Truth Matters

I love the small group Bible study I am a part of. The discussions are so rich and thought-provoking. With each meeting, we have a “chunk” of scripture we are trying to plow through but rarely make it past one or two verses. This week we got stuck for two hours on “the perfect bond of unity” from Colossians 3:14. It was a magnificent discussion.

At one point, a member of the group, trying to establish a basis for that unity, called out each member’s name and asked, “Issha, what is most important to you?” and “Chad, what is most important to you?” “Alex, what is most important to you?” He continued around the room asking each of us this same question. Every person gave essentially the same answer, saying something about Jesus being their King, or Savior or Lord, until he asked me, “Damon, what is most important to you?”

“Truth,” I said. He paused, briefly, not expecting that answer, and then continued on.

I wasn’t trying to be different, or edgy. I knew what my answer was soon as he asked the question. Truth matters to me, and it matters to God. It matters to Jesus so much that he said, “I AM the truth!”¹ In speaking to the Father, Jesus said, “Your Word IS truth.”² He pleaded with the Father to “Sanctify them [us] in the truth.”²

Truth matters.

After instructing Timothy to pray and intercede on behalf of kings, governors, and all high officials so that we can live lives in peace and with dignity, the Apostle Paul said this:

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
– 1 Timothy 2:3-4, ESV

In saying this, Paul has inexorably linked “truth” with salvation and, in saying it the way he did, he has indicated that “truth” refers to a specific body of doctrine or a specific reality. It is God’s desire that all be saved, and it is God’s desire that all know that truth. What is unmistakable, then, is that, despite the objections of those who say we cannot know truth and untruth, truth is absolutely knowable!

A Short Word Study

Truth, ἀλήθεια to the mind of a first-century, Mediterranean audience refers to the quality or state of being real, genuine, sincere. It is what’s actual, something that has no pretense or deception attached to it. Where the Western mind hears the word “truth” and instantly moves to “factual verifiability,” Paul’s audience thought of sincerity and integrity of the message. To them, truth had more to do with character than with facts.

Etymologically, truth (ἀλήθεια) is devived from λήθε. You can see that right in the word. In Greek, a term is negated by placing an alpha before it. So, for instance, “gamos” is marriage or wedding. Put an alpha before that, agamos, and you have unmarriage, or not married, or without marriage.

Above we have the root, λήθω which means “I conceal,” or “I hide.” I’m keeping something from you, distorting it or concealing it. If we put an alpha in front of that, we are not hiding or concealing. We could even say it is revealed or disclosed. Sometimes, this revealing or disclosing is direct from God.³

Truth in New Testament Usage

The apostle John explicitly ties revelation or disclosure of truth to the Holy Spirit of God.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
– John 16:13, ESV

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
– John 14:26, ESV

Paul told Timothy that, in his capacity as an apostle, he is compelled to “speak the truth,” teaching the Gentiles “in faith and truth,”⁴ in stark contrast to those who (then and today) speak fraudulently, with deceit, and hypocrisy.⁵ They are out of step with godliness, arrogant, conceited, understanding nothing but their own craving for controversy, quarrels, dissension, and greed, all because they are destitute of the truth.⁶

Later in that same letter, Paul would declare to Timothy that the church of the living God (you and me) is a pillar and buttress of the truth. We are advocates for and ministers of what is real! We both believe and know the truth,⁷ and that is what we declare to those sitting in the darkness.

What to Do With Truth

In the second epistle, Paul urges Timothy, and by extension, us, to be workers in the kingdom who have no reason to be ashamed of our labors. Part of that diligence is rightly handling “the word of truth.” The construction in this verse indicates that proper handling of the word of truth is a precise designation of that laborer who is “approved to God.”

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
– 2 Timothy 2:15, ESV

Paul told the churches of Galatia of some whose conduct was not “in step” with the word of truth.⁸ There is a way to handle even truth that is damaging and injurious to those who hear it.

Your translation may read the quote above as “rightly dividing” which more closely holds to the literal rendering. It is literally to “cut straight.” What that means, exactly, is extensively debated, but it seems (to me) to be a reference to cultivation, specifically plowing.

I was born and raised in farming communities in the 1960s, decades before the advent of GPS driven tractors. One who plowed a field knew that you pick a point on the horizon and you drive toward that point. You do this over and over, resulting in straight furrows and a beautifully plowed field. One who fails to do this, has a field with crooked furrows and unplantable gaps in the field.

As the farmer, when he cuts crooked furrows, injures his field, so also the minister of the word, who does not rightly deal with it.
– John Peter Lange, Philip Schaff, and J. J. van Oosterzee⁹

Almost immediately after calling for an attentive handling of the word of truth, Paul speaks of those who have swerved from doing so, destroying the faith of others.¹⁰ Our responsibility, is to kindly and patiently correct them, with gentleness, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of truth.¹¹ Otherwise they will be those who are “ever learning but never able to arrive at a knowledge of truth,¹² or even those who actively oppose truth.¹³

You hold a great treasure when you hold the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Cherish it. Savor it. Guard it. Defend it. Share it with love.

Blessings upon you, my friends.

Victoriously in Christ!

– damon

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1. John 14:6
2. John 17:17
3. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, 1 John 2:27 4. 1 Timothy 2:7
5. 2 Corinthians 11:13
6. 1 Timotny 6:3-5
7. 1 Timothy 4:3
8. Galatians 2:14
9. Lange, J. P. & Schaff, P. & van Oosterzee, J. J. A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: 1 & 2 Timothy.(p. 98). (trans. E. A. Washburn and E. Harwood). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
10. 2 Timothy 2:18
11. 2 Timothy 2:25
12. 2 Timothy 3:7
13. 2 Timothy 3:8-9