Practicing the Truth 5.30.2024

     This is the rare month with 5 Thursdays, so we have a final opportunity to discuss Truth and to bring this conversation to a close. To live rightly and minister effectively we must have a reputation as truth-tellers. Casual acquaintances about town as well as those we worship with, and in whose hearing, we preach need to know that even in difficult situations, even when it is uncomfortable we will be truthful. 

    This is important not merely from a character standpoint but also because of the message we proclaim. Truth has a universal component. Truth is one of the ways we describe reality. For some, truth is just another commodity that can be bargained away to promote one cause or subvert another. Truth is also very specific. We will be called upon to be trustworthy and forthright in the communities in which we live. People will come to you for counsel. You may or may not have the answers. In any circumstance formal or informal we must be ever truthful. 

    In the end, we judge between truth and falsehood. We have discussed these important matters throughout this month and now we end the discussion by considering what Scripture, particularly John's writings, has to say about “the truth”. 

    This is John’s favorite way to describe the content of our message. It is not just “true” in some abstract sense, for John, there is a body of “the Truth” to which we are responsible and by which we order and direct our lives through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is an essential dimension to a merely conceptual understanding of truth. 

Personal 

    Incarnation discloses God’s personal stake in the truth. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 ESV). In Jesus, God makes a personal appearance to bring order and truthfulness to our disordered world. Christian people do not deny truth statements or accurate facts in other domains of our experience. We simply affirm that Jesus has provided an organizing principle for our cosmos. 

    The particular truths of science or history may help us comprehend the universe in which we live, faith in  Jesus, the truth-bringer provides coherence and meaning to the broad scope of human experience and our personal, lived experience.

    Throughout the corpus of his writings, John returns to this theme of truth, reminding us that Jesus repeatedly affirmed that following Him in discipleship is a commitment to embracing His conception of truthfulness. In John 17.17 Jesus prays making a simple request with a profound focus: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17 ESV) In following Jesus we accept His invitation to share in His disclosure of God’s purpose for our lives. 

Responsible 

    I will try to wrap this up quickly, I know we’ve all had a short week with the holiday. Consider this.  In 1 John the Apostle works out some of the more practical applications of concepts found in His Gospel. He reminds us that because Jesus made such a personal investment in His life and message since He called us to discipleship, we are now responsible for living by that truth. 

    In 1 John truth is less an abstract conception than a particular, specific set of beliefs. When we lie about our own sinful nature “the truth is not in us.” To “walk in the darkness” while professing faith in Christ means that we do not “practice the truth.” When I say, “I know Him” but I do not “keep His commandments, I am a liar, and the truth is not in me.” These are but three examples of John’s description of what is clearly a body of “doctrine” or defining “truths” that make up the content of the Christian faith.

    Responsible Christian living is, at least in part, measured by this standard. We are expected not only to know the truth and to acknowledge the truth but to allow it to work from the inside out building within us the nature of Jesus, in whose incarnation we have been given grace and truth.