In preparing for the Bible study on 1 John 2:18-27, I am inevitably spending a good deal of time meditating on truth and lies. John tells us ‘all of you know the truth’ (1 John 2:20) and ‘no lie comes from the truth.’ (1 John 2:21) Quite often, I think of Pilate’s question (‘What is truth?’ John 18:38) and try to fathom how we can discern and know truth in a society which scorns the idea of absolute truth.
God’s Word reveals truth to us. It defines truth and offers a framework of truth. We need an objective standard which will not change or we will be ‘tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.’ (Eph 4:14) Truth once revealed corrects our thinking and challenges us. There is always, at some point, a battle between truths and lies, for we cannot (if we are to remain sane) hold truth and lies simultaneously: one has to have supremacy.
Truth is insistent and unchanging. Lies are like shapeshifters, assuming any shape possible to deceive (the devil can appear as a roaring lion or as an angel of light…) Truth remains obdurate and obstinate. It pierces us like a sword (Heb 4:12), cutting through defences, leaving us gasping for breath. (The Message version of this verse likens it to a surgeon’s scalpel, which cuts through layers of flesh to expose what must be removed or healed.) It is rather like a wonder cleaning agent, which can be left to work on the grimiest of surfaces and then we simply wipe them clean without all the elbow grease of scrubbing (which could be likened to our own self-righteousness.)
Truth has power of its own which is not always remarkable in form but which works quietly and unobtrusively in people’s lives. It is rather like the dissolving agents in detergents which have to be left for a period of time to do their work before any transformation becomes visible. We need to trust in the transforming power of truth to set us free and to do the work which God intends it to do. For ‘as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.’ (Is 55:10-11)