So What Is Truth?

“Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you” (1 Samuel 12:24).

“Fear” and “serve” are two words that mankind does not like. They seem to rub Americans particularly in the wrong direction. You know, land of the free, home of the brave, liberty for all, don’t tread on me, Give me liberty or give me death-Freedom!

Fear is usually a manhood check. The less the fear we have in any given situation then the greater the “man”. At least that’s what Hollywood would lead us to believe. But there are some 150 verses throughout the Bible that say we are to fear the Lord so it must be important.

To fear the Lord is simply to be in awe of Him and His being. It is to revere and respect who and what He is, and to act in accordance to His supremacy.

Our servitude to God is always voluntary. Nothing is forced.

God is the truth. This means that God, no matter how spiritual or mystical He is, God is also reality and fact. Simply put, God “IS” and everything else is a by-product of that state and condition.

God is also always true. He “is”, He is faithful and pure. There is no variance or inconsistency. God is the great, “I AM”.

We are to “serve him in truth with all your heart”. How do we serve God in “truth”? What is truth? This question is not as easy to answer as some might think. Pontius Pilate is a good example.

“Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all” (John 18: 37-38).

It is very interesting to note that Jesus said that everyone that is of the truth hears His voice and immediately after Christ uttered those words Pilate asks, “What is truth?”

Pilate was not of the truth so he couldn’t hear the truth and he certainly could not recognize it while staring directly into the face of truth in Jesus Christ.

So what is truth? We all know that Jesus said that He was the way, the truth and the life. By definition the Hebrews thought of truth in context of faithfulness and reliability.

The Greek idea and ideal of truth is rooted and founded in the genuine, the unconcealed or what is made manifest. This brings in the significance of light and darkness. Light exposes, reveals and makes known.

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:5-10).

“Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake” (1 John 2:8-12).

Back to the question, what is truth? Really, so far what we have had is truth described to us as light, something genuine, faithful or something made manifest.

Maybe the following from Thomas Aquinas better defines truth.

“And since God is the first intellect and the first intelligible, the truth of any given intellect must be measured by the truth of His intellect-if, as the Philosopher (Aristotle) teaches, each thing is measured by that which is first in its genus. The divine truth, therefore is the first, highest, and most perfect truth.” (Thomas Aquinas/Summa Contra Gentiles/Chapter 62).

So we’ve come full circle. God is truth and all truth is measured against the standard of God. But how do we err with God’s truth?

“The intellect does not err in the case of first principles; it errs at times in the case of conclusions at which it arrives by reasoning from first principles. But the divine intellect, as we have shown above, is not ratiocinative or discursive. Therefore, there cannot be falsity or deception in it.” (Thomas Aquinas/Summa Contra Gentiles/Chapter 61).

It’s as simple as that. God is truth. Everything else is compared to the God standard.

“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:3-5).

All of this passage from John relates to truth. God is truth. It is His essence. It is the light that shines, shows and reveals what is manifest and genuine. It is the way and the life itself.

Bill Hitchcock