What is Truth?

What is Truth?

What is. That is the answer to the question. Truth is what is. The same goes, of course, for reality. It is what is. Truth and reality are exact synonyms. They do not merely hint at each other, they are each other. What is real is truth, and vice versa. 

Truth is what is. It is not what one believes or wants to believe. It is simply what is. It is not determined by consensus or debate. It just is. It is whether one wants it or not. It is whether one presents it as such or not. It is by itself and needs the consent of no one. It is both self-existing and self-propagating. Truth is and shall continue to be just because it is.  

Truth is honest. It is open, it is transparent. It never presents itself to be other than what it is. It never hides itself or any aspect of itself. It shows itself with clarity and in a forthright manner. It is real; it is reality. 

Many people evade the truth, at least as much of it as makes them uncomfortable. Should that which is opposite of their desires be proclaimed they will immediately dismiss it. At times they will offer excuses why the truth cannot be applied to their situation, as if truth should give special consideration to “special” situations. At other times they will quite well deny the existence of a particular truth or of truth itself. In the latter case they defeat their own argument by even making it. To make a statement assumes the existence of truth. In the former case, their denial is nothing but an obvious, pretentious evading of their living outside the ream of truth.

People also keep hidden what they do not want others to know. They fear exposure or openness, for they have faults and outright lack integrity. It is, as Shakespeare said,    

When we have our naked frailties hid,

That suffer in exposure.

All such hiding is an evasion of truth. How well Thomas Fuller put it,

Craft must have clothes, but truth loves to go naked.

Those who have nothing to hide, don’t. It is only those who live outside truth who put on masks and aires. In fact, those who live uprightly welcome investigation. What have they to fear? They will only be proven to be true, and such cannot be derided.

The Lord Jesus Christ depicted it well,

           This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the

           darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

The Light refers to the Lord Himself, but also truth, for He is the embodiment of truth. He exposed the falsity of mankind. Hence, they did not come to Him lest He and His teachings should expose them. 

           For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that 

           his deeds will be exposed. (John 3:20)

They loved the darkness--a lack of truth and a covering--for their deeds were evil. 

But the real shame is when people hide the truth about themselves from themselves. Such is the height of hypocrisy. They lie about themselves to themselves and then proceed to believe their own lie. They attempt to live in a world that is not real in order to placate their evasion of that which they know is real. They falsify reality for their own comfort. They ought to remember the true rhyme,

           What a tangled web we weave

           When first we practice to deceive

And what an entanglement they have gotten themselves into!
Falsity begets falsity, and continues to bear until one’s world is full of its children. Here truth and goodness can find no place. A sign is placed on the door of such a one’s heart,

NO TRUTH ALLOWED!

The door is bolted shut and the the windows covered lest the light of truth should come in and the filth of their hearts be discovered. 

Truth is what is. But how seldom it is welcome! Still, it is. Live it and love it. It is your best friend and most essential commodity.

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Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright ©1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

The Temptation in the Wilderness

Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1-12, 13, and Luke 4:1-13 give the account of Jesus' temptation by Satan in the wilderness. Matthew and Luke give full accounts while  Mark merely mentions the occasion. I suppose I have never given much thought as to why Jesus was tempted previous to His ministry until this morning, at least not that I can remember (and I have forgotten much). We know the baptism of Jesus was previous to this event, that being the precursor to His ministry. One must first publicly confess His alignment with God on His terms, according to His truth before he can serve Him in any meaningful way. But such public confession is not enough. He must also be tested to see if his heart and mind are really sold out to God. Such was the reason for the temptation. Should one not pass such a simplistic test he has no cause to continue in the venue of public ministry, of representation of God. Unfaithful ambassadors are not ambassadors. Should one not be thoroughly consumed with that bulldogish, Jacobian "I'll not let you go" determination he cannot serve the Master of the universe. Failure in temptation is letting God go. One cannot hold on to Him and sin. One cannot fulfill an allegiance proclaimed and not continue in act, thought and deed in accord with that proclaimed allegiance. "You say it, now let me see it," says God. And how does He try and perfect His servant? By the allowance of direct solicitations to sin and heightened (sometimes greatly heightened) trials of normal life. When the devil comes or when life goes kaput, do you continue on or complain? Do you move on in God's work or move away from it? How quickly we are moved away from God by failure in our testings and temptations! Sins, complaints and cessations are nothing but "I quit"'s. Jesus was serious. Are you? He didn't quit or give in to the slightest, not even for a moment entertaining the thought. Do you? Hold fast. Be true.