Is truth only about mental ascent, knowledge, and experience or is there something more? Are there many ways to see things? Can our view of truth change? Is it possible to know the truth and in the knowing to experience ultimate freedom?
Is truth just about mental ascent, knowledge, and experiences or is there something more?
What is truth?
Dictionary.com defines truth this way:
- the true or actual state of a matter: He tried to find out the truth.
- conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement.
- a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like: mathematical truths.
- the state or character of being true.
- actuality or actual existence.
- an obvious or accepted fact; truism; platitude.
- honesty; integrity; truthfulness.
- ( often initial capital letter ) ideal or fundamental reality apart from and transcending perceived experience: the basic truths of life.
- agreement with a standard or original.
- accuracy, as of position or adjustment.
- fidelity or constancy.
According to answers.com, the word "truth" appears in the NIV translation of the bible 228. I have this list of 52 occurrences of the word "truth" in the gospel of John alone.
For the sake of this discussion I'd like to lead off with a passage in John.
John 18:33-38Here, we see Jesus on trial before Pontias Pilate. But, like Pontias, we so often find ourselves asking, "What is truth?"
Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" "Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?" "Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?" Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." "You are a king, then!" said Pilate. 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.
Are there many ways, or one way?
If you were to ask the typical person on the street "are there unchanging, moral absolutes or do you believe moral truth is relative to your circumstances," how do you think they would answer?
Fortunately, for this discussion, Barna Research has done the work for us. In an article published February 2002 it was reported that two national surveys were conducted where adults and teenagers were asked if they believe there are moral absolutes that are unchanging or that moral truth is relative to your circumstances.
By a 3-to-1 margin (64% vs. 22%) adults said truth is always relative to the person and their situation.So, with numbers such as this, how do we respond? When everyone is doing what they want based on how they feel, living their own version of the truth, what sort of situation do we find ourselves in?
The perspective was even more lopsided among teenagers, 83% of whom said moral truth depends on the circumstances, and only 6% of whom said moral truth is absolute.
On what then, do we base our lives and actions?
When faced with a decision or situation, how you view truth will affect how you respond to a situation. It's inevitable. So what are we to base our lives on? It's my heart's cry and I hope yours, that we base our lives on the standard of what God teaches us through his Word.
Can our view of truth change?
I believe our view of truth can and must change. If we believe that there is a standard on which we base our lives that is outside of us, we must consider and flex our own truth claims to that which is the standard.
Can we REALLY know the truth?
John 8:31-32
To the Jews who had believed 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 8:35-36If we know Jesus, we know the TRUTH. But what does it mean to know him who is the truth? We enter into relationship with him, take in His word and allow it to accomplish its purpose. We make room for His word.
"Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word."
So, what is God's word and His purpose for it?
2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
Isaiah 55:10-11
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
1 Thessalonians 2:13
For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.
Since we can trust that The Word accomplishes a purposeful action and is profitable for us in many ways, how is the Word incorporated in our lives?
John 14:6 NIV
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the TRUTH and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 17:17 NIV
Sanctify them by the TRUTH; your word is TRUTH.
Taking these verses together, Jesus claims among other things to be the Truth. And we can also extrapolate that he is the Word in John 17:17. John 1 already calls him The Word that was with God and is God, so these two ideas come together beautifully in the person of Jesus himself.
The Greek for truth used here is aletheia {al-ay'-thi-a} meaning, "what is true in any matter under consideration" So reading it using those words we would read:
Sanctify them by what is true in any matter under consideration; your word is what is true in any matter under consideration.
Really? God's word is true in any matter under consideration? ANY MATTER?
Taking this statement as the standard and dissecting it a bit further, "what is true in any matter under consideration" is what God uses to sanctify us.
So what is sanctification?
Again, according to dictionary.com, sanctify means to make holy; set apart as sacred; consecrate; to purify or free from sin; to impart religious sanction to; render legitimate or binding. Here again is the concept of "setting apart" through the word of God. There is a transforming way in God's word the changes us from where we are to what God intends us to be.
How does the application of the Word and truth impact me?
Adrian Rogers, founder of Love Worth Finding and Bible teacher, says,
"It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, then falsehood that comforts and then kills. It is not love and it is not friendship if we fail to declare the whole counsel of God. It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie.If we use scripture as our standard and are in relationship with Jesus, God's living Word of Truth who is present with us as was defined earlier, we can rest in the knowledge of God's truth and word as our guide.
"It is impossible to find anyone in the Bible who was a power for God who did not have enemies and was not hated. It's better to stand alone with the truth than to be wrong with a multitude. It is better ultimately to succeed with truth than to temporarily succeed with a lie." (Adrian Rogers)
Here are a few "truths" to think about and rest in:
John 5:24 NIV
"I tell you the TRUTH, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
John 8:32 NIV
Then you will know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH will set you free."
John 8:34 NIV
Jesus replied, "I tell you the TRUTH, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
John 8:51 NIV
I tell you the TRUTH, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."
John 8:58 NIV
"I tell you the TRUTH," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"
John 16:13 NIV
But when he, the Spirit of TRUTH, comes, he will guide you into all TRUTH. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
John 13:20 NIV
I tell you the TRUTH, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me."