What Really Matters (2)

Truth matters. Not your own truth – whatever you think or want to be truth – real truth, reality is what matters. In our age of fake news and so many biased sources of information, we may be tempted to join Pilate at the trial of Jesus and say, “What is truth?” (Jn 8:38).

Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (Jn 8:32). But is that realistic? Can we really know the truth? Can we understand it? Can we sort out the garbage, the opinion, and the error and just keep the pure truth? Scripture assures us that we can, but it can take some work.

Understandable. Paul wrote: “When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ” (Ep 3:4 ESV). But understandable doesn’t mean always easy or effortless to find the intended message.

Handle Correctly. Like Timothy, we need to be workers who don’t “…need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Ti 2:15 ESV). There’s a right way and a wrong way, an honest and a dishonest way of using God’s word.

Test Things. We are to “Test all things; hold fast what is good” (1 Th 5:21). Don’t accept things not in the Bible. Don’t blindly follow men. Don’t do it just because it is a tradition. However, don’t reject things without testing them. Only hold to, only believe things, you can see in Scripture that God says are good.

Don’t Twist. Peter says that the Scriptures do contain some things that are hard to understand. He warns that “untaught and unstable people twist [these] to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Pe 3:16). We need to understand difficult Scriptures, but we need to do so with care, not accepting flippant or convenient explanations because they are easy or fit with our preconceived ideas.

Try. Once, Jesus was questioned by His disciples about why He spoke in rather enigmatic parables. “He answered and said to them, Because it has been given to you to know the  mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (Mt 13:11-13). Put simply, parables sorted out the people who wanted to understand and would try, from those who didn’t want to understand enough to try. If we want to understand we’ll really try to understand (and we can). If we don’t want to understand, if we are prejudiced or biased, not wanting to know the truth if it challenges us or requires change – then we won’t really try and we won’t really understand.

If we love the truth we will find and be able to know it in Christ. And it will set us free.                dd