Lesson 184. What Is Right and What Is True

I have very often had occasion to observe disagreements between other people, in which the opposing sides confidently declared that they were right and looked for those who would agree with them and take their side. At times, it is very difficult to understand what the problem is when everyone is right. But when you look into the heart of the matter, you discover details that reveal the entire picture very clearly. Arguments, disagreements, hurt feelings, and hostility are not God’s methods of resolving problems. Love teaches us to find our way through this dark forest and to see the root of everything.

It is written that love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. A heart in which love dwells experiences this exactly as it is written. Love frees the soul from the burden of sin, cleanses the heart from sinful habits, and cleanses the mind from evil thoughts. The eyes of a loving person begin to see everything, both bad and good, but they do not allow negativity into the heart. A pure mind resolves to stand firmly in the truth and to live a holy life. Righteousness of heart becomes the soul’s normal condition, and it is said of such people that they shall see God. And that is exactly what happens. A loving person sees God in all his trials and experiences, in all his blessings, in all his gifts and victories, and even in chastisement. For God is Love—victorious agape—and love cannot fail to see itself. It notices every manifestation of itself in the lives of other people; it senses love directed toward itself, and although it does not seek it, when it encounters love in fellowship with others, it rejoices greatly. For love is truth.

Truth is the embodiment of the fullness of God in every respect, a many-sided examination of any teaching, an understanding of the presence of Light in a person’s life, and a deep analysis of a situation that includes knowledge of both the action and its motive, the person’s allegiance to God, and the source of the information. Truth never approaches the analysis of a situation from only one side. It sees the entire picture. This is God’s advantage over all of us. But the Lord sends this ability to His children in the gift of love, and they begin to see everything through God’s eyes. From then on, the heart rejoices in the truth and does not rejoice in iniquity.

In this case, what a person regards as right is his actual view of a particular situation within the limits of his understanding of truth, his knowledge of God’s character, his intellectual development, his spiritual growth, the information available to him, and his allegiance to God. Not everything that is right is the whole truth. When a person is right and makes this the basis of his claims, a proud heart very often prevents him from accepting the perspective of other people, and he becomes stubborn in his understanding of the situation.

For example, let us take a tube of toothpaste with a wide cap. If you look at it from the cap end, you can see something round. If I look at it from the side, I see a rectangle, but if I turn it ninety degrees, an uneven triangle appears before my eyes. Each assessment, taken separately from the others, is absolutely right. And if you look at the number 6 from above and then from below, you can see 9 and 6 respectively. Everyone is right. But if only one right view is taken into account, then as a whole it becomes untrue, and love cannot rejoice in such an understanding of things. Love takes every position into consideration and sees the entire picture.

And, of course, love receives all kinds of accusations from those who disagree with a comprehensive approach to the situation. It hears reproaches that its love is not genuine, that it does not love what is right, that it is pretended, and that it is worth nothing. A loving heart will never, under any circumstances, speak this way about love or about those who are learning to love. Love does not rejoice in iniquity or support it, but rejoices in the truth. To rejoice in the truth means to stand on its side.

Standing for the truth is not always easy, because at times you lose all human support, and even your friends leave you for a while because they do not know how to help you and do not understand how the entire situation appears in your eyes. But the eyes of love belong to God, Who anoints them with His eyesalve, and when you have washed yourself in His Blood, you begin to see much and from every side. The eyesalve reveals the truth from different angles, and the heart rejoices in it. But a portion of the truth is untruth, and it is very difficult—and sometimes simply impossible—to rejoice in it. To give one-sided support to the position of a person who sees only the 6 but refuses to notice the 9 is not God’s truth. God understands both, but He also knows what they look like from the other side.

There are things that are the same from every side, such as a sphere. Here there is unanimous agreement, although some people try to prove something different—for example, the theory of a flat Earth. Well, that is also one approach to truth.

Love respects people’s choices and opinions and does not go into battle to prove the truth when there is no need to do so.

But sometimes Love decides to oppose untruth and boldly declares it. Love knows that not everyone sees and evaluates the situation as it does, so it expects a storm from a certain group of people, and the storm comes; a collision is inevitable. Yet God gives strength and an understanding of what to do in such a case and how to overcome. Love does not consult the sinful nature or accept its help in order to live according to the flesh or answer accusations. Love acts out of love, trying to help everyone. And sometimes it simply remains silent and waits. There is a special power in silence, and the Lord Jesus demonstrated this power on the day of His crucifixion. There is a time to speak and a time to keep silence.

But a creature as weak and feeble as a human being can make mistakes, take the wrong position, or simply fall. His enemies notice it immediately and do not forget it for a very long time, continually reminding him of it at every opportunity.

But God reveals the problem, grants the person repentance, and cleanses him. His enemies do not see this and do not want to understand it. To them, he remains what he was before. But God tenderly cultivates the good seed, and it grows into a tree that bears much fruit. Evil and proud people do not see this either, but they remember perfectly the mistakes they saw the person make with their own eyes. It can be very difficult for them to understand that God changes those who study in the school of Christ, Who accepts everyone just as they are but does not leave them in that condition forever. We are living trees, and everything that lives grows.

Do not be afraid to hear the truth about yourself. It is not always pleasant, and that version of the truth is not always the whole truth, but sometimes it helps you look at your own perspective from another side.

Strange as it may seem, sometimes it is evil and hostile people who become our very best teachers and impartial, incorruptible examiners. At times, their faultfinding and accusations unite me so closely with God that afterward I only thank the Lord for these people and their unbiased attitude. But this does not mean that the company of such people makes the heart rejoice. Sometimes I want to stay far away from them, but that is not always possible. Then love comes into action, covers a multitude of sins, and works miracles.

Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.

1. What new understanding did this lesson give you?

2. What does love offer as a way to resolve conflicts?

3. What do you understand it to mean to rejoice in the truth?

4. How can we oppose untruth?

5. Why should we not consult the flesh in disputed situations? What is the better way to conduct ourselves?

6. How should we treat evil people?

7. Please read Matthew 5:8; 6:22; Romans 12:17–21; James 1:5–6; Philippians 4:6–8; Romans 8:32; Isaiah 54:17; Proverbs 10:12; 13:3; 15:4, 18; James 1:19–20; Hebrews 12:14 in the light of our lesson.