George Burns once said, "The most important thing in acting is telling the truth. If you can fake that you've got it made."
There are two languages in the world: truth and lies.
The first language of every human being, a language that flows freely from our lower nature, is the language of lies. When the Father of lies was our father, lies was the only language we knew. Before I became a Christian I would often lie even if the truth could have served me better. It was my native tongue.
When we receive Christ we become bilingual. We can speak the second language of truth. But you know what happens, right? If we do not abide in Christ day-by-day, if we do not regularly practice our second language, we will revert to our native tongue. You know this is true because you know self-deceived Christians who regularly lie to you-and not about little things.
How does this happen? Every morning you and I go into a world where all day long we are tempted to exchange the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1:25). The lie comes in many forms but at its core is unbelief that says, "Jesus Christ alone is not enough to make me happy. I need something else."
The solution? We must renew ourselves daily in the truth of the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through faith and repentance. If we don't? Well, what happens to anyone who doesn't regularly practice speaking their second language?
© 2002 Patrick M. Morley. All rights reserved. This article may be reproduced for any non-commercial use with proper attribution. www.maninthemirror.org
