"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour"
Exo 20:16 (NIV)
In essence, his message today was a reminder about us as Christians speaking things truthfully. It was a clear message, well thought through and a good reminder. Enough humour to liven things up a litte :) However, I think that due to the sake of time, he didn't go into what THE TRUTH is.
This set me thinking and I spent a bit of time reading into the Bible about what is THE TRUTH and what better verse than to start with than Jn 14:6.
In essence, his message today was a reminder about us as Christians speaking things truthfully. It was a clear message, well thought through and a good reminder. Enough humour to liven things up a litte :) However, I think that due to the sake of time, he didn't go into what THE TRUTH is.
This set me thinking and I spent a bit of time reading into the Bible about what is THE TRUTH and what better verse than to start with than Jn 14:6.
I found out that the Greek word used in John 14:6--"I am the way, the truth, and the life..." is aletheia. This means ‘the truth’. Reading on, aletheia is a derivative of the Greek word, alethes. (in terms of English, think of words like successful and successor and how they’re derived from success ) Alethes means ‘true: not concealing’. Phil 4:8 is one example where alethes is used. From alethes, comes another word—aletheuo, which means, ‘to speak the truth’. Aletheuo is used in verses like Eph 4:15 & Col 1:5.
So, this all looks something like this:
So, this all looks something like this:
Alethes (true: not concealing)
= Aletheia (the truth)
= Aletheuo (to speak the truth)
But that was just the beginning…
I found out that alethes was a derived word itself! And the word which it was derived from is a, the first letter of the Greek alphabet. (haha.. “big” surprise :p). But anyway, ‘a’ itself has its origins in Hebrew (back to the Old Testament) and the meaning of ‘a’? It means ‘the first—alpha’. And example where this is used in the bible is in Rev 1:8—“I am the Alpha and Omega…”
So, at the end of the day, what did I learn? (assuming I’m right in my interpretations… I’ll need to seek help in this as this is my first time going into Greek and Hebrew. If I’m wrong, I’ll send out an apology blog)
Well, searching for THE TRUTH revealed a quite a few dimensions and lessons I could draw.
1) Jesus is God. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. By saying “I am the truth”, Jesus meant to tell the disciples that He is God. The equal to the Yahweh that the Jews worshipped. Jesus was not a messenger of the truth. He IS THE truth.
2) Jesus IS TRUTH. This meant that his whole life and ALL of what He has said, which is captured in the Bible, is truth and is true. Nothing in the Bible is contradictory or false. His main message to Man was that because of Man’s sin, there was absolutely nothing Man could do to be reconciled to God. Freedom from sin could not be from fulfilling the law (being morally upright, being ethical, ect). Freedom from sin lay in Jesus himself—the belief that Jesus is Lord.
3) We are to be truthful in speech. As Christians, we are commanded to be truthful in all that we say (Eph 4:15,25). That is, we must not speak falsely against our neighbour (those around us). And this sourced from the 9th commandment. Our motivation is not to fulfil a commandment, but it’s to encourage each other to be like THE TRUTH—Christ himself.
4) We are to speak of THE TRUTH. As Christians, we’re not just supposed to speak truthfully; we are to speak to others about THE TRUTH; about Jesus himself; about the gospel.
5) We are to live out THE TRUTH. Now, the Holy Spirit lives in us. God lives in us. THE TRUTH lives in us. And we are to live a life exemplifying this truth. And the only way to do this is surrender to the Holy Spirit, bit by bit, day by day. This process is not easy… a life of Truth was not meant to be easy. Jesus Christ himself suffered and we are to suffer for him as well.
To end off, I hope this encourages you as much as it encouraged me:
“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life”
But that was just the beginning…
I found out that alethes was a derived word itself! And the word which it was derived from is a, the first letter of the Greek alphabet. (haha.. “big” surprise :p). But anyway, ‘a’ itself has its origins in Hebrew (back to the Old Testament) and the meaning of ‘a’? It means ‘the first—alpha’. And example where this is used in the bible is in Rev 1:8—“I am the Alpha and Omega…”
So, at the end of the day, what did I learn? (assuming I’m right in my interpretations… I’ll need to seek help in this as this is my first time going into Greek and Hebrew. If I’m wrong, I’ll send out an apology blog)
Well, searching for THE TRUTH revealed a quite a few dimensions and lessons I could draw.
1) Jesus is God. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. By saying “I am the truth”, Jesus meant to tell the disciples that He is God. The equal to the Yahweh that the Jews worshipped. Jesus was not a messenger of the truth. He IS THE truth.
2) Jesus IS TRUTH. This meant that his whole life and ALL of what He has said, which is captured in the Bible, is truth and is true. Nothing in the Bible is contradictory or false. His main message to Man was that because of Man’s sin, there was absolutely nothing Man could do to be reconciled to God. Freedom from sin could not be from fulfilling the law (being morally upright, being ethical, ect). Freedom from sin lay in Jesus himself—the belief that Jesus is Lord.
3) We are to be truthful in speech. As Christians, we are commanded to be truthful in all that we say (Eph 4:15,25). That is, we must not speak falsely against our neighbour (those around us). And this sourced from the 9th commandment. Our motivation is not to fulfil a commandment, but it’s to encourage each other to be like THE TRUTH—Christ himself.
4) We are to speak of THE TRUTH. As Christians, we’re not just supposed to speak truthfully; we are to speak to others about THE TRUTH; about Jesus himself; about the gospel.
5) We are to live out THE TRUTH. Now, the Holy Spirit lives in us. God lives in us. THE TRUTH lives in us. And we are to live a life exemplifying this truth. And the only way to do this is surrender to the Holy Spirit, bit by bit, day by day. This process is not easy… a life of Truth was not meant to be easy. Jesus Christ himself suffered and we are to suffer for him as well.
To end off, I hope this encourages you as much as it encouraged me:
“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life”
1 Jn5:20
3 comments:
I take nothing away from what you have written. It is clear and it is simple.
For myself, truth is nothing more than reality. To speak other than the truth is to deny reality. To say that reality is not so, is an untruth.
How can a person deny a reality?
When you speak of God, of Jesus, I accept that as your reality, your belief, your faith. It is not mine.
If you speak an untruth, then you sin against the teachings of your God and your faith.
If I speak an untruth, I speak against myself. I diminish myself in my own eyes.
That is why, while I do not believe in any God, I can still accept that others have that belief and faith. It is a reality that you have, that I do not. I can recognise and accept it as such. Therefore it would be untrue for me to say your belief is an untruth.
Deep thoughts there probligo... thx for the comment :)
However, what is reality? Is reality the world around us? The sadness, the pain, the joy, the love? The mountains,the seas, the sky? In this world of subjectivity, what is reality?
If you doubt the evidence of your own senses; if you doubt the interpretation provided by your own intellect; what are you as a person?
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