HALF-BAKED

Good v. evil. Truth v. lie.

If you’ve ever eaten anything that needed more cooking or baking time, your mouth and stomach probably regretted the effects caused by those foods.

This is the same unpleasantness perpetuated by half-baked truths. Allow me to share a few of these from a Biblical perspective, starting in Genesis.

“…You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:4b-5, NKJV)

Eve chose satan’s half-baked truth that she’d be like God.

She already knew good. She could see, touch, hear truth in her conversations with God. What God had spoken to her (and Adam) was good. God cannot lie. His character will not let Him! What He said, He meant for their good.

And nothing in God’s creation had the curse of sin, so there was no death.

One bite of the fruit and Eve’s eyes were opened.

She saw the deterioration of everything that God said was good (Gen.1:31). She also recognized that good had been in her all along. But now she knew the difference between good and evil and the consequences for choosing evil.

God means what He says for our good. To insure that we’d choose Him (good), He put His Spirit inside us. Think about it. There is an immediate “prompting” or “knowing” in our spirit when we think wrong thoughts, tell untruths, gossip…

Here’s a half-truth we learned early on with our children.

Many years ago we hosted Thanksgiving for my hubby’s side of the family. This included 12 children under the age of 12. After the meal, one of the relatives scooped out ice cream cones for all the kids. He then graciously supplied them with a generous second cone. When a few of the children asked, he gave them a third. We were appalled. Later, when several of the kids got sick, we regretted not intervening. He boldly explained his half-baked excuse: it was easier to give them more ice cream than to say no.

Using that logic, would it be easier to have a child hit by a car than to say no, don’t run out into traffic?

Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6, NKJV)

We can see in the world today the continued struggle between good and evil. What may start as a half-baked truth, or lie, becomes accepted as truth. But, from the above examples, half-truths can be dangerous!! And the consquences deadly.

Could this be a reason the Bible encourages that we should gird (bind, brace, or secure) ourselves with truth?