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What Exactly Is The Truth?

From the scriptures we learn that Pilate asked a similar question on the day that the Pharisees brought Jesus Christ to him to be crucified. We’ve also learned that each person has a different truth that they live by. We know from our own experiences that truth could be distorted to fulfill the needs of those that plot and scheme. There is a truth concerning your friends and again another truth for the government where laws are enacted to regulate the behavior of the masses. Finally there is another truth for those who are seeking God and what life is really all about. While the world’s truth is different for each occasion, God’s truth has a single standard that is universal and absolute in nature.  God’s truth fits every occasion and places limits on our behavior for the common good of everyone. This truth is the way God lives and the approach to life that everyone with a relationship with God will agree is better for everyone concerned.

It has been written those who truly worship the Father will worship him in spirit and truth. Therefore it is important to understand the truth that God accepts and values highly. It’s obvious that those who worship God must know the truth so they can worship in him in a manner that God desire. It’s also obvious that the people of the world are inclined to ignore God and the way he lives.

People who pretend to be Christians often separate religion from their business or work activities by not taking God or God’s ways into their work place. From their mouth they praise God in church, but use his name to curse everything under the sun. They look like Saints in the church, but in the work place they take advantage of their fellow man and become one of them. From this you can deduct that you can honor God with your mouth and abuse men when it is to your advantage. However, God’s eyes are not the only eyes that are focused on your life. If your fellow man can see the mockery of your worship, what do you expect God to see?

Truth is accurately communicating facts and actual events. It is a spoken statement without the intent to deceive or leave a false impression and when left unspoken, truth remains in its dormant stage as an existing fact. When speaking in general terms, truth is a sincere declaration that is verifiable or accepted as true due to your trust in the person who said it. However what is not generally known is that truth is also impartial, won’t take bribes, and has the stability similar to that of a rock that never changes. Truth is the reality behind life with an authentic existence, but you have to stop to examine everything up close to see the truth or you will take the truth for granted.

Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value a man who speaks the truth. Proverbs 16:13

The majority of men understands the value of the truth and when given the choices prefer to live according to the truth. The general public respects the person that is truthful ever his and earns his dignity among his enemies. Ultimately, living according to the truth demands the discipline for a dedicated effort to be true in everything you do.

Life is such that it is impossible to live without friends and you have to trust the information they give you. Everyone demands accurate information from their peers to base their decisions upon. When one looks at the population of the world, no one on the face of the earth can survive without rubbing elbows with another person. Since relationships are based on trust its virtually guaranteed that your friends will insist that you are truthful to keep the relationship in good working order.

Being betrayed by the words of your mouth is difficult when it is filled with truth. Because truth is loyal to fact, speaking the truth will enable you to live without the shame and disgrace of being full of empty words or a liar. When people compare your words to your deeds your words may disagree with how you live. The People who observe your life will see through you, questioning your advice since you live contrary to the advice you give to others. Therefore you must understand that people observe how you live and evaluate your life. Then they relate to you according to how they evaluated your life. How you judge the worth of other people determines whether you want to hug them, be polite by shaking their hand or say hello as you pass by.

 There are as many choices to make, as there are options to choose from. However, the decision you commit to may benefit your life, but harm others. Over time you make the same kind of decisions forming habits and those habitual decisions affected the lives of other people. Those habitual decisions serve as a guide for friends and relatives to decide how things are accomplish by the way you have reacted in the past. Needless to say the outcome of your relations in the past will show the attitudes (good or evil) people expect from you in the future. The need for decisions will always come, but the manner you carry out your choices affects your relationship with God and with other people.

There are people that are indecisive and constantly change their mind while they look for a solution. Some bear a grudge seeking revenge but everyone forms an opinion about the nature of other people by what they do. The average person is more apt to do things that worked in the past than try something new. When planning the next day out in bed people are only concerned with what they need accomplish and more often do not consider how their decisions affect anyone else before implementing them.   We also find that people are so preoccupied with what they are doing that they overlook the person next to them.

Taking a look closer to home, you don’t have to be a Christian to make promises with good intentions that are not kept. When Christians fail to keep their word they were unfaithful to God, to themselves and other people. While their decision was based with good intention, the person expecting you to honor your word now considers you to be unreliable and untrustworthy. Not keeping promises changed the credibility of your character that was thought to be genuine.  The stature of your relations with other people also changes, as you become unfaithful, unreliable and someone you wouldn’t trust as far as you could throw them. Worse of all, not keeping your promises makes you a liar.

Truth is essential to the moral character of God’s children not only for his or her earthly life, but also the heavenly life they hope to obtain. Therefore, it becomes imperative to have a better understanding of the truth so that we may be acceptable to our Father in Heaven. Through expanding the definition for the word - truth - with synonyms we find the characteristics of God and the attributes that he wants his children to develop.

Truth is the quality of being factual and free of deceit or distortion.  Depending on the thesaurus the synonyms for truth are; accuracy, actuality, authenticity, candor, certainty, exactness, fact, fidelity, frankness, genuineness, honesty, integrity, reality, reliability, sincerity, uprightness, veracity, verity and virtue. These synonyms have one thing in common, they are attributes directly related to the personality and character of God. This list of attributes, traits, or abilities is desired and honored by men, but for the same reason the characteristics God wants each of his children to possess.

Having these attributes develops a life of virtue and complete integrity that will be confirmed by those who observe your life. God is concerned about your state of mind and the attitudes you use to make decisions. Eventually you will be judge for your worth when he looks at the deeds of your life. Your deeds reflect the decisions you made and create the facts that show God how you are orientated towards good and evil. These synonyms for truth are characteristics are admired by all and can be developed with a dedicated effort with God’s help. As you grow in your relationship with God, your heavenly father will insist that you develop these characteristics for your well being.

 Truth is a quality of being factual and free of deceit. For the Christian every event in his or her life becomes a deed God will examine and reward accordingly.  The discipline that God applies as his children mature into men and women advocates sound and lasting decisions based on truth.  Just as you and I raise our children to govern their lives by what is true in our eyes, God also teaches his children to see the truth through the consequences of sin.  God knows that every one of our deeds affects the lives of other people. Each event in God’s child comes under scrutiny to improve the decisions you make in the future. God ultimate goal is that you become the image of Christ, the son he was well pleased with. But because of our stubborn human nature the song “God is still working on me” still applies to our lives today. God knows if the truth has any influence over you, you will change, but he also knows that it will take time and discipline to accomplish those goals.

Human behavior is legislated by the laws of the land, but laws do not make people respect or obey them. Unless there is a consequence for violating the law, the law would have little benefit or effect. The behavior of people places a label on the individual that classifies them for the kind of person they are. For example, those who live by God’s law are called Christians and those who do not are called sinners, those who lie are know as liars and those who steal as thieves. However, because of the good and evil nature of men, laws do not always protect those who obey the law. Even when the law has consequences designed for those who violates the law.  On judgment day, everyone who violates God’s law will see the justice of God and will receive a just reward according to his or her deeds.

Deeds expose the true nature of man exclusive to the person who made the decision. Deeds are a physical commitment to the plans you’ve chosen to carry out and a record of possessions owned solely by you.  Ultimately God will examine the nature of your deeds and judge its nature for sin, therefore, you will not be held responsible for the sins that other people commit.

"Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. Luke 17:1

The person who stirs man to sin will not escape the wrath of God. The kings of Israel who worshipped the gods of surrounding nations, gods that were made of wood, stone and metal were told by God’s prophets to stop. When they continued their practices God warned them that the god they worshipped would deliver them out of the disasters that would come on them. The King’s that practiced idolatry made idol worship acceptable to the common person, which spurred Israel to worship false gods and sin against a jealous God. Balaam son of Beor advised the Moabites to intermarry with the Israelites causing Israel to worship the idols of Moab. Those who intermarried and Ballam were put to death for their sin. The person who stirs another man to sin is responsible of conspiracy, for undermining God’s laws through deeds that enticed others to sin against God.

The right standing of man is not based on what is right in your own eyes. To have right standing with the community of men you must agree with the standards of the group. The right standing before God is established with obedience and deeds that agree with God’s way of life. In the long run, having right standing with God will give you right standing within your community and peace of mind knowing that you have done what is right.

