Be Ye Doers. . . Of The Word!

TRUTH — "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 men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ." (Ephesians 4:14-15) "Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth." (1 Corinthians 13:6 )

Pilate asked, "What is truth?" That is what we will try to determine in this article.

There are literally hundreds of passages that could be used for a catalyst for this article, but Ephesians 4 was chosen because of its misuse in today's church. The passage popularly rendered, "preach in love"; in other words it does not matter WHAT is said as much as HOW it is said. HOW takes precedence over WHAT. But Holy Spirit inspiration is first concerned with WHAT and then HOW. We err greatly if either is omitted, but Biblical support would show the WHAT as more important than the HOW or even the WHY.

We will address this subject with the understanding that there is no way to be exhaustive on the subject in one article. In a concordance there are hundreds of references to: TRUTH, TRUTHFUL, TRUE, etc. Each teach us something about our subject. We will only address the subject generally.

Just as a way of introduction, let us examine the NATURE, BASIS, and RESULTS of truth. then go into some detail about our present plight in regard to truth.

NATURE: Truth is opposite to and militantly opposed to falsehood and thus supports the genuineness of God. Error is never benign nor neutral, and neither is truth. Jesus did not come just to present information, but to destroy falsehood! It was indeed TRUTH that would free the world (John 8:32). Biblical truth is God's standard for us to live by so that we can be holy just as He is holy. His genuineness is at stake. What right does man have to alter the truth? The answer is rather obvious.

BASIS: Truth is from the mind of God (Isaiah 55:8). Truth was made alive by Jesus (John 1:1, 17; 14:6); was delivered by inspired men (John 14:16); was to be delivered by uninspired men (2 Timothy 2:2); and was not changed in the process. What we have in Biblical truth today is the mind of God revealed to man.

RESULT: Faithfulness. We define faithfulness as a sincere, obedient response to Biblical truth (Romans 10:9-10). Unfaithful-ness is disobedience to that same truth. (Sincere disobedience does not count, although many seem to think so.) Let us define truth with this understanding: We can believe anything we want to believe — we just do not get to determine the consequences. God does.

Truth is opposite to falsehood. The Greek word, ALETHES, primarily means something uncovered or revealed. The word is literally a negative term meaning to forget to go unnoticed or to forget to escape notice. Some people would not recognize truth if it jumped up and hit them in the face, as truth always does. W.E. Vine defines this word as describing: God, Christ, God's ways, God's judgement, God's riches, His worshippers and their hearts. The word is used in Ephesians 4:15 meaning to deal faithfully or truly with anyone. We need to speak the truth in love so as to not shortchange or rob anyone. When we alter the truth for whatever reason, we do insult not only to our character, thus becoming liars, but also the very character of God.

Jesus says no less than eighty times in the Gospels, "I tell you the truth." He said these words in contrast to the falsehood that was being taught in religious circles. The "educated" thought Jesus was stupid or "uneducated" because of what He taught. There are many liberals today who think we are stupid for proclaiming the same things Jesus did. We would rather be stupid and stand with Jesus! Truth is willfully being hidden today and willfully altered in the name of modernism, progressivism, and denomina- tionalism. We need men today who will stand up and say, "I tell you the truth." Ed Bousman once made this tremendous statement, "Truth is not something to be sacrificed on the alter of security." We say a hardy AMEN to that!

Paul told Timothy to preach the word and then went on to tell Timothy that truth was synonymous with the WORD, SOUND DOCTRINE, TRUTH, AND THE FAITH (2 Timothy 4:2ff). We are to "cut straight paths" with the truth.

It seems very popular at this time to deny Biblical truth. The more bizarre a doctrine, the more followers. We have many today who are "faith only's." or theistic evolutionists, or who do not want to hear anything about Biblical leadership. We have taken great liberties with, "We are not the only Christians, but Christians only." In most circles it seems that quote means that anyone who acknowledges a believe in Jesus is to be considered a brother. We need to consider whether or not these folk have OBEYED the truth. If they have not, they have either denied the very nature of truth or need to hear the truth. Everyone who believes in Jesus is not a brother (Matthew 7:21-23).

We are not saying that many who live in falsehood are not sincere. We are saying that sincerity has never determined whether or not anything is true or false. Many people deny Biblical truth today because they believe they have a God-given right to do so. They say, "I believe in the Bible, but. . .," or "I believe the Bible, but God told me. . ." This is Calvinism, pure and simple. "You see that passage one way – I see it another; we are both right." Probably not. We must remember that belief is not a prerequisite to truth. Truth is first. Many have this attitude, "I believe this, so it must be true;" or "I think this is true, so it must be true." We can believe what we think or feel — this is SUBJECTIVE belief. Or we can believe what God's word actually says — this is OBJECTIVE belief. Again, our personal belief does not make anything true or false. People can be made to believe that a lie is true (Romans 1:25). That is a bad trade off. People can also be convinced that truth is a lie. Immersion for the forgiveness of sin and the Lord's Supper are just two examples. There are many who think that baptism has nothing to do with salvation or that it is not essential to partake of the Lord's Supper on a weekly basis. There are those who are convinced that women can preach to men and have wrested the Scriptures to their own destruction trying to prove it.

Others might determine truth by prayer. "I prayed about this so it must be true." Prayer makes nothing true or false. Others put a tune to falsehood and think it becomes truth. We heard a preacher singing about asking Jesus into his heart recently. As far as we know, that Calvinistic doctrine is still false even though it now has a pretty tune.

Denial does not nullify truth. "I do not want that to be true." Denial does not determine truth. Distorted truth proclaimed by a professional does not determine truth.

Worse, in our opinion, than truth denied is truth defied. Denial is an assertion that, "I don't believe that is true, so I won't obey." Defying is an assertion that, "I do know that is the truth, and I won't obey."

False teachers are always vocal, and very often they are local. Are there any near you? Start preaching the truth, and the false teachers will come out of the woodwork to deny it.

We understand John 12:48 to tell us that our knowledge of and obedience to the truth will determine our place in eternity. We need to understand that God allows us to believe anything we want, but He does not allow us to determine the consequences. He has already determined heaven and hell as the consequences of our belief.

We need to SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE so that a lost and dying world can be taught holiness, without which no one will see God.

We love you, and pray for you, and exhort you to REJOICE IN THE TRUTH.