The reason that I want to write about the topic of truth is that as a minister of Christ I want to explore how people think.  I think that it’s important that we all understand more about this subject.  I want to know what makes people do the things that they do, but most of all why they believe the things that they believe.  And this also includes myself.

I want to find out what is beneath all the ceremony and pretense that people show, especially when it comes to religious beliefs and forms of worship. 

Of course, I can’t include everything that I know about this subject in a short paper such as this, nor do I know all that there is to know about this subject.  But I am trying to make a beginning and hope that someone who reads this will continue from where I leave off.

I will begin by asking a simple question.

What does Paul mean in I Corinthians 8:1 when he says that knowledge puffs us up?

I think that we get caught up in acquiring knowledge which can give us a false sense of having something that others don’t have.  This gives us an inflated sense of what others think about us and even what we think about ourselves. 

Truth, on the other hand, is not acquired in the same manner as knowledge.  It is more of a surrendering rather than acquiring.

Truth deflates or empties us so that we appear as we really are to others as well as to ourselves.

This is why Jesus and many other NT writers told us to seek after truth rather than after knowledge. 

Of course, during the pursuit of truth we also acquire knowledge, but knowledge must be submissive to truth.  Our goal must be truth and not knowledge alone.

We should even search through the scriptures in this same manner looking for truth rather than knowledge.  This is perfectly consistent with what the scriptures themselves teach us.

In my dealing with cults as well as churches, I found that some have become obsessed with the idea of acquiring knowledge rather than truth.  One sign of being puffed up is shown in the way that they declare their knowledge as “right,” “correct,” or even “true,” especially when it comes to their doctrine and beliefs.

They do this in a variety of ways.  One way is by having representatives of their church vote on a doctrine and declare the results of the election as being authorized by God.  Another way is by having it declared true by a group of elders who have been appointed and given some supernatural power to ordain or proclaim a belief to be divinely inspired.  And there’s a third way where someone claims to be or has been selected as a divine representative of God such as a prophet or an elder.  He has the sole power to pronounce the validity of one doctrine right over another.  His voice is taken to be the voice of God.   

What this actually does is give its members a false sense of confidence and self-assurance as well as boost their individual egos as they congratulate themselves for being smart enough to know which church to belong to and follow.  But the question I have for them all is whether they really have the power to declare what is right or true?

In my experience on this subject many confuse truth with fact.  Facts can be acquired through knowledge, but facts are not the same thing as truth.  Facts are like pieces of a puzzle that need to be assembled together in order to form a complete picture.  It is the complete picture that I am referring to here as truth.  Of course, one can always force pieces to fit a puzzle and come up with a completely different picture—and they certainly do that.

Truth doesn’t inflate our egos but actually deflates it.  It makes us realize how dependent we are upon God since he is the author of truth as he is truth himself.  We might believe that we can declare our beliefs as fact, but we certainly cannot declare them as truth.  Only God can do that.

Truth reveals us as we actually are and not as what we want to appear to be.  It humbles us and brings us into submission.  Anyone who has ever felt the power of truth already knows all of this.  But those who declare themselves as right never allow themselves to discover truth because it would only destroy their self-image and the faith that they have in their own private, self-defined system of truth.  But it seems that people are very comfortable declaring their beliefs as being true. 

Now it stands to reason that to declare anything as true one must first know what truth really is.  And according to Scripture to know what truth is, one must walk in truth.  And this begins with knowing the truth about ourselves.  And that means that we have to see ourselves as we really are.  I think that this is the main reason that people fear the truth.  They are afraid that others will see who they really are beneath all their pretenses and disguises.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TRUTH

I think that it’s important for us to know how people think so that we can avoid not getting drawn into a false understanding of self in exchange for the promise of belonging and being accepted into a certain group.  This is very common because it appeals not only to our need for certainty and our need to validate our beliefs as true, but also to give us a sense of belonging and being accepted by others.   

I believe that it is more important for us to walk in the truth even if we have to walk in it alone.  Because we are truly never really alone.  God is always with us if we walk in truth because God is truth. 

In John 14:6 (KJV) Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.  Did Jesus mean that he lived the truth in purity?  Did he mean that he held nothing back or hid anything about himself?  Did he mean that he was completely transparent and did not put on a show or disguise of any kind for anyone?  And was he not telling us by his example that we ought to do the same thing if we wish to walk in truth?  In a sense, each of us should be able to say I am the truth.  We must allow ourselves to be transparent and open to everyone, especially to ourselves and most of all to God.  We should be able to say I am who I say I am—no more and no less.  What you see is exactly who I am.

It is the nature of God to be truthful.  In the letters of John he tells us that God is truth and there is no deception in him therefore there should be no deception in any of us if we say that we love God and have the nature of God in us.

1 John 1:5-7 (KJV)
5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

In these verses light is used as a reference to truth because truth illuminates what is there rather than hides it.

1 John 3:9-10 (KJV)
⁹ Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.  
¹⁰ In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

These verses refer to the nature of God that remains in us preventing us from sinning.

2 Peter 1:3-4 (KJV)
³ According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
⁴ Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Even Peter understood that we are partakers of the divine nature of God that keeps us from the corruption of the world.

So, in conclusion, I have observed that it is easy for people to declare themselves as having the true doctrine and belonging to the true church or cult.  All this is done simply by giving someone the authority to make this pronouncement, which makes it appear to be true. 

But the only way for a doctrine or a church to be true is if it leads us into a walk of truth with God as God sees it.  It is a walk of truth as we stand before such a divine being who is all powerful and holy and just.  This truth begins by seeing ourselves as he sees us.  And the only way to do this is to see ourselves as we stand before Christ.  For it is his holiness by which truth will be judged and not by any other human being.