Truth. We all seek what is real, true, and dependable. We know we won’t get all the truth from salespersons whose goal is selling to make a living for his family. They tell us only what will make the sale most times. But the time they are finished with their “pitch” we are mixed up and confused about the benefits of the product and forgot why we came in! Yes, it is hard to find an honest person but not impossible. Randy and I have learned to pray before we buy, asking God’s guidance to the right person to help us make the right decision. Before going, we carefully look over products, reviews by others who are using them, study what it can and cannot do, before buying it. It takes more work but so worth getting what you need while avoiding the deceit of showmanship. When times are hard, truth gets even harder to recognize, so to avoid being confused, we research even more diligently.
From past experiences, it is hard to get Truth from most politicians, lawyers and even some doctors. They are taught by other professional spinners of truth, how to tell people only what they want to know to get elected or provide a service for kickbacks to their bank accounts. Spinners can even change your mind about what you saw and heard that was truth by invent another scenario to believe for the advantage of their clients! So, we must look more closely. If it is possible, we wish to go behind the scenes to look for demonstrations of good character on any given day when no one is looking or posing for a photo op for promotion. But that is not always possible. We must be alert, do the research, and pray for wisdom and discernment as we seek Truth.
Peter warns us about those among believers who know enough Truth to be dangerous. I have known some people who have displayed these characteristics and watched God deal with them. Most recently was a charismatic pastor who delivered thoughtful messages but his life reflected his real motives and desires for himself. His deceitful actions produced many “mixed up and confused followers” that Peter describes in his warning to us. What Peter writes seems harsh but still very relevant today.
2 Peter 2, The Message
Lying Religious Leaders
1-2 But there were also lying prophets among the people then, just as there will be lying religious teachers among you. They’ll smuggle in destructive divisions, pitting you against each other—biting the hand of the One who gave them a chance to have their lives back! They’ve put themselves on a fast downhill slide to destruction, but not before they recruit a crowd of mixed-up followers who can’t tell right from wrong.
2-3 They give the way of truth a bad name. They’re only out for themselves. They’ll say anything, anything, that sounds good to exploit you. They won’t, of course, get by with it. They’ll come to a bad end, for God has never just stood by and let that kind of thing go on.
4-5 God didn’t let the rebel angels off the hook, but jailed them in hell till Judgment Day. Neither did he let the ancient ungodly world off. He wiped it out with a flood, rescuing only eight people—Noah, the sole voice of righteousness, was one of them.
6-8 God decreed destruction for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. A mound of ashes was all that was left—grim warning to anyone bent on an ungodly life. But that good man Lot, driven nearly out of his mind by the sexual filth and perversity, was rescued. Surrounded by moral rot day after day after day, that righteous man was in constant torment.
9 So God knows how to rescue the godly from evil trials. And he knows how to hold the feet of the wicked to the fire until Judgment Day.
Predators on the Prowl
10-11 God is especially incensed against these “teachers” who live by lust, addicted to a filthy existence. They despise interference from true authority, preferring to indulge in self-rule. Insolent egotists, they don’t hesitate to speak evil against the most splendid of creatures. Even angels, their superiors in every way, wouldn’t think of throwing their weight around like that, trying to slander others before God.
12-14 These people are nothing but brute beasts, born in the wild, predators on the prowl. In the very act of bringing down others with their ignorant blasphemies, they themselves will be brought down, losers in the end. Their evil will boomerang on them. They’re so despicable and addicted to pleasure that they indulge in wild parties, carousing in broad daylight. They’re obsessed with adultery, compulsive in sin, seducing every vulnerable soul they come upon. Their specialty is greed, and they’re experts at it. Dead souls!
15-16 They’ve left the main road and are directionless, having taken the way of Balaam, son of Beor, the prophet who turned profiteer, a connoisseur of evil. But Balaam was stopped in his wayward tracks: A dumb animal spoke in a human voice and prevented the prophet’s craziness.
17-19 There’s nothing to these people—they’re dried-up fountains, storm-scattered clouds, headed for a black hole in hell. They are loudmouths, full of hot air, but still they’re dangerous. Men and women who have recently escaped from a deviant life are most susceptible to their brand of seduction. They promise these newcomers freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for if they’re addicted to corruption—and they are—they’re enslaved.
20-22 If they’ve escaped from the slum of sin by experiencing our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ, and then slid back into that same old life again, they’re worse than if they had never left. Better not to have started out on the straight road to God than to start out and then turn back, repudiating the experience and the holy command. They prove the point of the proverbs, “A dog goes back to its own vomit” and “A scrubbed-up pig heads for the mud.”
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
God is Truth. Jesus, His Son is Truth and demonstrated Truth in action. God cannot and does not lie. God will tell us the whole Truth, nothing but the Truth—even if it hurts—so we can be restored to Truth and live abundantly. Knowing and living the Truth truly sets us free!
Here are a few Truth statements from the Living and Active Word of Truth:
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” –Jesus, John 14:6, NIV
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8
“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:18
“We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood”. 1 John 4:6
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” 3 John 1:4
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15
“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,” Ephesians 6:14
“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” Exodus 20:16
“He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” James 1:18
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”. John 1:14
“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:17
“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:24
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the 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 16:13
“The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.” Proverbs 12:22
“Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” Psalm 25:5
“Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” Psalm 86:11
“All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.” Psalm 119:160
“The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” Psalm 145:18
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.” John 18:37-38
“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 8:31-32
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-6
We must respond by knowing Truth and living Truth so others will see Truth in us. When they ask, we point them, not to us, but to Jesus who is Truth!
Max Lucado helps us to understand how to tell the difference between Truth and a Liar who misrepresents Truth—
“Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many”, Jesus preached. (Matthew 24:4–5). Note the twofold appearance of the word many. Many deceived and many deceivers. Churches are petri dishes for self-serving egomaniacs who masquerade as ministers of God. They will do so “in his name,” claiming a special status, a superior spirituality. They boast of insider information and adorn their teaching with phrases like “God told me,” “God spoke to me,” “God led me,” They present themselves as religious gurus, code breakers, members of an inner circle, implying that they have access to knowledge unavailable to the common person. Some even position themselves as Jesus himself, “claiming, ‘I am the Messiah’” (Matthew 24:5).
Filter all messages and messengers through these verses: “Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also” (1John 2:22–23). False prophets always minimize the role of Christ and maximize the role of humanity. Be doctrinally diligent. Stick to one question—is this person directing listeners to Jesus? If the answer is yes, be grateful and pray for that individual. If the answer is no, get out while you still can.
Do you listen to preachers passively? Do you find yourself assuming the preacher is correct? Listen actively. No matter how good the message seems, compare it with the Bible. Find out what God says on the topic. –Lucado, Encouraging Word Bible
Seek Truth. Believe Truth and be saved for eternity.
Lord,
What a God you are that we can trust to be Truth in every part of our lives! Help us avoid the mix-up and confusion by meditating on your Word while praying for discernment. I believe and trust you with my life because you are Life! Thank you for setting us straight when we are perplexed by what others hold to be “their truth.” Truth is fully you and only you!
In Jesus Name, Amen
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 