May 12 What Is Truth?

A truthful witness gives honest testimony, but a false witness tells lies. ~Proverbs 12:17
A truthful witness does not deceive, but a false witness pours out lies. ~Proverbs 14:5
A truthful witness saves lives, but a false witness is deceitful. ~Proverbs 14:25
A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who pours out lies will perish. ~Proverbs 19:9
A false witness will perish, and whoever listens to the lie will be destroyed forever. ~Proverbs 21:28
Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow is the one who gives false testimony against a neighbor. ~Proverbs 25:18  

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. ~Psalms 34:13-14

Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me.” “What is truth?” Pilate asked. ~John 18:37-38A  

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.” ~John 14:6-7  

To the Jews who had believed in Him, Jesus said, “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ~John 8:31-32

“What is truth?” Pilate asked. That’s a good question. Truth may be harder to come by than we realize. In this world, satan, the father of lies, is invested in keeping the truth hidden from us as long as he possibly can because he knows that when the truth is revealed, it is over for him.

We know that the truth is hard to come by today. It is so easy to take a picture and photo shop it to alter it just enough, to hide the truth. News writers can alter a story slightly, take comments out of context, and misrepresent, so that even when we read something in black and white, we cannot be certain that we have the facts.

Lying and distortion have become an art form, often with deadly consequences. Truth is the one thing we would all like to know and the one thing that we question and test the most because of its importance. In a trial, when a witness takes the stand, he is supposed to tell, “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me, God.” That witness may want to be truthful and do his or her best to stick to the facts. Unfortunately, perspective is also thrown into the mix, only allowing him or her to tell the truth from their angle.

It’s bad enough when a supposed witness, called upon to tell the truth, lies to defend the accused, perhaps thinking that he is loving and protecting the defendant. But a false witness denies justice! And the protecting lies only add to the offenses. Worse still is the kind of false witness that was used to attack Jesus, deliberately telling lies to condemn him! Back in Proverbs 6, we mentioned three things out of seven that the Lord hates that all have to do with lies: “a lying tongue…a heart that devises wicked schemes…and, a false witness who pours out lies.” (Proverbs 6:16-19)  

The Lord is passionate in His hatred of lies! Why? Because it represents the opposite of who He is. Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus is truth. He does not just know truth. Truth is what He is. He is the Word. He is the facts of the matter. His truth is not based on His perceptions, but on His knowledge as creator, Master, and giver of wisdom itself. We may know small bits of information, but He knows it all.

Truth and light are so similar in that they both reveal the facts in every situation. But we live in an age in which lighting can be adjusted to affect what we see. We’ve also been told that truth is now relative, and each person’s truth is their own. Analysts today assert that relativism is old news. Its weaknesses have been exposed. But rather than making the world more truthful, it is said that we live in a “post-truth” age, in which we know there is a truth, but claim it is unattainable, so we live the way we want to and don’t hold ourselves accountable to any truth at all! These are mind games that are acceptable today, lies that buffer us from facing reality. But it’s not really a new problem.

Pilate’s question: “What is truth?” demonstrates that truth was hard to find in his day also. Here were these religious leaders bringing up false charges, bearing false witness, against a man who seemed harmless from Pilate’s perspective. Pilate had no idea how much God hated what they were doing. But Pilate hated it too, for his own reasons. He couldn’t have had much respect for what was going on.

To ask, “what is truth?” reveals a longing to find a knowledge that was still alluding him. But partly it alluded him because he wasn’t seriously looking for it. Jesus, the Truth, was right there! And apparently, Jesus, who knew Pilate’s thoughts, saw that Pilate didn’t really want the answer. If it were not so, I think Jesus would have said more about it.

Jesus is both truth and light. When we distort either, we are also distorting who He really is. When you turn on a light, you see reality. As long as the light is off, you may not be sure what you are dealing with. If you are a child, you could think there’s a monster under your bed! If you hear a noise in the night, light will reveal the source. It’s the same with truth. There is no relative truth. There is no unattainable Truth either. God has told us everything we really need to know. And God’s Truth reveals things the way they really are.

Jesus says if we follow His teaching, we will know the truth and it will set us free. Why? Because we will know what we are dealing with. In Celebrate Recovery, people learn that the first step to recovery is to stop living in denial of the Truth about their sins and addictions. Both addicts and sinners hide their guilt and shame under cover of darkness by refusing to look at the truth of the mess they’re making of life through the ways they’re trying to cope with problems.

But in Christ, there are no more mind games, no more tricks to distract us from facing our true situation. That facing the Truth is what sets people free to take the next steps, because in this light they can see where they are going and where they need to go next. By the lamp unto their feet they can take the next step with confidence. This first step to recovery of the life God wants us to live is not just for addicts.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ~1 John 1:5-9

Prayer: Speak, O Lord, as we come to You to receive the food of Your Holy Word. Take Your truth. Plant it deep in us. Shape and fashion us in Your likeness, that the light of Christ might be seen today in our acts of love and our deeds of faith. Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us all Your purposes for Your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

Song: Speak, O Lord