Reflections on TruthSample

A few years ago it became popular to talk about “my truth”. The idea was that everyone has a truth and that truth was the most important thing that an individual should live by. “You have a truth, I have a truth, everyone has a truth”, was the mantra.

Though it is “true” that we all have a truth as it pertains to our personal lives and that truth is ours and only ours but to suggest that this is the all-important thing to live by is misleading, to say the least. It reduces truth to a very subjective reality meaning all truths are equal. They are not.

Historically the Church has always contended that beyond people’s individual and personal truths, there is an objective truth and that truth is authored by God himself and contained in the scriptures.

In this passage, Jesus is essentially saying two things about His (objective) truth.

1. That His teachings are true and if you follow them then you are a disciple as distinct from simply a believer. Jesus and The Word are synonymous (John 1) and Jesus said, He is THE truth (John 14). In other words, Jesus is truth and his teachings are true. This is objective truth, and it is reliable and dependable, and we can safely build our lives on it.

2. What’s more is that this objective truth sets us free. This is a “spiritual freedom”. The promise is made to every true disciple that they will know the truth, and the truth will make them free. The Jews Jesus was speaking to did not know the truth, and they were in a terrible form of bondage. They were in the bondage of ignorance, error, sin, law, and superstition. Those who truly know the Lord Jesus are delivered from sin; they walk in the light and are led by the Holy Spirit of God.

The good news of the gospel is that we can be set free from everything that has bound us in our pasts and is binding us today.

“Whom the Son sets free is free indeed” (John 8:36) Amen!