Truth and Love

Truth Is In Christ

When we think of truth we often think of "truths," separate from the person of Christ. Someone may say to us, "It doesn't matter what we believe, we just need to love the Lord and each other." This is said in all sincerity, thinking that love should cause us to lay aside doctrines and areas of disagreement, and focus our attention on Jesus. But if pressed on this point, most would agree that we must agree on certain fundamental issues such as the deity of Christ or the fact that salvation is by grace and not of works. On what basis do we identify one truth as necessary and another truth as unnecessary? And how can we separate any area of truth from Jesus Christ when He said that He Himself is truth?

I believe that if we will be honest with the scriptures and with the anointing in our hearts, we will come to the conclusion that no area of truth can be ignored without loss. The natural mind tries to find a place to justify our condition before God, even if we are not able to walk together in truth with our brothers and sisters. But in doing so, we are essentially saying that where we are is where we want to stay. We give no place for God to lift us up, and give us the same mind and judgment in all things. (I Cor. 1:10) Can God speak the same thing to every member? Can He make us one as He is one? If we are all holding fast to the Head (Christ), will we not all hear the same thing? How could it be otherwise? Can we let truth judge us, instead of judging the truth ourselves?

Jesus said that He is the truth. This one statement should answer every question. Truth must relate to Jesus, and if it does not, it is not truth and should be discarded. God has chosen to sum up all things in Christ. When considering an area of truth, the first thing that we should consider is how it relates to Christ. If it does not seem to, then we need to be silent until we see how it does relate, or that it should be rejected altogether. All truth brings us either to the place of life in Christ, or to a fuller expression of that life. Anything else that we may call truth is only ideas of men that may seem good, but have no value to God. God is interested in only one thing: an expression of His Son in us. If we have accepted our calling in Christ Jesus, then we will reject every expression of self, and focus our entire attention on our calling, which is to live His life. (Gal. 2:20)

Although in theory we may accept this view of truth, the difficulty many times is that we do not see how a truth being held before us relates to Jesus and our relationship with Him. In general, the problem is our lack of seeing who Jesus Christ is. When Jesus asked Peter who He was, Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16). Have we taken careful note of what Jesus said in reply? "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (vs. 17,18). Jesus did not say that He would build His church on Peter, but on the revelation of who Christ is. We are totally dependent on God for that revelation, and apart from this beginning, we have no hope of relating truth properly to Jesus Christ. A faulty revelation of who Jesus is will lead us into error in other truths. Every individual truth must be measured against the revelation of who Jesus is. He is the standard.

This is not a place of maturity but a place of beginning. Our revelation of Jesus must grow and expand, but if we are hungry to know God in truth, He will give us a beginning revelation that is true and will set our course properly. Have we let the Holy Spirit reveal to us who Jesus is? Our part is to humble ourselves before God and ask Jesus for the eye salve. He feeds the hungry, and rewards those who ask, seek and knock, knowing that apart from Jesus they can do nothing. Have we done our part? God is faithful to fulfill His word.

Next: Truth Versus Truths