Truth

 Truth as a Person,

Today, there seems to be a cloud around what truth is.  As we watch life unfold, it seems clear that humanity is crying out for the truth, and is in search for it. The question is, how do we find truth and what does it look like?  Scripture reveals where to find truth in the following passage.

"Jesus answered, "I am the way the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6, NIV).

"Jesus talked a lot about truth.  Note how often the word occurs in the gospel of John.  When he spoke about truth, Jesus spoke in personal terms.  You will remember that he refused, much to the dismay of many people, particularly the philosophers, to speak of truth in abstraction, as though it existed in itself.  He wanted to relate truth to himself and to his Father in an existential way.  He even went beyond that; he ultimately identified truth completely with himself and his Father.

The temple authorities, troubled by Jesus and wanting to know the truthfulness of his message, challenged him.  He responded, "If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God" (John 7:17).

Jesus thus affirmed the truthfulness of his own teaching in terms of relationship to his Father.  Sometimes we would like to translate that answer into "Anyone who does the truth will certainly know it."  But that is not the way Jesus spoke or thought.  We should never be fooled.  There was no truth for Jesus apart from the Father.  Truth was simply the Father's will.  Thus personal categories are appropriate when we speak of truth because the ultimate categories are all personal.  Ultimately, Jesus is the truth.

If we develop a love affair with the truth and pursue it far enough, we will find the truth.  When we find it, we will have found Jesus and that he is the one we need.  The shortcut to it all is found in his simple words, "Come unto me." Have you come?" (Kinlaw, June 17).

    Kinlaw, Dennis. This Day With the Master: 365 Daily Meditations. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002.