What Is Truth?

 Can you tell truth from an illusion?

It seems simple enough, most times. Like the picture above. At first glance it seems straightforward. The image of a tree is being reflected on the water. But look closer, and you start to see some issues. The sky doesn't look quite right. The tree is distorted. The top half of the picture is out of focus, or something.

A more careful inspection reveals people sitting on the underside of the bridge, upside down. At that moment, it all makes sense. The picture is inverted, with the reflection on top, and the original underneath. Pretty clever, really. Without the people it would be even harder to realize the truth.

Our world is like that today

On so many issues, in so many ways, a distorted version of reality is being presented to us as truth. Another way to say this is that truth is being perverted--very effectively. So effectively that those perversions are now widely accepted as being in fact true and truth itself is seen as the perverse ideology of a misguided minority.

Our world is upside down.

God's instructions, such as Love one another (John 13:34); Judge not, lest ye be judged (Matthew 7:1) ; and Live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18), are taken out of context of His other commands, such as Be holy, because I am holy (I Peter 1:16 and Leviticus 11:44, 45); Hate what is evil (Romans 12:9); and Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character (I Corinthians 15:33).

All of these are Biblical. All are true and truth. The illusion is that they can be separated and therefore applied separately. That's what the world would have you believe.

What is truth?

That's the question Pilate asked Jesus when Jesus told him, "Everyone on the side of truth listens to me" (John 18:37, 38). So what is truth?

Jesus is the truth. God is the truth. In I John 4:2,3 John tells us, "This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God." A couple verses later, in verse 6, John explains further when he says, "We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood." 

What is truth? It is what God says it is. How do you know what truth is? You know God. You listen to Him. You understand what John means in I John 4:1 when he warns us, "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (I John 4:1). To know truth, you have to know God.

Test what you see, what you hear, what you think against what God says. Ask Him to help you discern truth from lies. God is the truth--He will never mislead you.

As for the world?

Look at the picture above again.

That's the world's version of truth.