What is Truth?
John 1:14; 14: 1–6; 16: 12-14; 18: 37-38
It’s hard see truth when surrounded by much falseness.
What is truth? Pilate may have asked Jesus that question, but countless people before and after Pilate have also asked that question. What is truth? The word, truth, is a slippery word, that’s the truth of the matter. ‘Truth’ is most often used to indicate a correspondence between what is said and reality. It is used to describe the faithfulness to a standard or an account of what has happened. This would be the common usage of the word. It also means something is genuine.
Reports received are assessed on their truth value. I wonder what the Air Force made of these reports made by pilots to the maintenance staff and the replies they received? One might wonder where or what the truth is in these reports. They read like this:
Problem: Left inside main tyre almost needs replacement.
Solution: Almost replaced left inside main tyre.
Problem: Test flight OK, except autoland very rough.
Solution: Autoland not installed on this aircraft.
Problem: The autopilot doesn’t.
Signed off: IT DOES NOW.
Problem: Something loose in cockpit.
Solution: Something tightened in cockpit.
Problem: Evidence of hydraulic leak on right main landing gear.
Solution: Evidence removed.
Problem: DME volume unbelievably loud.
Solution: Volume set to more believable level.
Problem: Dead bugs on windshield.
Solution: Live bugs on order.
Sometimes the truth is a little confusing, if not amusing.
Jesus had said to Pilate, for this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. Jesus’ response to Pilate would have seemed mystifying if not rather silly. Who would listen to this beaten, whipped, half naked victim of political machinations? What truth does this man know that is so important to bear witness to? What would such a man know about truth? Pilate knew what was the truth. To him it was the power of Caesar, the emperor, who made truth in his own image. It was the truth of dominant power over the masses enforced through the great administration of the empire and its legions of soldiers. But things weren’t what they looked like. We know that. We stand on the other side of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and we know what Jesus achieved. It is the truth he witnessed to on that day that we witness to today.
We have reflected on the power of Jesus. Jesus’ self-giving love was the only way that evil’s power could be broken. Jesus confronted the evil with the power of love and love prevailed. Jesus’ love lives on through his followers – people like us. But what is this truth Jesus speaks of?
Our readings tell us a lot about the Truth. In them we see, what we find in the whole Bible, that ‘truth’ is the very being and essence of God. The Bible declares that God is love and we can conclude that God is truth. It does make sense. If God is the Creator of this universe then all things come from God. Nothing exists that is not of God. Therefore as love is found in its complete fullness in God, so it is with truth. God is truth. Truth is part of the nature of God and as Jesus fully reflects God, Jesus also reflects the truth of God. Likewise the Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of truth leading us into all truth. In John’s account of the Gospel John provides us with a deep understanding of the relationship of God the Creator, Jesus the Redeemer and the Spirit of Truth. In these three expressions of God we see how truth resides in God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.
Where else could truth come from? Surely not humans? We have shown by our bad choices that we seek our own interests and that we know little of truth. At best we understand the distorted truth that serves our self-interest.
John wants us to understand this Biblical truth that Jesus comes full of grace and truth [Jn 1:8,14]; that Jesus is the truth [14:6]; and, that the Spirit is the Spirit of Truth [16:13].
Finally, Jesus declares to Pilate that he has come to witness to the Truth. Let’s hear these texts again.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. [1:14]
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [14: 6]
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth … [16:13].
Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?” [18:37,38]
So when we follow Jesus and experience the Spirit we enter into the Truth and become part of it. The Truth is about love, justice, mercy, kindness, faithfulness and loyalty. Our deeds and words express these things and in so doing we practise the truth.
Based on the Bible and Jesus I am defining the truth as –
- Faithfulness: God is faithful. God’s love and mercy is constant. God has not given up on God’s creation. So for us to be truthful is for us to be faithful. Faithfulness always requires another. In the first instance we are to be faithful to God and secondly to others around us – friend and foe. A faithful person is constant, reliable and a lover of others. The faithless person loves themselves more than others and lacks dependability. What else would you expect from others who put themselves first? However place your trust in God who is faithful to us and we become faithful. When we experience God’s faithful love we will begin to believe in ourselves because God believes in us. When that happens we become faithful – constant, reliable, self-controlled loving people. We become true to whom we should truly be – God’s people made in God’s image. Without God’s faithfulness towards us we cannot be faithful to others. Without becoming faithful people we live lives of untruth.
- Authenticity: Authenticity is about genuineness and realness. God is authentic. There is no falsehood in God. The non-authentic person thrives on falsehood. How else can we exist without pretending to be what we are not? We all suffer from the spiritual illness of falsehood, but we also carry the seeds of authenticity, because we are created in the image of God. When the image of God is greatly tarnished by life’s experiences and other’s faithlessness towards us we slip into falsehood. Others faithlessness to us can be very damaging. We end up not believing in others or ourselves. We believe in things that are inauthentic – false. We must over achieve to prove ourselves, or over promote ourselves to be what we are not so that others can accept us. That is what we do. The lack of authenticity begins to hurt us because we turn in on ourselves and believe in the falseness of our world. When we turn to God and accept God’s gracious acceptance of us we will realise that our true worth lies in God alone. When we have to promote ourselves we end up denying God and putting others down. We cannot be real until see ourselves for what we are and realise our lack of authenticity. We cannot be real until we recognise that we are God’s creatures, made in God’s image and that the image of God is tarnished by our self-interest, bad choices and the inauthenticity and unfaithfulness of others.
Humility: We might not think at first of humility as part of truth. But it is. Humility lies deep within the God-head. That is exactly what Jesus did. He humbled himself so he could be with us and show us God’s way. [Phil 2: 5ff] Our humility helps us recognise our short comings and that don’t have all the answers. Humility unmasks us and sets us free. We hide behind our masks. Masking is process where an individual changes or “masks” their natural personality to conform to social pressures, abuse, and/or harassment. Some examples of masking are a single overly dominant temperament, or humor, two incongruent temperaments. Our masks tell the lie that we are true – authentic people – but we are not. Our masks are those pretences and overdone presentations of ourselves. When we trust in the masking of our real selves we give others power over us. We look for their approval. The big problem of other people’s approval is that they are no better than us. They too have to deal with the unfaithfulness and inauthenticity in their lives like we do. Humility helps us recognise our need and then we are free to turn to the Truth – the authentic real Lord of Creation.
God is Truth. This Truth sets us free to be true to ourselves and our destiny with God and each other. Let us pray that God will help us put aside our fears and pretences and come to God in humility and acceptance of God’s faithfulness and love for us.
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Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC: 24/06/2018
/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org
