The Truth Hurts

When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. (Acts 7:54-58)

Stephen spoke the truth to the religious leaders and the crowds, people who had been complicit in the death of Jesus or had simply been afraid to stop it. They didn’t want to hear it. They didn’t want to acknowledge that he was speaking the God-honest truth. They responded by silencing him.

One of our church fathers, Tertullian, noted --

“The first reaction to truth is hatred.”

When we feel a sense of hatred towards someone, perhaps they are simply trying to tell us something we don’t want to hear.