Do you ever wonder, as I do, how people can be so determined to believe in relative truth yet want every speech by leaders to be “fact-checked”? When I asked a friend, she reminded me that these are the folks who want what they want and are only concerned with themselves. Relative truth allows its devotees to say that whatever they believe is true for them, and whatever you choose to believe is true for you. It’s time for some fact-checking. Truth doesn’t work that way, although choices, desires, and values do. Our world has tremendous ways of fact-checking in forensic accounting and restaurant reviews, as well as identifying theft, mortgage scams, all kinds of financial scams, fake charities, and plagiarism. After all, who wants a bogus $20 bill except for its creator or a car that’s been in multiple accidents and is being sold as if it’s never been in any? If we are so concerned with the truth about that which affects us, how much more is God concerned with the truth, especially as it relates to a relationship with Christ? “Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ (John 8:31-32) “This verse is frequently quoted out of context, but…Jesus is only talking about one way to know the truth [about God and salvation], and that is by continuing to believe and obey his word, [which sets us free] from the guilt and enslaving power of sinful patterns of conduct.” (1) The gospel purifies our hearts and minds to accept reality and gives us the power to know and reject what is false so that we can avoid becoming counterfeit Christians. The more we meditate on the gospel, the greater will be our recognition of the truth, purity of heart, peace, gentleness, and desire to be true lovers of God. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27)
Paul’s Exhortation to Timothy
“Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil.” (2 Timothy 2:22-26) “Although the fall brought about a destructive effect on human reason, salvation brings the ability to begin to see reality. Paul’s regular reference to the false teachers’ lack of knowledge and understanding points to the fact that they fail to grasp what is really true.” (2) The Lord taught his Old Testament people about purity through the temple’s pure gold fixtures and laws for cleansing. “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold…You shall make a lampstand of pure gold.” (Exodus 25:17a, 31a) “The instructions for the sanctuary begin with the ark, which is God’s throne, from where he will meet and speak with Moses…The mercy seat and the two cherubim are to be made of gold and fashioned as one piece, which will act as the cover for the ark…it is from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that the Lord will speak to Moses.” (3). In the Psalms, we read, “With the purified you show yourself pure.” (18:26) And Jesus started teaching his disciples about purity at the beginning of his ministry. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) But God’s people strayed and continued to stray. So Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: “I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3) James also reminded the believers in the diaspora: “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” (James 3:17) God has given us all we need for discernment of what is pure through the gospel. Christ’s gospel purifies our hearts and minds to accept reality and provides us with the power to know and reject what is false. Every devotion this year is intended to help us meditate on the gospel for greater discernment, to be better lovers of God.
Being False
God isn’t only interested in our discernment but wants us to be completely true disciples. We return to the OT, where the writer of 2 Kings reports: “The people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God…the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right…They went after false idols and became false.” (17:7, 12, 15) The people became false like their idols. Job understood this and knew what would lead to becoming false. “If I have made gold my trust or called fine gold my confidence, if I have rejoiced because my wealth was abundant or because my hand had found much, if I have looked at the sun when it shone, or the moon moving in splendor, and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth has kissed my hand, this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I would have been false to God above.” (Job 31:24-28) In the NT, Luke reports on one event in Philippi: “As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.’ And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.” (Acts 16:16-18) “Paul’s exorcism of the slave girl’s demon is a display of the gospel’s power. By this power Paul recognized the work of a demon in the slave girl and commanded it to leave her, which it did. Jesus and the gospel broke into the slave girl’s life and she was transformed. The words of the fortune-telling girl were true in a formal sense, but Paul was greatly annoyed, probably because he did not want it to appear that she was his partner in the gospel.” (4)
These Last Days
These events and truths weren’t just for God’s people in the past. We need to focus on the truth about God and our present reality as much, if not more, than they did. “Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5) “As Acts 2:17 indicates, ‘the last days’ began with the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. Thus, Paul’s prediction of times of difficulty that will occur in ‘the last days’ is already beginning to be fulfilled, even in the present situation…[Paul’s remark of the gospel’s] Power means the present, effective working of God in and through believers’ lives…In 2 Tim. 1:7, Paul linked ‘power’ to the presence of the Holy Spirit, and this power enabled perseverance through suffering and faithful defense of the gospel. The people referenced in 3:1–9 claim to know God, but their lives are devoid of the work of the Spirit, which would have resulted in holiness, perseverance, and effectiveness in advancing God’s kingdom. Avoid such people—This is the only command in vv. 1–9…the point…is to seek the repentance of such people.” (5) What makes the false teachers so dangerous is that they appear to be Christians. Jesus said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.” (Matthew 7:15-18) (6) A gospel-centered life is like the good tree that bears good fruit. Through Christ, we can accept the reality of life here today and have the power to discern and reject what is false. Meditation on the gospel leads us to greater recognition of real truth and fulfills our desire to be true lovers of God. “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22)
Related Scripture: Proverbs 6:16-19; Zechariah 8:17; Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 1:6-7; 2:5, 16; 1 Peter 3:15; Revelation 15:6.
Notes:
1. English Standard Version Study Bible Notes, John 8:31, (digital edition), Crossway, 2008.
2. ESV Study Bible Notes, 2 Timothy 2:22-26, Ibid.
3. ESV Study Bible Notes, Exodus 25:10-22, Ibid.
4. ESV Study Bible Notes, Acts 16:16-18, Ibid.
5. ESV Study Bible Notes, 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Ibid.
6. The Reformation Study Bible, 2 Timothy 3:5, Reformation Trust Publishing (Ligonier
7. Ministries), Sanford, Fl., 2015.
September 5, 2024
Divine Wisdom for Daily Living by Joanne Colvin 