Where Is Truth? What Is Truth? God Is Truth!

Truth.  This, if you stop and think about it, is a word that is not often spoken by believers; and it is not because the Bible has little to say about it.  But I wouldn’t want anyone to simply go on my word.  Instead, just open an exhaustive concordance and you may become shocked at the number of scriptures that contain the word TRUTH.  I became a believer in 1973.  I have attended church regularly since.  I cannot recall hearing a thorough teaching, or message from the pulpit, that revolved around this one word; and to add, a most powerful word – TRUTH.  By the believer it must not only be embraced, but walked in and loved.  It must be sought after diligently by way of the heart; and never should we allow it to become a light issue to us.  When it comes right down to it, all of the subject matter having to do with the Person of God – His plan of salvation, and the many doctrines that believers wrestle with and fight with one another about, all have to do with our search for truth.  Who in the end will discover it to great measures?  It will be those who seek hard after it.  It was for good reason that our Lord once told us “seek and you will find.”

Many years ago I had a dream.  I would say that it lasted no more than ten seconds.  Jesus was standing on a platform.  He was teaching a multitude of people.  All that I could see was the back of Him, though I knew that it was Him.  There was a man standing behind the platform, listening to all of his words.  He couldn’t see the Lord since he was small in stature, the top of his head coming about as high as the platform.  Then a very unexpected thing happened.  The Lord stopped speaking.  Next he turned and walked to the rear of the platform.  He then bent all the way over so that his face was but a few inches from the man’s face, and with a smile like I had never seen, he said but five words to him.  You follow hard after Me, he told the man.  It was then that I awoke.  And so once again, who in the end will discover truth in great measure?  It will be those who follow hard after the Son, always remaining close behind.

Will it ever be that one will search in so great a way that they will come to know all that there is concerning the person of God  and His innumerable works?  In my own mind I firmly believe that the children of God will learn of Him forever.  And so much more should we who live in this fallen world believe that the things of the Lord can ever become fully grasped.  Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians that now we are as children being tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.  Also he writes to the Corinthians that presently we see as in a mirror darkly.  Still, in his letter to the Ephesians we are encouraged by him as he tells us that in a New Day yet to come, we shall together enter into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God; that we will be as one perfect man, as we come into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.  In that Day there will no longer be a need to seek out the things that are true.  Being of one body and one mind with the Son, we will all walk in them together. 

One of my favorite verses containing the word truth was spoken by Jesus.  It was directed to Pontius Pilate.   Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice, He told him.  What is so great about that, you may ask?  My reply would be that these words to Pilate serve to answer many of our questions.  For example, how many times have you heard this type of a question asked?  What about a man born in a jungle, remotely distant from civilization, and in a place where no missionary has ever gone?  He has never heard of Christianity, nor has he heard of a Saviour being sent into our world.  Do you mean to tell me that this man will die and go to a place of suffering, apart from the presence of his Maker?  I have no idea.  But I’m sure that Jesus hit the nail right on the head when He said, Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.  But what about a believer who takes their own life?  What happens to them?  Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.  What of the backslidden Christian who commits a terrible sin, and slips into eternity before they can repent?  We can go on and on.  The rule still stands.  Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.  I believe that Jesus makes it easy for us by the words that He spoke to Pilate on that day.  Simply He was saying that there are two kinds of people in this world.  There are those who love, embrace,  and seek after truth in sincerity of heart and in the fear of the Lord.   Then there are those who hardly – if at all – care much about the issue.  Still the fact is that Jesus was never in the habit of mincing words.  And by those that He spoke to Pilate, I’d say that He pretty much closed the case on the matter, cutting right through all of the questions.

What is truth?  This in fact was the question that Pilate asked Jesus on the day that the Lord stood before him.  But I think we would all know that Pontius Pilate wasn’t the first to ask this question, and he certainly wouldn’t be the last.  Innumerable have been the people that have spoken these words.  Yet little did they know that the question itself is altogether wrong.  “What is truth?”  They are words that should be flung as far away as the east is from the west.  The question needs to be Who is Truth?  And just as much does the answer need to be, God is Truth.  Jesus once spoke these words to Thomas.  I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.  Do we love the Truth?  If so, then we will come to know, embrace and follow it, and we will be His forever.

In Psalm 51:6 David writes, Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. - - - - Truth and Wisdom are like brothers bound together; and the place of their dwelling is the hidden parts.

In Psalm 89: 14 David pens these words.  Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and Truth go before Your face. - - - -  Truth is the Light that ever goes before Him.

In Psalm 117:2 the psalmist tells us that His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the Truth of the Lord endures forever. - - - -  Our God who changes not, will for all eternity personify Truth.

In Psalm 145:18 David under the divine inspiration writes, The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in Truth. - - - -  He hears the cry that arises from out of the flesh, from which nothing good comes; also He sees what arises from the spirit man.  The latter is done in Truth.  To him His Spirit draws near.

John 3: 21 He who does the Truth comes to the Light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. - - - - There is no cause for Truth to hide, for God himself has become its Author.

John 4: 23 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth. - - - - To worship in Spirit is the only worship that is of a sweet aroma to the Father, for it is the only true worship.

John 8: 32 You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you Free. - - - - To know Him in his crucifixion – to know Him in his resurrection; sown in weakness -  raised in power.  It is the only Truth that sets us Free.

John 17: 17 Sanctify them by your truth.  Your word is truth.  - - - - We who believe are set apart from this world by the word that the Father has declared to be true – both true and eternal.

I John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.  - - - - Love that sacrifices proves itself true.

III John 4   I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in Truth. - - - - To walk in Truth is to walk in the Light; to walk in the Light is to never stumble.

God is Light, writes John the beloved.  In Him is no darkness at all.  And so we must yearn for, pursue, apprehend and most of all love our God who is Light.  We then will never fail to walk in Truth.

J. Pecoraro