Why does truth matter?

Before we can answer this question, we need to know what truth actually is. In this world, we are inundated with information from every angle, but the Bible clearly states that there is one truth; Jesus Christ is the Truth.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.  From now on you do know him and have seen him” (John 14:6-7).

There is no greater truth than that which is given to us by the Father through knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and the word he spoke and still speaks today through his Holy Spirit. It is imperative to live every day in the Truth of God—the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must know the truth in order to live according to it. How do we learn what God requires of us? Are there things that God loves and hates, just like us? How do we know if God is pleased with how we are living our lives?  How can we be sure?

God never expects us to figure out these questions on our own. He gives us the   answers to every question about life you could possibly think of in His word. He wants us to seek Him—to ask questions, to open up our Bibles and read the word of God.  The Bible encourages us to seek godly counsel when we do not understand. When situations arise and we are questioning what to do, we are to recall the Word and do what it says:  

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror  and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do” (James 1:22-25).

“The word of God is a mirror for your spirit, soul, and body...”

In doing what the word of God says, you will get to know your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ—the “Word made flesh.” No longer will you see what once seemed like a foreign language on a page, but these words will become life to you as the Spirit of Truth teaches you how to live a holy life. The Truth—the word of God is alive and is one of the most powerful weapons God gives us to fight against the darkness and cleanse us from within. These weapons of truth are not activated when they are read or recited, but when they are lived out. 

Unlike the everchanging fads of this world, the word of God never changes. God’s word sets the moral standard by which we are to live—it is just as relevant today as when it was written. Just as we examine ourselves in the mirror each day, we must also look daily into the word of God—the mirror that we use to rightly judge our thoughts and actions. It may not be easy or comfortable at first to look into this mirror, especially if that has not been our practice. One can only imagine what it might be like to stop looking in the mirror for several days or weeks at a time—what would we look like after all that time? The word of God is a mirror for your spirit, soul, and body—it is crucial that we look into this mirror to allow God to show us what needs to be cleansed, fixed, or adjusted in our lives in order to look like Him. In fact, when we look in this mirror, we see Jesus, and in the light of His face, we are able to see who we truly are and allow Him to conform us into His image by practicing His word (James 1:22-25). If we continue to measure our lives by this mirror, the image of who we were will soon fade away, and His image will become brighter and clearer in our reflection. 

Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

“The more truth you know and practice, the freer you will be from everything that ails you.”

Jesus speaks in the Scripture about the importance of abiding in His word. The word “abide” when translated from the original Greek word “meno,” means to persevere, continue, and remain. Jesus is not unfamiliar with the temptations people  experience; He knows what it’s like to feel hunger, deep sadness, and extreme pain. Yet, He persevered over every trial and temptation. When Jesus fasted 40 days and nights in the desert, Satan came to tempt him three times. Satan knows what the word of God says, and he tried to entice Jesus by twisting the word—using Scripture to comfort the flesh. ‘Jesus, since you are so hungry, prove that you are God and change that stone to bread!’ Satan was taking truths such as the fact that Jesus was God and He was, in fact, hungry, and using those truths to try to manipulate Jesus into sinning against His Father. However, because Jesus abided in the truth of God’s word, He refuted Satan’s lies with the truth and overcame every temptation. He replied, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Truth delivered Him from falling captive to the desire of the flesh by proving that His spirit connection to God was stronger than any earthly desire. We as believers are also called to be like Christ, overcoming every temptation that comes our way by the power of the truth—the word of God.

When you know the truth, you won’t fall for the lies of the enemy or get trapped in ungodly situations; you will remain standing upon the truth. When a discouraging thought pops into your head, refute it with the truth. When those around you are looking to gossip, you can remember to avoid godless chatter and walk away or redirect the conversation. If a lie comes in to pull you away from the church, declare boldly and confidently that God’s truth says He called us from the beginning of time and that he elected us to be with Him. When you feel alone, and it seems as if there’s no one to help you, you can remember God is near to the broken-hearted and cry out to Him. There is a Word to overcome every situation and temptation you encounter. The more truth you know and practice, the freer you will be from everything that ails you. Each victory brings you closer to God because you become more confident in who your God is.

As we unite with God, the Truth also brings us closer to the Lord and closer to our brothers and sisters in Christ:

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” (1 John 1:5-7 NIV).

Living in darkness means we are shrouded in secrecy, hypocrisy, and delusion, not living in the truth—the truth of the word of God and how it relates to ourselves and others. This separates us from God just like it did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They immediately hid from God after they disobeyed Him by eating the forbidden fruit. We might look at that and say, “Didn’t they know they couldn’t hide from God?” Yet, when we hide from our brothers and sisters in Christ, are we really any different? Let’s take a look at what the Bible says in John 3:20: 

“Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.” 

