When telling someone the truth is taken as an offense, you can be assured that the truth of that matter is not their friend. And you can observe how they would rather change the subject to the offense itself.
They will take issue with your tone, or that will find some arrogance in you to attack. And it’s fine with them if the original point is never raised again, for they did not like that truth.
If they were honest and mature, they would thank you for telling them the truth, and then confess their offense at it, for these are two separate issues, indeed. And if they were fully mature and accustomed to dealing regularly with matters of truth, they might have learned to put aside the offense altogether by now—for who among us should not be quite accustomed by now to recognizing that we make errors and need to be corrected from time to time?
Paul’s one-liner said it best, perhaps: “Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?”
And the answer was “yes”. They hated the truth of the matter so much that they had preferred to turn on Paul, the messenger who had brought it to their attention.
And that’s the trouble with truth tellers; they’ll sometimes tell you truths that you have already decided you don’t want to hear. Where you have decided to make a subject taboo in your mind, they will bring it up as if it’s fair game for discussion. And that’s a big difference between you two.
There is in true Christianity a yoke to be worn and a Master to be heeded. But millions, you can observe, are not good at wearing and heeding, and they still kick against the goads.
