GodReflection: Power Words

“In human life the truth is something foreign, something unusual, something exceptional. Whenever the truth is spoken somewhere, it is as if something quite unexpected and dramatic breaks into our life. It is not unusual when someone trumpets in our ears that we are now going to hear the whole truth. But talking about the truth is still a long way from real truth.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Politicians, pundits, and ordinary people paint lies with a veneer of truth. A news cast can fall into bias interpretation rather than a concise report of truth.  From church pulpits, preachers—like the rest of us—may declare truth that in reality is opinion.

If truth is to be a power word for my walk through this life, how can I identify it?

Truth had only one dimension during my first years as a follower of Jesus. My simplistic definition of truth was right and wrong.

Later, I discovered two basic fallacies to my approach.

The most obvious was that we humans can’t agree on the rights and the wrongs. We churchgoers can agree on the Ten Commandments with the exception of Sabbath keeping. However, when we read Paul’s letters and John’s Revelation of Jesus, confusion and disagreement goes wild.

My second mistake was the fact that I looked for truth in the wrong place. Stay with me on this one. Here I run the risk of being misunderstood. I looked for truth by rule identification.

It took awhile for me to connect with the idea that Jesus defines truth as himself.

Jesus declared, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

I notice as I read the New Testament that almost every place where a writer places the word truth, the word Jesus would fit as a synonym.

The first place I should look for truth is in the life and teachings of Jesus. Whatever truth I discover it must align with Jesus. That means I no longer look for rules of right and wrong—rather I look to Jesus as my primary filter for right and wrong. If my rules stand contrary to the heart and teaching of Jesus then my rules are wrong.

He is the truth that sets us free.

It is in the Gospels where I can find the heart of Jesus. There I witness Jesus living truth. He is genuine as he relates to the needs of those he encounters. He demonstrates the truth of God’s nature through love, compassion, and the accuracy of his teaching. He shines light on false assumption of the religious that block people from God.

When I understand truth is Jesus I then possess the word truth as a powerful light to guide me home.

Stay tuned.

Dr. Gary J. Sorrells – A GodReflection on Truth as a Power Word.

Gary@GodReflection.org