Featured What is truth? and How can you know truth?

Nice to make your acquaintence Jack. I understand what you are saying. You are saying we are to love God with all our being and our neighbor as ourselves. That is the principle that should drive our lives and which fulfills the whole Law of God rather than the Phariseeical driven concern about correctness at the expense of mercy, faith and justice.

Therefore truth is not a set of rules. Objectively truth is the Person of God and His will as revealed by His Word while subjectively truth is God and His will manifested in your life so that God is glorified by all that you say and do and others are treated as you would like to be treated.

However, the issue is HOW does one discern what that actually means when it comes to actually expressing it through our lives? What some call "love" may not be true love but only a superficial appearance of love? What other's may call "unchristian" may actually be very "Christian" as God's love is sometimes very "tough" love and abrasive to most of mankind? Some things are perceived as "hard" and unloving when in fact they are very loving when viewed from a proper perspective. For example, sloppy agape would regard God as unloving when he killed Ahio from attempting to stablize and keep the Ark from tipping over and falling off the cart (2 Sam. 6). From the human perspective without proper insight that would be proof of a very harsh and unloving God. So love is not a gut feeling, an emotion, or a warm and cozy feeling. Where does one gain true discernment between real and false expressions of love toward God and man?

The answer again is that objective truth is the Person and Will of God as revealed in the scriptures and subjectively truth is the expression of God and His will revealed in our lives in accordance with the scriptures. Hence, real love is manifested as our life conforms to the Person of God and His Will. The place of God's written Word is essential in this pursuit as without it there is no possible discernment between real love and hatred. Psalm 119 makes this very clear.

The human heart is desperately wicked and very complex and cannot be trusted as a guide to determine what really pleases and displeases God. Truth is not found by looking within. Neither is truth found by public opinion or what may SEEM to be right and loving as appearances can be very deceptive.

Objective truth is the Person of God and His Will as revealed in Scriptures and subjective truth is the Person of God and His Will revealed in our lives according to the scriptures.

I understand that the scriptures cannot replace the Person of God and His revealed will as true love but true love is impossible apart from conformation to the scriptures as the scriptures are the revelation of the true God and His will. So rightly dividing the word of truth is essential for proper understanding and proper application of the Person of God and His will in our own lives. True versus false doctrine must be discerned or we are tossed to and fro (Eph. 4:14) and testing/trying/proving the spirits is only possible by the objective truth of God's Word (Isa. 8:20; 1 Jn. 4:1,6).

There is a body of essential truth that we must defend and exercise discipline toward those brethren who habitually violate and would lead others astray and cause division within the congregations of Christ (2 Thes. 3:6; 1 Tim. 4:1; Jude 3) and obedience to these commands is "tough" love that should be exercised in a spirit of love.

Those who cannot be turned by instruction but persist in false doctrine contrary to "the faith" should be rebuked sharply (Tit. 1:13) and then rejected after the second admonition (Tit. 3:10).

 

We live in a world where good is called evil and evil is called good. We live in a world where "Christian" is a generic term that covers a lot of territory and "truth" is defined any number of ways. We live in world of deception.

Man cannot find truth by looking inward. Our conscience is not reliable nor is our feelings as our hearts can be very deceptive.

Therefore we cannot know truth by any SUBJECTIVE inward dependence upon the Holy Spirit as the spirit of error can be just as a powerful and good FEELING as the Spirit of truth. We cannot depend upon supernatural signs and wonders as they could be "lying" wonders (2 Thes. 2:9).

God provides OBJECTIVE evidence for determining within us the "spirit of truth and the spirit of error" (1 Jn. 4:5-6; Isa. 8:20) as "FEELINGS" or and "sensations" are never dependable.

Truth is the Person of God and His Will as revealed in the Scriptures and if they speak not according to THIS WORD it is because THERE IS NO LIGHT IN THEM. - Isa. 8:20