible because nobody can fragment the principle of unity where true unity exists.
The same is seen in John 14:9: “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
Moreover in the next chapter it is written: “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father” (John 15:24).
Then we have the first epistle of John where we read: “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:23).
The unity of truth
All these scriptures confirm the principle of unity, a principle absolutely valid within the body of moral truth. Since it is so, when we harden our heart against a single moral truth, all moral truths become hard to understand because we approach all of them with a hardened heart.
To resist a moral truth on our left-hand while wishing to understand another moral truth on our right-hand amounts to an unrealistic fancy, because truth is, and always will be, loyal to itself.
Daniel could not have nailed it any better when he wrote:
“As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth” (Daniel 9:13).
Iniquity always darkens the heart, and where there is no light understanding disappears.
The psalmist attests the same thing when he writes: “A good understanding have all those who do His commandments” (Psalm 111:10). And again: “I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts” (Psalm 119:100).
Conclusion
“Understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it” (Proverbs 16:22). These words suggest that our modern cry for revival might actually be a cry for understanding. And since understanding can only thrive in a clean heart, repentance might actually be the missing link of our prayers.
The way we overlook the present decadence among evangelicals is doomed to backfire on us, for we have put ourselves in a situation in which the hearing of God’s voice calls for a reform, a reform that is not welcomed by the evangelicals settled on their lees (Jer. 48:11, Zeph. 1:12).
If we continue to accommodate ourselves on the laps of indifference and stroll through the dry gardens of dead religiosity, understanding will flee from us and a moral disorientation will settle in, a disorientation that is on the rise and very invasive.
God is calling
Brethren! God is calling us individually. Let us rise, sigh and cry for the immoralities that are being accepted in our midst as normal, and often canonized in the name of “modern orthodoxy”, for the ax is laid to the root of the trees and we are running out of time.
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