Here’s The Truth . . .

JOHN 17:17

“Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.”

The word “truth” in this verse comes from the Greek word “aletheia” which means “factual”, “a reality” or “real.” And we understand that God’s Word is a reality. But another English equivalent is the word "genuine" - God’s Word is genuine.

Let us look at a few contrasts for a moment. God’s Word is factual as contrasted to man’s word, which is flawed. Man’s word is flawed; some of it being true and some of it being not true.

Man’s word is corrupted by the fact that, even though he may have good intentions, and even though he may be sincere in wanting to tell the truth, his experience just does not support his ability to give us the whole truth.

God sees all things, hears all things, and knows all things. He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and He is eternal, (having neither beginning nor end.

Hebrews 7:3 says,

“Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life …”

He is the sum total of everything, and if He tells us something, it has behind it the weight of every factual and true knowledge that is in Him. His Word, then, is not flawed because it is impossible for God to lie. Thus, God’s Word is factual, as compared to the flawed word of man.

For instance, you do not know everything there is to know about everything. You could never explain to me what makes everything in this universe work as it does, because you do not know all of the facts. But God does. Yet, we tend to think that if man doesn’t know something, or if man doesn’t understand something, it is either wrong or it does not exist. And we even use that flawed line or reasoning in our belief in God and Jesus Christ.

God’s Word is also pure

PSALM 119:140 reads,

“Your word is pure, and Your servant loves it.”

PROVERBS 30:5 reiterates that by saying,

“Every word of God is pure ...”

1 PETER 2:2 substantiates this purity by calling it “unadulterated.”

“Like newborn infants, desire the unadulterated spiritual milk of God.”

Since man’s knowledge is not complete and total, and since it is many times dependent upon our own perspectives, it is considered contaminated and cannot be pure truth, and is oft-times hypocritical in nature. We would be smart to not depend on man’s knowledge for something as important as our eternal life. If our knowledge is flawed, so will our eternal life be flawed. Man’s word might look good, and it might feel very comfortable, but it will never hold up totally to any truth.

An example of how flimsy it is, let us look at Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. The title says it all – it is a “theory.” Yet, man has come to look at it as a fact and it is even taught in many schools as a scientific truth. Yet, there has never been one piece of evidence to even indicate that it might be true.

The diagram we have all seen showing how we evolved through time to be upright humanoids is inaccurate. The man who came up with that diagram even said that he drew it to show what “may have happened.” Yet we teach that as truth, too. Isn’t it obvious that man’s concepts; his reasoning; and his truth are all flawed and cannot be fully trusted?

It is good to understand this because, if we are going to use the Word of God in the right way, we have to believe it, to trust it, and to fully depend upon it. And to do that, we must trust it. Whose word will we use as the evidence on which to base our very lives? If we desire to live by faith, we must be ready to live by God’s Word – as the truth it is.