When we avoid our brothers and sisters in Christ, do we realize we are avoiding God’s light? When we are hiding our sins from others, the Scripture above is clear that it is because we do not want our deeds to be exposed by the light. What is the light? God is light. Whether anyone knows the wrong we have done, the word of God tells us in Hebrews that nothing is hidden from God’s sight. God already knows what we did before we did it. We must confess our sins to God, repent, and remain in the truth. The word of truth also tells us to confess our sins to one another:

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

“Praise God that when we submit ourselves to the truth, there is no lie that will ever be able to overtake us.”

Why would God also want us to confess our sins to one another? When we confess our sins to each other, the sin that once seemed overwhelming and monstrous is overcome by the power of God’s truth and we are healed! By exposing our sin with the light of truth, we experience freedom and unity. We can fellowship with one another in the peace and love of God. We can get to know each other and pray for one another with power because the prayer comes from a place of living in God’s truth and love. We become closer as a body of believers and don’t have to be afraid to call on one another when we are in trouble. There will be many troubles in this world—Jesus told us that, but Jesus overcame them all and so can we if we remain in the truth. We never have to be alone in this oppressive world because we have God and each other.

We are bombarded with information every day from the TV, radio, news, commercials, and social media. We hear all kinds of perspectives from friends, family, and people in political, educational, and religious circles. Our cell phones alert us all day with new information within seconds of its release. How can we discern what is real and what is fake if we don’t know the truth? We live in a fallen world and Satan has blinded the minds of everyone who doesn’t live in the Truth:

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

If we step away from the truth, we step away from the light of God that allows us to see the truth. It is only in turning daily to the Lord Jesus Christ—the Truth—that allows our minds to stay in reality. Let us reject every lie this day! Praise God that when we submit ourselves to the truth, there is no lie that will ever be able to overtake us.

We know that Satan is a liar, but we must also remember that he disguises himself as an ‘angel of light.’ This is why there are some who preach a gospel that appears to be true, but is false; instead of preaching according to the truth found in the Bible, they distort the truth to bring a message that people’s itching ears want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). The Bible warns us of this:

“...there will be false teachers among you… Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories...” (2 Peter 2:1-3).

“Christians are commissioned to be trailblazers for God…”

What will protect us from being exploited by these false teachings? First, we must recognize that these false teachers are simply a counterfeit of the wonderful, powerful institution God established for His people known as the Church; the Church is the Father’s house— His family— made up of His people, led by true apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. In God’s house, the truth is taught and demonstrated by example. Jesus Christ absolutely intended to protect us from what is false through discipleship in His Church; He commissioned His disciples to go and make other disciples throughout the nations, teaching them to obey His commands (Matthew 28:18-20). In this wonderful environment God provides, discerning the truth from lies becomes as natural as recognizing your mother or father’s voice amidst the voices of strangers. The teachings of false teachers become distinctly foreign, and the true Gospel message bears witness in our spirits. 

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-15).

There is such power in coming to understand the Biblical passage above. We as Christians are taught by example by those who are more spiritually mature, who walk in the truth of God’s word. We are not meant to be lone rangers, tossed to and fro by the enemy’s schemes; we are destined, as the Church—Christ’s body—to reach unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God and to become spiritually mature. Each is responsible to know the Truth of the word of God, and to examine the teachings we hear to see if they align with God’s word. Surrounding ourselves with others who walk in the truth and filling ourselves with truth will help us to grow, mature, and remain under the protection of God.

Truth matters because it is the way in which we come to know God, please God, and be with Him eternally. To be under wrath of God is the due penalty for our sins; we are in desperate need of a savior, and the only one who can save us is the Lord Jesus Christ—the Truth. Jesus is the path God blazed for us, that we might know the truth, believe, and be saved (Romans 1:18, John 3:16)! By knowing the Truth, we can see our sin and, by His grace, turn away from it as we come to know and fall in love with our amazing God. The truth is powerful because it sets us free from our wickedness and dispels the lies of the enemy. We become free to fellowship and confess our sins to one another instead of hiding in paranoia. This unites and strengthens us as a body of believers with the same purpose. We look, talk, and walk like Jesus did because the truth transforms us to be just like him. Then, we can use the truth to overcome the demonic forces in this world who try to deceive us and others. The truth empowers us to stand for righteousness in a fallen world.

Let us reflect upon all of these powerful effects of truth in our lives: