Ephesians 4:14

[photopress:Hands_holding_Bible_1.jpg,thumb,right]Every consistent Christian is passionate about the truth. We know this because 2 Thessalonians 2:10 tells us that those who are not Christians “perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved”. I have never met a Christian who does not believe that we ought to be passionate about prayer, passionate about the gospel, and passionate about Jesus – even if we have to admit that often our lives don’t reflect what we say we believe. But I’ve met lots of Christians who regard those who are passionate about the truth with some suspicion, as if they’re not really sure whether it’s right to be passionate about the truth at all. So what evidence do we have from the Bible that tells us that every Christian must be a lover of the truth?

1) If you do not love the truth, you cannot truly love the Saviour

Or to put it another way, every Christian who loves the Saviour, loves the truth. John’s gospel tells us that Jesus is “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14, 17). He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6). His one purpose is “to bear witness to the truth” (18:37). Jesus Christ embodies truth. Therefore a consistent Christian cannot be half-hearted about the truth because then he would be half-hearted about his Saviour. You cannot love the Saviour without loving everything that the Saviour stands for.

2) If you do not love the truth, you cannot truly be filled with the Spirit

It is not just Jesus who exemplifies truth. Three times Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13). These words of Jesus remind us that a vital ministry of the Holy Spirit is to guide the followers of Jesus Christ “into all truth”. Jesus’ words apply in a special way to the Twelve, but they also apply to every Christian (e.g. John 6:45, 1 Corinthians 1:12 13, 1 John 2:27). And almost every time a Christian is described as being filled with the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, it is in fulfilment of these promises of Jesus – we are filled with the Spirit in order that we might testify to Jesus Christ (Acts 2:4, 4:8, 4:31, 7:55, 13:9, Ephesians 5:18 21). A Spirit-filled Christian is a Christian who loves the truth so much, that he must give immediate, verbal, Christ-centred testimony to the truth. You cannot be Spirit-filled unless you love all that which the Spirit of truth bears witness to.

3) If you do not love the truth, you cannot truly worship God the Father

Jesus tells the woman in Samaria, “true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth”, and “those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23 24). In other words, it is not possible to worship God unless you worship Him in truth. I sometimes worry that the more people find out about me, the less that they will like me. I have no such worries about God! His character is such that I am absolutely convinced that the more I discover about God, the more I will love Him. If you love the truth you will want to discover more of the truth, and discovering more of the truth will lead you to discover more about God. This will inevitably and gloriously lead to more fervent worship in spirit and in truth. You cannot truly worship God unless you love the truth about Him.

4) If you do not love the truth, you cannot live a holy life

In John 17, Jesus prays for all believers. An important part of His prayer is that all believers would live holy lives. So in verses 17 and 19 Jesus prays, “Sanctify them in the truth”. So truth is one of the most important means by which God makes us holy. Truth is not simply to be admired, it is to be obeyed (Galatians 5:7, 1 Peter 1:22). And as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:6, the opposite of truth is not simply lies, but wrong-doing. You cannot truly live a holy life unless you love the truth and therefore desire to honour and obey that truth in the way that you live.