When someone you know has an incurable illness, do you tell them or not? What do you say if they ask you? Do you lie or tell the truth?

So often we live and die surrounded by lies. Nurses, doctors, relatives, all lying, demanding that everyone keep up the charade – ‘You’re going to be all right’ they say, offering false cheer.

Now I believe that a person may well have the right to know the truth, especially if death is near. A person should have the opportunity of defeating fear and facing up to the challenge of life, which is brought to its climax in that which we call death.

Jesus said He was the truth, and one of those things He said about death was this: ‘Do not fear those who can destroy the body, I will tell you whom to fear, fear Him (God) who has, after the body dies, the power to cast into hell’. The lie we can’t afford to perpetuate, or trust, is the one that tells us that death is the end, and that it has the last word. It doesn’t – God has the last word, and He is the God of the living.

Besides the reading set out for today, read an part you like of 1 Corinthians: 15 and let it speak to you about the truth of living and dying.