Reflections on TruthSample

Have you ever been caught in a situation where you felt under pressure to compromise truth? That’s where Pontius Pilate found himself with Jesus on trial before him. Trapped among tangled threads of untruths being spun by zealous Jewish leaders and the sticky lines of Rome’s imperial power plays, Pilate succumbed within this complex web.

The One who is Truth-personified stands before Pilate to say, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Invited to allow truth to shape his life, Pilate vacillates, side-stepping the confrontation with a bold question, “What is truth?” But despite the question, look what Pilate immediately does next: “After he had said this, he went out to the Jews.” Pilate literally turned his back on Jesus, the Truth, to listen instead to those bringing false accusations. Pilate refused to linger to hear the answer to his own question. The result? Injustice – the kind of outcome we must accept when truth becomes a casualty through compromise.

We are all being formed by something. To what extent is truth shaping you? Recently I felt challenged that I scrolled through my social media at breakfast-time, filling my mind with a smorgasbord of opinions, before I had read God’s Word. I resolved that I would view no social media each day until I had first spent time with God, in prayer and in reading his Word. I want to belong to God’s truth and so listening to Jesus is my first daily priority.

Don’t get caught up in a dark web of untruths. What is truth? It’s Jesus, everything he is, and everything he says. When we listen to his voice, we become people who belong to the truth and can be channels for God’s purposes in the world.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank you that you are the Truth. Help me to fashion my life around the practices that keep me close to you, reading your Word and listening for your voice. May I not be influenced by falsehood, but establish me in your truth. Amen.