“A pillar and buttress of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15)
This is what the Apostle Paul calls the church. Admittedly, if this were not in Scripture and I heard someone refer to the church as such, my inclination would be to correct them by letting them know that the Scriptures are the pillar and buttress of the truth. Not the church. However, the Apostle’s view of the church is that she upholds the truth concerning our God and our Christ which is found in the word of God. She upholds it by understanding it, defending it, and propagating it throughout the world. This is a high calling, and one that we still must aspire to today. And today, there are a couple matters of application that we should consider:
First, as a pillar and buttress of the truth, we must be people who spread truth instead of lies. In our cultural moment, the truth is a precious commodity. Social media has made it far too easy for lies and half truths to be propagated. Because this is true, we should refrain from propagating conspiracy theories, news reports that are so obviously swayed by extreme bias, and unverifiable claims. If we can’t be trusted to propagate the truth in these matters, we won’t be trusted concerning the truth of Christ and his gospel. Furthermore, these fast paced forms of communication have decreased our capacity for nuance and multi-perspectival understandings of complex realities. This should give us pause before hitting the retweet button or publicly sharing our thoughts prematurely. Our failures on this front compromise our witness as a pillar and buttress of the truth.
Second, as a pillar and buttress of the truth, we must be people who are primarily concerned with communicating and defending the truth concerning Jesus Christ. As God's people, we're called to be more passionate about sharing the truth of the gospel than we are our opinions on political issues or current events. If we find that the content of our conversations and our posts on social media are dominated by politics and current events, we can be confident that our hearts are not dazzled by the beauty and goodness of Jesus Christ like they should be. The gospel of Christ is the truth the church upholds. But we won’t seek to uphold the truth concerning Jesus Christ if our hearts are not compelled to do so by love and adoration of him.
Friends, we’re called to be a pillar and buttress of the truth, even in the midst of a relativistic age. If we have failed in this, then we must again return to Christ, set the eyes of our hearts upon him through his word, and be dazzled by his beauty and goodness.
- Pastor Garrison Greene