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Absolute Truth, Ancient Greece, Belt of Truth, Bible Study, Gird Your Waist, Holy Spirit, Indwelling Spirit, Love Truth, Philosophers, The Way The Truth The Life, Truth, Whole Armor of God
“Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth…”
“Pilate said to Him, ‘what is truth?’”
What is truth? We can go to dictionaries and find truth’s definition. The world will tell us truth is art or something of the like. We will hear others speak of “your truth” and “my truth” which makes truth subjective. But then, if it is based on feelings, opinions, or emotions which are variable from day to day and even moment to moment, it cannot possibly be truth. There has to be an absolute. We may have different experiences of this absolute therefore our understanding and perspective may differ but there must be that thing that is unchangeable underpinning it all: truth.
Hello Readers and welcome back to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I return to my study on the Whole Armor of God as described in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians with my specific focus on girding our waists with truth and/or the belt of truth. And, what is this truth with which we gird our waists? Standing before Pontius Pilate, Jesus says, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate then asks, “What is truth?” The band Acapella answers this question in their song Standing Right in Front of You: “Pilate asks, ‘what is truth?’ Truth was standing right in front of Him.” Jesus Himself is the truth: the absolute that underpins as well as fills and defines all that is.
What I have just written is the absolute truth. But then, there are many Jesuses taught, just as Jesus Himself warned (See Matthew 24:24). It seems every denomination has their own version of Jesus so how can we know the One we follow and worship is indeed truth? How can we know for certain there even is a real live Jesus Christ and we haven’t merely chosen to follow a truth we have created for ourselves in attempt to make sense of all the chaos? The passage from 1 John 2:27 (which I’ve quoted in previous posts) resonates the answer in my heart: “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.” We know Jesus Christ who is truth by the Holy Spirit.
In my post Knowledge, Superimposed I shared Bible Hub’s definition of gnosis (knowing). The definition includes the words “Gnosis (applied-knowledge) is only as accurate (reliable) as the relationship it derives from.” That has stuck with me: knowledge, in this case of the Truth that is Jesus Christ, is only as accurate and reliable as the relationship it derives from.
As I meditated on this, I had to concede there is some validity to the idea of the subjective “your truth” verses “my truth”. The Sophist philosopher Protagoras would have said personal experience defines truth. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology cites Protagoras’ dictum of “man is the measure of all things” and relates his illustration of a wind seeming warm to one person and cool to another. “It is not necessary to say that one view is true and the other false. Each may be true for the person concerned” (Vol 3, pg. 876) which is a statement with which I can wholeheartedly agree. Just because someone else’s experience differs from mine does not make me right and them wrong.
Plato disagreed with Protagoras on the nature of truth and asserted that truth could not be relative to the individual thinker. He came down on the side of the philosopher Parmenides in his belief that what has the ability to change cannot be the truth. There is the way of truth and the way of seeming or appearance. Change belongs to the material realm-that of mere appearance-and there can be no change in what really exists. Therefore, truth stands in contrast to appearance and to change. This is a Biblical concept: “I am the Lord,” our God says in Malachi 3:6, “I change not.”
The Greeks loved a good debate. I don’t think I would be a good debater because I don’t come down on either side of this argument. I believe both are true and that any seeming dichotomy is reconciled within relationship. There is an absolute truth: Jesus Himself. I, along with every other individual, only understand and express the truth which He is in proportion to the extent, depth, and richness of my/our relationship with Him.
The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology describes the place truth held in the Qumran community. “Entrance into the Qumran community is a conversion to truth and the initiates bind themselves to the precepts of truth by oath. They are now within the sphere of influence of the spirit of truth…’This is the crucial point, for it is in proportion as a man is dominated by this spirit that he loves truth’” (Vol 3, pg. 882).
I considered whether or not to share the above quote because I don’t wish to infer I am in agreement with ones “entrance” into any community. I don’t agree with the idea that any community or denomination or tradition understands truth better than another. And, perhaps “dominated” is a bit harsh. “Relationship” is a better word. It is in proportion as a man or woman has been taught of the Holy Spirit, submitted to His guidance, and entered into relationship with Jesus Christ in and by this same Spirit that he or she loves truth. This is the inheritance of every individual believer and does not belong to any one community or denomination.
I was fascinated to learn that the argument being hashed over in my day-that of truth being relative to the individual-is one that has been hashed over for over 2,000 years now. My Mom quoted Ecclesiastes 1:9 when I was telling her this and I agree: “…there is nothing new under the sun.” The world has nothing new. All of its ways are reiterations of what has come before. We only experience new when we realize we are new creations in Christ.
Jesus Christ is the Truth. And, while our knowing Him does grow, it doesn’t change how much of Him, and In Him the Father, we possess. We are filled with the fullness of God. He does not parcel Himself out to us a bit at a time. We do not earn more of Him by long prayer times and lengthy scripture readings. It is our understanding, experience, and knowledge of Him that grows but His fullness is present to us each moment.
The Truth with which we gird our waists is whole and complete. I hope to look at this in more depth in the upcoming weeks but this the reality I will cling to in the upcoming days. Everything Jesus is and has is mine because of His Spirit dwelling within me. The same is true for each one of you.
May the Spirit of Truth open our eyes for us all to see this is so!
Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982
References
Strong’s Greek: 1108. γνῶσις (gnósis) — a knowing, knowledge (biblehub.com)
Brown, Colin, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Volume 3, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1978, 1986, Pages 876, 882
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