TO TELL THE TRUTH
by Richard Burkard
The sermonette speaker had a simple-sounding, yet deeply profound topic. And the timing for it seemed perfect, falling in late December. His focus was on truth, in the midst of a season filled with lies about Santa Claus, reindeer with glowing noses and other such things. But how he presented "the truth" left the impression to me that he didn't really know his subject.
In this Church of God group, the speaker had everyone turn to John 17:17 for "Jesus's definition" of truth. The verse says, "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." He then tacked on two verses from Psalm 119, to conclude the law and commandments of God constitute the truth.
Are you satisfied with that explanation? If you are, be warned now -- the rest of this article may surprise you, and perhaps even upset you. But in quoting Jesus about "the truth," the speaker presented a half-truth. A cover-to-cover study of this vital Biblical word shows there's much more to "truth" than law-keeping or Bible reading. And I fear many people in Church of God spinoff groups have embraced a simplistic, yet misleading explanation.
(If you've read our detailed analysis of the United Church of God book The New Covenant to the end, you may already know where this article is heading. But we plan to get into more detail here.)
Who, as Well as What
To be clear right off the top: we're not disputing the words of Jesus in John 17:17. He truly said in prayer to the Father, "your word is truth." But is that the only definition given by our Lord?
No, it's not. In fact, it's not even the only definition mentioned by John in the "Lord's Supper" setting. So often Church of God ministers seem to overlook John 14:6: "I am the way and the truth and the life." Jesus defined Himself as the truth.
In fact, John seems to take issue with the definition of our sermonette speaker, even before those two famous quotes. "For the law was given through Moses," John writes -- "but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (Jhn. 1:17, KJV). The New American Standard Version says grace and truth "were realized" through Christ.
If God's Law defined truth, why would Jesus have to bring it? Because something apparently was missing. John quotes Jesus about that, too. "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever - the Spirit of truth" (Jhn. 14:16-17). The Lord adds you need that Spirit to "guide you into all truth" (16:13).
Internal Truth
The apostle Paul talks elsewhere about "the truth that is in Jesus" (Eph. 4:21). So our Savior not only is the truth, He has truth in Him. What sort of truth does this mean?
Church of God traditionalists probably would do what the sermonette speaker did, and turn to Psalm 119. "Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is the truth.... all your commandments are truth" (119:142, 151, KJV). And some New Testament passages support this view.
"You have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth," Paul writes in Romans 2:20. And I John 2:4 adds anyone claiming to know Christ who "does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him." (Verses like this can lead to a separate discussion of whether Jesus commanded something different than the Ten Commandments; check elsewhere on our web site for that.)
Yet consider another verse in I John. "And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth" (I Jhn. 5:6). All the Bible translations we checked capitalize Spirit, to indicate John means the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is defined as truth, every bit as much as Jesus is - and Jesus had "the Spirit without limit" when He walked the earth (Jhn. 3:34).
Overlooked Definitions
Psalm 119:30 describes a "way of truth." II Peter 2:2 says false teachers in the church harmed that way with heresies. In fact, I Timothy 3:15 says the church should be "the pillar and foundation of the truth" -- or as my King James Bible margin puts it, a "stay" or undergirding.
The question must be asked -- can a church really undergird "the truth" when it only holds up one part of it? And what we've mentioned so far doesn't include other ways that the Bible (at least in the KJV) defines truth....
* A letter from Queen Esther and Mordecai confirming the days of the festival of Purim (Est. 9:29-31) - a festival scarcely any COG group keeps.
* The works of God, called the "King of heaven" (Dan. 4:37).
* The gospel of salvation, which Paul calls "the word of truth" (Eph. 1:13, Col. 1:5, II Tim. 2:15) and David hinted about in Psalm 69:13.
* Doing loving deeds for people in need (I Jhn. 3:17-19). Compassion toward the needy shows you "belong to the truth."
Summary
During my years in Church of God groups, I've heard many prayers thanking God for "leading us to the truth." Many of those people left established churches for COG's. So I think I know how they meant that phrase. But unless we acknowledge the Godhead for being part of the truth, their grasp of that term is incomplete.
If you're a believer in Jesus, my prayer is that you'll expand your understanding of what "truth" is. It's OK to ask Pilate's classic question, "What is truth?" (Jhn. 18:38) But realize something Pilate apparently didn't - a source and definition of truth was right in front of him all the time.
P.S. If you think you're perfect exactly as you are, watch out -- you may be walking in self-deception. "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us," says I John 1:8.
John goes on in verse 9 to urge you to confess your sins, so that you might receive forgiveness and cleansing from God. Then walk according to the Bible definitions we've shown here, and let "the truth.... set you free" (Jhn. 8:32). That way you can experience what II John 2 says: "The truth.... lives in us and will be with us forever."
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© 2009 Richard Burkard, All Rights Reserved.