Regardless of the nature man has everyone makes their decision based on two things, how they benefit and what believe to be right. Nearly everyone has heard these two questions “what do I get from doing that?” and “what do they want now?” These two questions reveal the desire to protect your self-interests. No one should make a decision without a plan and God has given man a plan within his word called the truth.

For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. 2 Corinthians 13:8

Many have attacked the truth and found themselves on the losing end of the stick. Truth can be trampled upon, suppressed and distorted, but truth cannot be killed or destroyed. Truth can be distorted by telling part of the truth combined with deceit. Truth can be suppressed and smoothed over, hidden in hope that the outcome will never be seen by anyone else. Truth can be driven into the ground when everyone ignores the truth and does what they want to do regardless of the consequences. Truth can be lost like that old softball you are tired of playing with and put away. Truth may get old but like the softball the truth can be taken off the shelf and be used by your children. Like the softball the life of the truth is endless and can be used time and time again. The nature of truth is resilient because truth rebounds quickly and becomes stronger with abuse. We are powerless to do anything against the truth because the truth will stalk your life until it becomes known. Truth when distorted suppressed or trampled into the ground becomes your enemy that will haunt your life and strike back when least expected.  Then its too late and you are on the losing end of the stick.

Truth can be your best friend or it can be ruthless depending on how you use it. While you may try to avoid or neglect the truth, truth is always available to the person who is prudent enough to search for it. Truth is a basic staple of life and without we would never see the really that sustains life. Everything we can smell, see, touch, and hear, the physical things we use during our life on earth present the truth to us in living color. Truth affects what we believe and the decisions we make, but truth will also show its fury when we do things that are contrary to its nature.

The veracity of truth is found in the Christians desire to discover the truth and agree to live by it. Once Christians find the truth, they find ways to conform to it and make the truth a part of their normal routine. They know that whatever they do in word and deed becomes the evidence that God uses to establish the truth about their disposition. For Christians, the truth becomes known through their personal relationship with their heavenly father and his son. Through adhering to their teaching you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:31-32)

We don’t see the word probity used very often even when it pertains to Christian life. Probity speaks of your integrity, the completeness, correctness or righteousness of the individual Christian. It also speaks of a moral purity affecting your day to day life and the decency in which you deal with other people. What it boils down to is a personal respect for other beings and the applying golden rule to serve others in the way you yourself expects to be served.

Everyone has the knowledge of truth even though the truth will vary from one person to the next. However, a personal relationship with anyone demands common grounds that can be agreed upon to establish a behavior accepted by both persons. At home parents discipline their children to obey them, but when we accept Jesus as Lord, God becomes our father who teaches his children how to behave. Both our earthly and heavenly fathers have the authority and responsibility to teach his children to behave properly. When we don’t obey our father we demonstrate that we don’t accept his authority in our lives.

"The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness." 2 Timothy 2:19

Our deeds present the truth about our lives to God because our deeds provide factual evidence about the decisions we made and the quality of our nature to God. In the garden man become like God knowing good and evil when they chose to eat the forbidden fruit. Those who read the Bible learn early on in the book of Genesis God spoke to Cain while tormented by the acceptance of Abel’s sacrifice over his, saying these words.

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Genesis 4:7

God advised Cain to master his thoughts and his intention before it became a decision that he would regret. Without telling Cain that Satan was going to urge him to kill God said, sin is crouching at your door and it desires to rule your mind and life. Its difficult to forewarn men filled with uncontrolled anger with a desire to get even. Despite the warnings God gave to Cain, Cain lured Abel into his field and killed him shortly thereafter.   

Human parents raise their children to make sound decisions to properly survive in this world. Parent’s incorporate into their child’s eyes what is right in the their sight. Our heavenly father trains his Children to do what is right in his eyes. When we listen to God’s plans, we learn about his ways, his desires, his wisdom, his grace, and his love contained within a pattern of truth.  Every facet of truth can be seen in God’s character and his plan to develop your character within a pattern of truth. It is well worth the effort to learn God’s truth and apply his truth to the way you live.

 The Honest To God Truth

 

 

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