“Resolved, in narrations never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity.” (Resolution 34)
The modern day is most likely far worse than Edwards’ day, but Americans are very prone to be more concerned about image than truth. We say what we want to be true and what we wish to be true rather than what is true. We want to appear nice so we say things about others that are not true in order that other people will think we are nice. However, that is simply flattery as well. It is so hard to speak that which is pure and simple verity (truth) the whole day when the world presses on us to be certain ways that are in direct contrast to this.
On the one hand speaking the truth requires human beings to love God as Truth and not tell lies. It is better to suffer loss than it is to lie. On the other hand human beings tend toward flattery which is really telling lies in a different way. It is hard to be a slave of Christ and speak that which is pure and simple verity. We have all felt the pressure of this when a wife or child brings up a new dress or hairdo. What should we say when we are asked, “honey, how do I look?” How are we to respond to those things in light of what the truth requires? How are we to respond when people hand us a baby and expect us to say glowing things about it? What is a salesman to say when asked direct questions about the product his income depends upon? At these points the pure and simple verity is thought to be rude and sociably unacceptable.
The above examples should point to the nature of our hearts, however. We want to flatter or fudge the truth so that people will be friendly to us and like us. We may say that we don’t want to offend, but the reason we don’t want to offend is so that we will not appear offensive or that we will appear less than nice and civil. This flows from a selfish heart that is centered upon ourselves. To put it rather bluntly, the real reason we are nice is for selfish reasons. On the other side, if we are lying we are sinning against God and preferring the smiles of human beings to God Himself. In other words, our flattering lips reflect idolatrous hearts that really loves self more than others or God. We must always remember that we are to speak the truth in love, but it must be real love and the truth must be pure and simple. Edwards reminds us of these things in this resolution.
While no believer advocates outright lying in most instances, as a people we have replaced truth and love with social nicety. We would rather be thought nice than to be truthful. In the middle of America niceness has replaced love and truth. Niceness and forms of civility have replaced true Christian love. It is not nice or civil to speak of hard things to people. It is not nice or civil to question another person’s salvation. It is not nice or civil and perhaps even mean and judgmental to correct or confront people in their sin. However, telling the truth is a command of love. There are sins of omission and commission. We can sin against the truth by what we say and by what we don’t say. If what I am saying is true, this is a terrible indictment against the modern church that is so outwardly nice and civil but at the expense of truth and real love. The Pharisees wanted to appear religious by their own rules and so followed their own rules without a heart of love when love is God’s rule. Modern religious people in America want to be nice and civil by their own standards and yet this can be done apart from a heart of true love.
Edwards’ simple resolution points to a lot of hypocrisy and shortcomings in churches across America. It points to the hypocritical heart in a different way than that of the Pharisees. Many have developed standards of niceness and civility and think that is love. This results in people thinking that they love others when they are nice and civil when in fact they are not loving them at all. In reality the outward man still is trying to deceive the inward man as to what it really is. If people want to be nice and civil they think they love from the heart when they are not. Love desires what is really good for others and then it does what is good for others whether it appears nice and civil or not. When religion replaces true love for an appearance of love it has deceived itself and replaced truth for error. May all true believers strive to speak nothing but that which is the pure and simple verity. If we did, it would change the way we treat each other and may point out the necessity of a change of heart. If we don’t, we are not striving to love God and other people.
God Loves... Himself 
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