Truth Makes Men Free

Know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. -- John 8:32

Ignorance is enslaving. It makes men the slaves of fear. Truth kills fear. The light of scientific knowledge has swept the world clear of many of its superstitions-superstitions born or ignorance. And thus men have been freed from many of those superstitious fears which for long ages have enslaved the race.

The most cruel bondage is the bondage of sin. The most enslaving fear is that which is born of a guilty conscience. But it is the truth that God forgives sin and cleanses away its stain of guilt from the soul. When the sinner comes to know this truth, and through repentance and faith accepts it as applying to himself, he is set free from sin's bondage and guilty fears. No longer does he "flee when no man pursueth"; but in his new-found liberty he is "bold as a lion." He no longer has an accusing conscience dogging his every step, and making him afraid of every shadow that falls across his path. The truth of God's forgiveness has freed him from all such fear, and he is now able to face the world with the courage and boldness of a free and righteous man.

There are other fears that make slave - victims of men - the fear of sickness, the fear of death, the fear of poverty, the fear of calamity, the fear of misfortune and other possible evils. Why do men live in slavish fear of these things? It is because they do not know the truth about God and His loving care. They do not realize that they live in a friendly universe, created and controlled by a friendly God. If men knew and realized this truth, they would nevermore be afraid of any possible contingency of evil or disaster. If everybody knew God, nobody would be anxious or fearful about anything.

Thus we see how truth makes men free. Let us therefore seek to know the truth and live in the truth, that we may be delivered from the bondage of ignorance and be no more the slaves of fear.