Truth. That word getting thrown around like wildfire lately. Twisted on all sides, for all purposes.
Let’s clear the smoke a bit, wipe away the mire, breath deeply, and be refreshed — because Truth is a balm, not a bomb.
Disordered and weaponized it becomes something no longer itself, spreading and infecting all it touches (1 Cor. 5:6-8), but sought after like the costly pearl and the oft-forgotten treasure it is, kept intact, not an atom in the cosmos is immune to its ability to enliven and heal (Matt. 13:31-33).
- Truth is not facts, something to be voted on, a thing one can censor or own (John 14:6).
- Truth is walked in, not won; clung to, not fought for. It is freely offered, freely given, and then lived. It’ll look more like worship than war (John 4:23-24; 2 John 1:4).
- Truth is not something we speak so others will listen to us, it’s something we “become of” so we may hear the voice of Christ (John 18:37).⠀
- Truth is not something to win arguments or prove points with, it’s something that gives life and sets people free (John 8:32).⠀
- Truth overflows from its source, reflects its source, glorifies its source, leads back to its source (John 16:13).⠀
- Truth is for every class, color, creed, and party (Acts 10:35).⠀
- Truth is something Love rejoices in, not something Anger throws (1 Cor. 13:6; Eph. 4:15).
- Truth is something we “belong to.” A belonging that can be identified in ourselves and others because it’s woven with right actions and hearts at rest in their Maker’s presence (1 John 3:18-19). Anyone can say something that is true, but severed from its roots, it will wither, die.⠀
- Truth inaccurately handled or wrongly offered (“the wrangling of words”) is birthed of this world. It becomes useless babble, leading its hearers to ruin rather than life, spreading like cancer. To present truth rightly is a solemn charge, to do so rightly is a holy and pleasing offering to God (2 Tim. 2:15).
- Truth is not a political platform or the possession of any man-made institution or denomination, it’s the living God. The foundation of his Church who is commissioned to carry his unity, truth, goodness, and beauty to every inch of our world (1 Tim. 3:15).⠀
- Jesus flipped tables only because he embodied Truth. He flipped what was hindering people from that Truth, then stuck around to heal, feed, and lead them there (Mark 11).
- The world, like Pilate, is asking: “What is truth?” (John 18:38). They are fearful, weary, angry, and hopeless. But we’ve been handed the reason we need never fear. We’ve been offered unmitigated rest and given the Spirit of peace. We have lasting hope because we know Truth, and only by embodying that truth, through the work of the Spirit, will we be offering anyone anything worth taking—something that can feed, heal, change, and last.⠀
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- So while the world argues about current events, let us be people who walk and live the narrow, yet beautiful way of Truth.
