John 18 (What is Truth?)

“Jesus responded, ‘You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.’ ‘What is truth?’ Pilate asked.” – John 18:37-38a (NLT)

What is truth? Such a simple question. So simple, in fact, that most people tend to read right through it without so much as a second thought concerning this question. I myself have done this so many times. But today the Lord has highlighted this part of my reading today. What is truth?

For such a simple question, the gravity of it is heavy. Pilate, a leader amongst the Romans, asked this question to Jesus. I am sure that there was a level of sarcasm in this response from Pilate, but the question still remains nonetheless.

This question brings my mind to the present day world that we live in. A world, a society where the individual is told that the truth is whatever you feel it to be in any given moment. It is not absolute, but it is relative to your feelings and circumstances. However you feel in the moment, that is your truth in that time. This is what we are being taught, what is being indoctrinated into the minds and the hearts of every living soul. They’re essentially saying, “2+2 only equals 4 if that is how you feel in the moment. But if you feel that it equals 3, or it equals 5, that is your truth. And because that is your truth, no one can take that from you or question you on it.” O Lord, how far we have fallen! How deep we have gone into the depths of darkness!

The Truth is absolute, but mankind does not want to abide by it. They refuse to submit to the absolute nature of the Truth because their hearts are evil. And at the end of the day, it is always easier to choose to abide in evil than it is to abide in Truth. And this is because our very nature, our fleshly nature, is to do that which is contrary to Truth. This is the power of sin in our lives. That is why Jesus taught us that path of righteousness, the path of Truth, is a hard, narrow road. Only a few people in the whole of the world choose to embark on the hard journey of Truth, which is Jesus.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The only Way to the Father. The only Truth amongst the lies of the world. The only Life that can be found among the walking dead.

And this is why the world is working so hard to tear down any arrow pointing to the Truth. That is why, instead of abiding in the Truth and reality of God’s creation, mankind is saying, “Oh, you feel like a woman even though you were born a man? You’re a woman then.” Yet out of the same mouth, they can’t even define what a woman is. They have no counter for basic, biological truth. So they spew nonsense. They unleash the spirit of confusion and disillusionment, and those who don’t have the Truth fall into the trap without so much as a second thought about it.

But here is the Truth. Here is the reality at hand. Jesus Christ, the Son of the only Living God, is the only Way to Heaven. He is the only One through whom anyone can be saved. His Word is eternal, and it stands as the ultimate, absolute Truth for all eternity. Anything outside of His Truth, His Word, which is Himself, is pure evil and of the devil, leading only to death.

The Truth is that Jesus, the Eternal Word, was with God in the beginning. It was by this Truth and through this Truth that God created all things according to their kind. Male and female. The Truth is quite simple at the end of the day, but in our human minds, we don’t know how to handle simplicities. Our minds cannot comprehend that something so profound is actually the most simple thing in all of life. It is basic fundamentals, yet we view it as if it is rocket science. We have fallen for the same scheme of the enemy that he used on Adam and Eve in the Garden way back in the beginning. And we continue to fall for it. He has no need to change the way he works because it gets us every single time. “Did God really say?” “Is that what God really meant?”

The Truth is offensive. Not because those who speak it speak it with the intent of being offensive. It’s offensive because it shines a light on the depths of every single person’s heart, and reveals the true motives of each individual. And people do not like being seen for who they really are, even though they cry out saying they just want to be seen. Jesus, the Truth, said, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by what I say” (See Matt. 11:6). The Truth is saying that those who are not offended by Him, the Truth, are blessed. They are blessed because they abide in Him, the Truth, rather than abiding in bitterness and offense towards Him.

Dear proclaiming believer, when are you going to wake up to the realization that, if you abide in Jesus, the Truth, then your very existence is going to be offensive to the people of the world? You don’t want to offend people, but the very fact that you live according to the Truth is offensive already. You don’t want to face confrontation, but the very breath you take as a proclaiming believer is confrontational to anyone who does not abide by Truth. Our very lives as believers and followers of Christ, the Truth, offends and confronts those of the world when we truly live according to Truth. So if your concern is not to offend people, are you even truly a believer and follower of Christ? Do you actually abide by the Truth which you claim to believe?

Hear me, I am not saying go looking for a fight. You won’t have to look for the fight, because the fight will automatically find you if you’re abiding in Truth.

So here’s the confronting question for today, straight from the mouth of Pontias Pilate himself: What is truth? And are you living according to it, in full?