Temptations to Hide the Truth
Believers are to carry on the ministry of Christ, which is not primarily about hiding the truth, but revealing the light of the world in Christ. But why does Christ have to address this in Mark 4:21-25? In other words, why would hiding the truth be a temptation for a believer? Here are a few reasons:
Elitism & Self-righteousness – According to Mark 9:38, this may have been the disciples’ primary deficiency. It has the mindset: “Anyone who doesn’t think exactly like we do on all areas of ministry is not following Christ.” I’m not talking about the core doctrines of the faith; for example the things we are learning on Wednesday nights are non-negotiables, but there are still brothers and sisters in the Lord in which we would have different ministry convictions and implementations of truths. Again, this is wicked pride and an attempt to claim human glory to think that Christ can only work through a particular group of people.
Another way this elitism manifests itself is elevating preferences and outworkings of ministry to a level of authority they are not meant to have. We cannot claim that the Lord has spoken about specifics when he hasn’t.
That first reason of hiding the truth is closely related to the second one…
Pride – Is this not the propensity of the human heart when you know a secret which others do not?–”I have privileged information, therefore I must be really something special.” Now imagine the Son of God telling you that the mysteries of the kingdom have been hidden from the masses, but granted to you and your friends. No wonder they argue about who is the greatest among them! The temptation to feel superior would rise up constantly, but this must not fester and hinder our love for others in giving them the truth. We are not better than others. The gift giver is, but we are not. God has simply chosen to be merciful to us. The truth rightly understood, will never puff us up, but humble us to the ground.
Fearful of the ramifications of standing on the truth in a culture which expresses hostility towards God’s standards – ”I don’t like that living for Christ is going to cost me relationships with my family and friends, therefore I’m going to keep quiet and just try to be nice to everyone and not rock the boat.”
Uncomfortable talking with strangers and having them around – It’s just much more desirable to be around people I know I can trust.
Patterns of unconfessed and/or unrepented sin – This destroys confidence and boldness. In this person’s life, there is so much unbelief present, the mind cannot be convinced to call others to believe the truth. In this case, we water down the truth so that the gospel is all about meeting temporal needs or we keep our mouths shut altogether.
Those are some of the temptations to hide the light of Christ, but look at v.23 – “If we have ears to hear, then we must understand that we have been given the truth as a stewardship and so it’s preposterous to hide the light of the world from the world.”