The preachers quoted here say truth is found in a Person, Christ, and in what God has said. They describe it as something that can be stated in words, that excludes its opposite, and that is not set by human wishes. They add that it must be lived as well as spoken, and held in balance.
Pilate asked, "What is truth?" (John 18:38), and did not wait for an answer. The Bible's words for truth carry more than accuracy. The Hebrew emeth means firmness and faithfulness;1 the Greek aletheia means what is real and not concealed.2 Truth is what can be relied on.
It begins with God's character. He is "a God of truth and without iniquity" (Deuteronomy 32:4), the "God, that cannot lie" (Titus 1:2). "God is not a man, that he should lie" (Numbers 23:19). Truth is true because God is.
The New Testament identifies truth with Christ. "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (1:17). His promise to disciples is, "If ye continue in my word ... ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (8:31-32).
It is given in words. Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17). "Thy word is true from the beginning" (Psalm 119:160). And the Holy Spirit is "the Spirit of truth", who guides into all truth (John 16:13).
Christian thinkers have drawn the consequence. Francis Schaeffer, facing a culture that treated truth as relative, insisted, "Truth is communicable and it is communicable in verbalized form."3 A claim of that kind excludes its contradiction, and so the gospel cannot be one option among many: "Neither is there salvation in any other" (Acts 4:12).
In Scripture truth is something done as well as known. Those who walk in darkness "do not the truth" (1 John 1:6). John had no greater joy than to hear that his children "walk in truth" (3 John 4). It is to be spoken "in love" (Ephesians 4:15), and to refuse "the love of the truth" is to be lost (2 Thessalonians 2:10).
- Strong's Hebrew 571, ʼemeth: "stability; (figuratively) certainty, truth, trustworthiness".
- Strong's Greek 225, alḗtheia: "truth".
- Francis Schaeffer, "What Is Truth" (sermon).
In their own words
Each line below is quoted exactly from a sermon on this site. Follow the link to hear or read it where it was said.
Truth is not to be found in a system of philosophy, but in a Person--Christ is "the truth;" He reveals God and exposes man.
A.W. Pink
in I Am the Way, Truth Life
Read in context
And truth is what God has said, what God has already done about a given situation.
Manley Beasley
in What Is Truth
Listen at 27:34
Truth is communicable and it is communicable in verbalized form.
Francis Schaeffer
in What Is Truth
Listen at 12:23
Truth is exclusive in that it denies and shuts out the opposite.
Stephen Olford
in Christians Must Perform the Truth - Part 3
Listen at 12:12
Truth is not dictated by men's whimsical notions and desires.
B.H. Clendennen
in (Europe 2008) Session 8 - When Truth Is in the House
Listen at 27:34
Truth is indeed more than what we say; it ought to be what we are.
Art Katz
in (Pdf Book) the Spirit of Truth
Read in context
Truth is like a bird; it cannot fly on one wing.
A.W. Tozer
in Using Both Wings
Read in context
Truth is not only to set others straight, but it's like charity, it must begin at home.
Ernest C. Reisinger
in Mr. Valiant-for-Truth
Listen at 30:53
Truth is such a royal patron that we should embrace it without regard to cost.
A.W. Tozer
in Walking in Truth
Read in context
What Scripture says
- John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life
- John 8:31-32 you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free
- John 17:17 thy word is truth
- Ephesians 4:15 speaking the truth in love
- 3 John 4 no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth
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