Truth and Guilt

Tronster asked on Horizon's message board (link to the right) "Does the concept of 'truth' come in to play at all in why we feel guilty?"

When he posed that questioin, this passage came to mind:

John 3.16-21:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

Guilt has a lot to do with Truth, IMO. When we are faced with truth, we have to decide... will be step into the light? Will we really allow our motives, deeds, our words be known? Because you see... stepping into the light is like stepping into truth, and vice versa. But the feeling of guilt kicks in when we are made aware of truth... (Side note... whether we feel guilty or not is really a moot point. If we are guilty, we are guilty whether we "feel" it or not).

Paul describes two kinds of guilty sorrow/conviction: Godly, and Worldly

2 Corinthians 7.10-11:
"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter."

When we are in the throws of guilt when faced with the truth... we have the choice of how to respond. Notice the actions of Judas vs. Peter when Christ was murdered on a cross. BOTH of these guys lost all of their integrity. BOTH of them blew it, big time. One betrayed and the other denied... but both did each, really. The difference, though, is that one gave up... he caved to worldly guilt that leads to death. There was NO WAY he could come into the light, into truth. How could he? (Or so he thought?) His solution? Death. Peter on the other hand, wept bitterly. He did not resort to killing himself as Judas did, but rather is found with the disciples in every mention of him after Jesus' death. It could be argued that Peter had the most to lose in something like this... he is always mentioned first in lists of the disciples. He was obviously a strong leader. His credibility was shot, left in ruins. Yet, he did not run away... he made things right. And you know what? So did Jesus... that's what the entire 21st chapter of John is about: Jesus' restoration of Peter. I would call this Godly guilt or sorrow. Peter, as hard as it was, chose Godly guilt as the way to deal with this.

Alanis Morissette has a song that says it best: "The only way out is through..." -- how right she is.

And with that said, there is also another way people deal with the truth and guilt. It's the worst kind... probably even worse than Judas' way, and that's to deny guilt or truth all together. Paul describes such people as "hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron" (1 Timothy 4.2) A person can become so convinced of their own spin/lies/perception of reality that they believe it to be true- whether it is or not. When that happens, with a conscience seared as with a hot iron, there is no way for this person to admit any wrong doing at all. With everything in them, they sense no guilt for what they do. That... is a very dangerous place to be... the worst place to be.

Just some thoughts on truth and guilt.