What is Truth?
The age-old question that has intrigued mankind for millennia is, “What is truth?”. It has been a source of lively debate in the halls of academia, and it is the very question that Pilate asked Christ just prior to His crucifixion.
Truth simply means that something is factual or true. What is there to debate in something so simple to understand? Truth is like a foundation to build on. One truth coupled with another equals a broader understanding in which to apply that information. And because one plus one always equals two, engineers have a foundation of truth to design with. The more facts they can add to existing data means the more complex and innovative their designs can become. To get the facts wrong means design failure. To get them right means success. Truth works. It is so simple when dealing with the inanimate.
Because it is so simple, one has to wonder why we see so little success in the social engineering of human relations on an interpersonal level? In other words, why can we not get along? Similarly, why were the chief priests and Pharisees seeking to kill the Son of God? Christ answered that in His conversation with Pilate. “Pilate therefore said to Him, ‘Are You a king then?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause, I was born, and for this cause, I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice’” (John 18:37). Christ bore witness of the truth – He had the foundational facts that mankind needed to hear if they wanted to attain eternal life. His accusers and enemies, however, weren’t interested in the truth. Thus, faulty engineering equals design failure — the Son of God would be killed.
What about you and me? Christ bears witness to the truth perpetually. Are we of it? Do we hear it? Speaking to God’s church in Laodicea, Christ said, “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: ‘I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot’” (Revelation 3:14–15). The True witness went on to speak the truth – to give His true critique – of those who were in a lukewarm condition. He spoke to each of the seven churches about their strengths and weaknesses for their personal benefit. And He speaks the truth to each of us who hear Him today.
Hopefully our attitude toward the truth will be the same as King David’s. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23–24). The truth of God applied personally equals spiritual success.
Marshall Stiver
