Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Wisdom from Proverbs”
Our Bible verse for today: “Eloquent words are not appropriate on a fool’s lips; how much worse are lies for a ruler.” Proverbs 17:7 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Leaders must speak the truth.”
Today the vast majority of people in our society have lost faith in elected officials and in the news media. There’s a widespread belief that our elected officials lie to us frequently and that the news media is heavily biased in their reporting. In the most recent poll by PolitiFact, only 9% of Americans have confidence in our members of Congress to tell us the truth, and only 20% trust the news media. In other words, 91% of Americans don’t believe members of Congress are truthful and 80% don’t believe the news media is either. President Trump fares a little better. He has a 39% approval rating – so only 61% of the American people distrust him.
Clearly there’s a crisis of confidence in our nation today. We don’t know who to believe. Maybe we shouldn’t believe anyone. This is why Christians must have a Biblical worldview. The only reliable standard of truth is the Word of God. Therefore we must weigh and measure everything against the Bible. When trying to ascertain the truth about anything our first question should be “Is it true Biblically?” and then go from there.
How did we end up with such a crisis of confidence anyway? There are multiple reasons. The primary one is that we have drifted far from our Biblical roots. The ninth Commandment tells us that lying is a sin. But if as a society we no longer care what the Ten Commandments say, then lying isn’t such a big deal anymore. We’ve evolved into a society which now relies on subjective truth and situational ethics. What’s true for you may not be true for me, and what’s right or wrong in any particular situation depends on what’s most convenient for me at the moment and how it impacts me personally.
That has become especially true for politicians, and when leaders routinely lie to the people, the people then no longer have faith in their leaders. Lying is always wrong, but it’s especially wrong for those entrusted with positions of leadership.
This is why I believe it’s so important for us to know about the faith of those running for elected office. Some people claim that faith is a personal thing and should not be an issue in an election. I disagree. I believe it’s the most important thing we can know about any person, and it’s the first thing we need to know about anyone running for high office.
As Solomon teaches in this Proverb, leaders must speak the truth. If they won’t, then we need to get new leaders.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 