A Home is Built on Truth
By John McCoury
Roan Mountain, Tennessee
By wisdom, a house is built, and through understanding it is established. Proverbs 24:3
A very important quality of a home is truth. The basic element of happiness is honesty. And that’s why hypocrisy, deceit, and lying are all great enemies of the home and ultimately will destroy a home if permitted to continue. Our homes ought to be places where we look at life as it really is.
The society in which we live is based upon certain fundamental concepts that are false. The philosophy of life which we pick up from the world today is based upon lies. We have to learn that they are lies. We don’t learn that at school; much of school is based upon a lie, though not all of it. Education is the search for truth. Nonetheless, the basic concepts are lies and we must learn this. The world around us is continually trying to squeeze us into its mold, and that mold is based upon an illusion.
The function of the home, under God, is to expose this fantasy, to unveil its falseness, and to set the record straight. The home can be very effective in this regard. The home should be the place where fuzzy values are set straight, false outlooks are corrected, and shoddy practices are exposed. But instead of using our homes to expose falsehood and set values straight, we often allow the world’s lies right into the home with no effort at correction.
Television and the internet are a couple of ways this happens. I don’t mean that we should throw them out. Rather than turning off a program that you feel is offensive, I suggest that you show it to your family and help them to see what is wrong with it as you go along. One of the great problems in this respect is the tendency on the part of Christians to overprotect children from exposure to the way the world is, and therefore they have no basis for correction. If the home is the place of truth, then responsibility for education along this line rests with the home, not with the schools.
The ultimate responsibility for unveiling falsehood lies with the home, not with the school. If we can change the school, fine, let’s do it, but if it can’t be done it remains the parent’s responsibility. With regard to truth, the Bible plays a tremendous part because in this book we have truth undiluted. Here we see things exactly as they are. The great value of this book is that it’s continually tearing away the veil from some alluring thing that looks good but on the inside is wrong. Scripture is the only thing that speaks the truth in every situation and as such, belongs in the center of the home.
The Lord Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” That is, I am the absolute untarnished representation of things as they really are, as God is the ultimate reality. I am the ultimate expression of all that He is. Therefore Paul says in Colossians: “In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). This is why the Bible must be central in our home, not in some mechanical way of reading, but in genuinely laying hold of its values and putting them to work in the home. The purpose of truth is to set us free. Jesus said,” You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). And if the Son shall make you free, it will be a superlative freedom. You shall be free indeed.
What am I doing to protect my family from falsehood and establish us on the foundation of God’s truth? Father, thank you for this gift of truth as seen in Jesus and the Scriptures. Make my home a place where truth reigns. Amen
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John McCoury is the pastor of Evergreen Freewill Baptist Church in Roan Mountain, Tennessee, and the chaplain at Roan Highlands Nursing Center. You can read more good Christian news from John HERE.
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