The Truth of the Matter (Part 1)

 

What is truth?

When I look at the world around me, I see a generation and society that does not put much stock in truth. In today’s world, someone’s word is meaningless. If you make an agreement with just a handshake, you would be considered a naïve fool. As a general rule, people feel no obligation to carry through with what their mouth has spoken. If you want an example, try selling something on Craigslist or a marketplace and see how many people you go through before someone bothers to show up when they said they were going to. We live in a world where there are no personal consequences for telling lies. Just look at the media or all the politicians in this world. The majority of the masses alive today will not speak the truth if a lie will do.

If we were to take to the streets and conduct a poll of random people, asking them what the definition of truth is and how important it is to their lives, I think we would be shocked at the answers we would receive. The majority of people in our newer generations do not believe “truth” to be an unchanging absolute.     

How have we as a whole fallen into this state? I believe the answer to that question goes back to the degradation of society, the masses becoming increasingly self-centered to the point that in their minds the universe exists to revolve around and please themselves, but that is a topic for another day.

What I want to focus on for now, is the real definition of truth and how important it is for our spiritual lives as believers.

Looking at the biblical definition of the Hebrew word for “truth” we can see these meanings: firmness, sureness, reliableness, stability, continuance, verified, and pillar as in a support, something that you build on. Truth is an unchanging absolute, the facts, and describes the reality of what is.

One of the Hebrew words for truth used in scripture is אמת (Strong’s # 571). An interesting thing about this word is that the letters that make up this word are the first, middle, and last letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet, signifying that the “truth” of a matter has all of the facts: the beginning, middle, and end. Thus it contains the whole story.

Even today, if you are called into a court room to stand as a witness in a case, you have to be sworn in before you can make your statement or be questioned. The oath you have to take is along the lines of, “Do you swear or affirm, under penalty of perjury, that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” The integrity, justice, and fairness of a judgment depends completely on the whole truth of the matter being made known to judges and jurors of said case.

We can start to see the issue and the result of what happens when speaking the truth is not important in the minds of society.

The reality (truth) of any given situation is what people try to base their decisions on. Truth is the foundation upon which everything that lasts must be built. If we try to build upon lies, it will collapse because it is not based on reality. You cannot build a house suspended in air with nothing but wind to hold it up.

What if truth was only as important to God as it is to people today? What if God could change His mind, or decide that He didn’t have to keep His promises to us? What if He was always changing when and how we are to worship Him?

These are all scary thoughts indeed. The truth of the matter is, if we could not have faith and confidence that God cannot lie, and that His plan for us has not and never will change, or that He has not protected His holy Word from corruption… then we are without hope and have no future to look forward to.  “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable” (1 Cor. 15:19).

But we do have hope! We have a promise, “and this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life” (1 John 2:25).

None of us have audibly heard this promise from God though; we have only read it in His Word. Hope in this promise depends completely on our faith in God’s character (that He cannot lie) and that He, through His power, has preserved His uncorrupted word for us. Just as “…When God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself” (Heb. 6:13), so God’s holy and inspired Word verifies itself.

“For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. ¹⁷ Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, ¹⁸ that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. ¹⁹ This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, ²⁰ where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 6:16-20).

Our entire way of life as servants of God is dependent on our faith and belief in His holy Word as the inspired and unchanging truth upon which we build. As the writer of Ps. 119:160 speaking of God says: “The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.”

And also, as Yeshua, Himself, said in prayer to God in John 17:17: "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”

Unfortunately, the value and importance of this seems to be lost on humanity. Instead of building on God’s Word as the foundation and rock, they opt instead to build on lies. Instead of keeping God’s holy days, they worship Satan in the form of the world’s pagan holidays where the main theme is deception and darkness.

As we look at the world around us, it quickly becomes apparent that everything in it is always in a state of change. Friends come and go, our dreams for the future, jobs, fashion, and public opinion, to list a few, are always evolving. Something you thought was solid and reliable today may not still be so in a week, month, or year from now.

Just as Heb. 13:8 says,  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” We quickly start to realize that our God and His Word are the only things we have in our lives that do not change and never will. They are the only things we can truly have confidence in and build upon without reservation.

Since this is the character of our God, it is no surprise then that in Prov. 6:16-19 we are told:  “These six things the LORD hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: ¹⁷ a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, ¹⁹ a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.”

“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:23). This is God’s plan for us and is our promise. But before we can receive His gift of eternal life, we must take on His character. He is in the process of accomplishing this if we cooperate with His plan.

In 2 Cor. 3:18  we read, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

God has given us His holy Word as a guide and instruction manual of not only what He is doing for us, but also what we must do for ourselves in order to be a part of His plan. In the Ten Commandments listed in Ex. 20, in verse 16 He gives us this command, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

We must strive to build the same character as our God. Our word, in all areas of our lives, should be based on truth and unchanging—something people should be able to rely on.  

“LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? ² He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart; ³ he who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; ⁴ in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the LORD; he who swears to his own hurt and does not change; ⁵ he who does not put out his money at usury, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved” (Ps. 15:1-5).

“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8).

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness” (Eph. 6:13-14).

As we strive for this, let’s ask ourselves:

·        Are we being truthful in the image of ourselves that we portray to others?

·        Are we being truthful with our words, even to our own hurt?

·        Are we being honest in our business dealings?

·        Do we try to skew others’ perception of reality in anything?

·        Are we being truthful with ourselves—recognizing our faults and weaknesses?

·        When we study, are we seeking truth or just trying to validate our own opinion?

·        And then of course…are we being truthful with God—honoring Him with not only our lips but also our heart and soul?

The truth of the Matter (Part 2)