Seek TruthSample

Your truth = The truth?

The other day I studied every appearance of the word truth in the Bible. In my English translation, the word showed up 137 separate times. The question I wanted to answer, however, was how often truth was defined as “the truth” and how often it was described as “my/your truth.” In other words, how did the inspired writers of the Bible think about the concept of truth?

The results were fascinating. Out of the 137 uses of truth, 99 of them had the word the before them. “The truth” was the most common way, by far, for the Bible to talk about the concept. What about “my truth”? From Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, that phrase showed up . . . 0 times. Never. Not once.

What about “your truth”? That combination actually did show up three separate times, which might lead some to think that truth could be subjective and personal. However, all three of those times were when the Bible’s authors were speaking directly to God himself! In other words, those three “your truth’s” were actually another way of saying “the truth.”

The point of this research is that the Holy Spirit wants you to have a sure and certain source of truth. He never wants you to guess about good and evil or wonder about what’s right and what’s wrong. When it comes to God, especially his love for you and grace toward you, he wants you to know the truth. This is why Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).

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