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On BBC Television there is currently a trailer for a new comedy series.

The scene opens with a doctor in a room and his patient enters, they both sit down facing each other.

The doctor says "I have your test results" then he pauses and you can tell what he is about to say is serious, he continues, "Can I be frank ?"

The patient replies, "No"

The doctor pauses, still serious, then with a smile on his face says, "There's nothing to worry about. You are not going to die"

The patient smiles.

end of scene.

One part of me wants to laugh, but another part cry.

Do we want people to tell us the truth, be frank or tell us something false but is more pleasant to bear ?

I take it that the frankness the doctor wished to express was that the test results were not favourable, there was something to worry about and that the patient was going to die much sooner than the patient had been expecting.

Isn't it good that God is frank, what he says through the Bible is the truth unpalatable as some of it might be to us.

The doctor had no good news to share but so often when God shares some bad news there is an alternative option so that we do not have to experience the bad news.

Take these verses as an example

Joh:3:15: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Option A: Perish
Option B: We can have eternal life through believing in Jesus

Joh:3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Option A: Perish
Option B: God loved us so much that he gave his only begotten Son so that if we believe in him we can have eternal life.

Joh:3:17: For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Option A: Condemnation without Jesus
Option B: Saved through Jesus

1Jo:5:12: He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

Option A: Eternal Life through having Jesus in our life
Option B: Hell through not having Jesus in our lives.

That is the Bible being frank with us.

Michael Fowler
November 2005