By Steven J. Hogan
~ A Saturday Morning Post #208 ~
A country that does not live by the truth will sooner or later cease to be a country. God has designed us to live by the truth, whether it’s in our personal lives, relationships, churches, jobs, society, or government. Seeing progress and success in any of these areas relates directly to the understanding and application of specific truths, facts, laws, principles, or realities. For every aspect of life, truth is foundational and fundamental. The heartaches and hardships a person experiences often result from not knowing and living by the truth. And the problems we see in our country, the greed, corruption, conflicts, crime, and unrighteous policies result from this too, most specifically because of the lies of the devil.
There are countless examples of how people need to live by the truth. There is anatomy and physiology, truths about your body. There are proteins, carbs, and vitamins, truths about the foods you eat. There is low pressure, high pressure, and humidity, truths about the weather. There are truths about leadership, taxes, and borders, and how governments should function. There are truths that relate to the law, to judges, juries, and the need for witnesses to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” There are truths that relate to raising a child, cooking a meal, building a house, driving a car, or growing a garden.
The truth is that you cannot live without the truth. For example, what happens if you don’t believe the law of gravity and you jump off a cliff? What happens if you don’t believe principles about budgeting and you keep buying things on credit? What happens if you don’t believe truths about relationships, about being kind, patient and forgiving? There is truth that relates to every single person and thing in the world. And if you aren’t living in accordance with the truth, then you will be living by lies and your life won’t make sense – it will be filled with problems.
Living by the truth means you need to be a learner. God has given you a brain and a mind so you can learn the truth. And it’s from parents, teachers, friends, books, making mistakes, and observing things that you learn the truth. I remember my grandfather always telling me, “to be successful, you need to be with those who are older and who have done well.” People whose lives are led by lies, who don’t learn and apply truth, will encounter many difficulties and will not grow up in the way God wants. Your whole life, from beginning to end, from birth to death, needs to be lived in accordance with truth. To be truly successful you must keep reading, watching, listening, and learning from others, especially from God.
I have made some general points about truth, but what’s most important in life? It’s spiritual truth, truth that comes from God, truth only He can give you (Ps. 119:33-40). Do you remember when Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” This was just after He told Pilate, “I have come into the world to testify to the truth.” Jesus’ whole purpose in life related directly to the truth, to living the truth and telling the truth. Everything He said was the truth – He never lied, He never spoke falsehoods, He always told the truth. And the truth He spoke was spiritual truth. He could have impressed people with His knowledge of the human body, the stars, or the weather, but that’s not what people really needed to hear. Spiritual truth is what really matters, it’s what’s eternally important, and Jesus was always teaching it. And it related to knowing and loving God, loving others, and living a moral and meaningful life that would be eternally blessed.
Jesus Christ was and is a perfect Teacher, the best in the world! He taught the truth about God and His mercy, man and his sin, and how He would die to pay for our sins so we can be forgiven. This truth is the gospel truth and is the most important and needed truth on earth. “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free (from sin)” (John 8:32). The smartest person in the world can know all there is to know about business, health, or science, but if he doesn’t know the truth about God, Jesus, and salvation, then his life will be empty and futile. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” Mark 8:36
Jesus didn’t just speak the truth – He was the truth. In John 14:6, He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” When people saw Jesus, they saw the truth, One “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). They actually saw God, a perfect human who loved the truth, embodied the truth, and lived by the truth (John 14:9). He was always giving, kind, patient, serving, wise, and compassionate. He always did what was good, right, and true. “Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). God sent His own Son down to this earth because He wanted us to know and see what truth really looked like.
The truth was not just given to us in the person of Jesus, it was also given to us in a book, in God’s word, in the Bible. It’s only by the truth of God’s word that we can spiritually grow up and be all that God planned us to be. “The sum of Thy word is truth” (Ps. 119:160). There are millions of books in the world, many of them non-fiction, many that share various aspects of truth on different subjects. But infinitely more important than all of them is the Bible, for only through it can we learn what we need to know about God, Jesus, the Spirit, salvation, the church, the kingdom age, and how we can be truly loving, kind, and successful Christians. “Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation” (Ps. 25:5). “Put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” Eph. 4:24
There’s something else you need know, and it’s the truth about Satan, the father of lies (John 8), the number one enemy of the truth. Satan hates God, Jesus Christ, and the truth in God’s word – and his primary goal is to promote and proclaim his lies, hoping to hurt, deceive, and control people. He does not want you to believe truth, and especially spiritual truth which is clearly communicated in God’s word. Satan would want you to believe that there is no truth. He would want you to think that a person can come up with his own truth. He would want you to believe that truth does not have to be absolute, that it can be relative. He would want you to think there is no God, no sin, no heaven, no hell, that Jesus did not die and rise again, that salvation is by works, that God did not create the world, that there is no male or female, that Christ isn’t coming back, etc. Satan is the most wicked and evil liar there is, and so watch out – do not be deceived! And remember, truth defeats lies, truth never loses, truth always wins.
It’s quite obvious that Satan is fighting fiercely against God and His truth, and therefore against Christians who believe the truth. And it’s demons working through evil people who carry out His global plan to cancel truth and promote his evil doctrines (1 Tim. 4:1-3). Without question, we are in a ferocious battle for the truth, a battle for the hearts and minds of people, one that will continue until the very end of this age. (Eph. 6:10-12). As Christians we must know and keep fighting for the truth – and we must not succumb to the terrible and deadly lies of the devil, but instead destroy them. “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge (truth) of God.” 2 Cor. 10:4-5
Thankfully, God’s truth will never be silenced or cancelled (2 Tim 2:9). This happens through the church, the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15), through pastors who proclaim the truth to the people in their church (2 Tim. 4:1-2), and through individual Christians who personally share God’s precious and life-changing truth with others. “Speak truth each one of you with his neighbor” (Eph. 4:25). Might you be faithful and keep living and speaking forth the truth of God, and now more than ever, for we are in the end-times, and Christ will be coming back soon to rapture the church and take us to heaven.
P.S. What a blessing to be a truth-loving, truth-learning, truth-talking person. I encourage you to be reading and studying God’s word, and learning from others, specifically those who are God-appointed teachers. Here are two relevant and encouraging posts to read: “Deception or Discernment”, and “Old Testament + New Testament = Word of God.”