Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'He is our God.' But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. John 8:54-55
Thought for the Day: Truth verses Lies
Most of us don’t want to build our lives around a myth or a lie. Instead, we want to live for something definite and truthful. But Bernard Madoff built his life and his wealth around a lie, and it had disastrous affects for hundreds of people who lost fortunes they placed in his hand. Jim Jones built his life around a lie, amassing hundreds of followers who believed in his prophetic messages of the end times, only to follow him into pointless deaths at his hand. Adolf Hitler built his life around a lie, taking a nation with him into a world war that took the lives of millions of children, women, and men. Eventually he ended his deceitful life at his own hand.
Lies are terrible things to build our lives around. Lies destroy marriages and families, companies and clients, countries and citizens, churches and members, institutions and individuals. They are vicious, insidious, and ever present. Yet, they are not known to be lies until they are exposed for the sham they are by the truth. Truth is vital in knowing what is a lie.
Jesus called men and women to follow him and build their lives around him, trusting in him and in his truthful teachings about God, humanity, and himself. The New Testament records these events and explains their relevance. Speaking to his detractors in the first century, Jesus said that Satan, the devil, is a liar and the father of lies. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him (John 8:44). But you, Jesus said to them, seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God (v.40). What prompted this highly charged exchanged between Jesus and some of his followers? Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, as recorded in John 8:31-32, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They responded to Jesus that they were enslaved to no one, that they did not need to be rescued, that they were descendants of Abraham and born from a pure line.
Were the people who came out to hear Jesus looking for truth or merely comfort? In Mere Christianity C. S. Lewis wrote, If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: If you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth—only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair. Lewis describes the pursuit of comfort as soft soap because you cannot hold on to or use it. Truth is useful! Truth is relevant! Why? Because it is relevant to daily life and relevant to eternal life.
One follower of Jesus who cared deeply about the relevance of truth to daily and eternal life was the Apostle Paul. Writing to the Christians in Thessalonica, he said that people are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. He then encouraged them saying, But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10 and 13). Truth is vitally important because it is a matter of life and death. Truth commends itself. It is coherent and credible. Passionate followers of Jesus are committed to knowing and telling the truth about God and humanity, exposing the poverty of non-Christian understandings of God and humanity, while inviting non-believers into this truth of Jesus.
During Lent, we are going to look at Christian truth in an age when many question if there is objective and absolute truth, in an age when individuals have become self-arbiters of truth, in an age when many churches do not teach Christian truth. Tune out these voices for a time and consider there is divine truth that God reveals to us. Come and see if the Lord himself will open your eyes to the truth, to the deep truths he wants you to know.
Self-examination, repentance, prayer, and worship:
Before you pray, take some time to reflect on an issue in your life that concerns you. Perhaps there is one you need God’s wisdom to help resolve. Ask the Lord to speak to you and spend some time in silence listening to him. Then pray a prayer like the following:
O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, guiding us into all truth, and that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord,. Amen.
Study: John 1:19-34, The Testimony of John the Baptist
19And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." 21And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." 22So they said to him, "Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" 23He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said."
24(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25They asked him, "Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" 26John answered them, "I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." 28These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.' 31I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel." 32And John bore witness: "I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God."
Reflection Questions:
1) How did John know that Jesus is “the Lamb of God”?
2) What does it mean that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit?
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