Truth 101: Something Both Told and Lived

What is truth? ~ Pontius Pilate in John 18:38

Just Answer Truthfully!

It seems that there has always been confusion about “the truth.”  People insist that the truth exists.  One old television show insisted that “the truth is out there.”  In court, we take an oath to tell the truth, as if to say, “I promise that I am telling the truth when I tell you that I will tell the truth!”  Jesus was even asked the question, “What is truth?”  He was asked not by a philosopher or a theologian, but by a politician! Ironic, isn’t it?  But it really happened that way.  Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of the province of Israel, pulled Jesus aside after Jesus was arrested and brought to Pilate to be sentenced to death.  Pilate, after several questions, asked: “What is truth?” (John 18:38)

Jesus, in this scene, had just affirmed Pilate’s previous question, which was: “So, you are a king, then?” (Remember, Jesus was charged with sedition and blasphemy for allegedly claiming to be “King of the Jews.”).  Jesus’ response to Pilate: “What you say is true.  Everyone who is on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37). 

Pilate becomes confused, it seems, since he basically admits in the very next verse that he himself is struggling as to what the truth really is!  He is not alone.  And he is certainly not the first politician to suffer from this kind of confusion.  In fairness, even preacher types wrestle with this from time to time: What really is the truth?

Not Just a Set of Facts

Jesus helps us with this all the time.  The answer to what real truth is will not be found in endless philosophical games or debates, although debates surely have their place.  It is just that in debates, the “truth” is not always the winner. This includes court cases as well.  The winner in such matters is usually the one who is the most convincing.  Jesus experienced this a bit later in the above narrative when the crowd (many of whom had been paid off by the ones who arrested him) yelled “Crucify him!”  They were the loudest, Pilate did not have strong enough interest in the real truth, and Pilate gave in.  The winners of the case, we now know, were not the most truthful voices. 

So, this business of finding the truth can be more complicated than it first appears.  Facts get exchanged, spun toward a particular side, and are interpreted as either the truth or not the truth.  Facts matter, but only if they are facts that are not shaped by a one-sided, self-centered agenda.  To echo Pilate, then: What is truth, anyway?  Jesus’ own words can help us with this.

A Few True Things About Truth

First, truth centers on Jesus: His words and His ways.  Jesus says so Himself: “All who are on the side of truth listen to me.”  That is to say, all who have any interest in the truth listen and look to Jesus.  For Christians, this first step may go something like this: 

• Is what I am saying the kind of representation that Jesus would give of this situation?  
• Are my interpretations and attitude in line with Jesus’ approach to these things?  
• If not, then something is missing: most likely it is the “whole truth” that is missing (or at least part of the truth!). 

More specifically, is my reporting of the facts in harmony not only with the way in which Jesus would see them, but also shared in the same manner as Jesus?  What is His manner?  The Bible indicates that the manner of Jesus in all things is centered in love.  No wonder the Apostle Paul later writes that we are to “speak the truth in love,” so that we may “in all things grow into the maturity of Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). 

What Does That Really Mean?

It seems that based upon these two things – the manner and character of Christ (this whole "speaking the truth in love" approach– that I can simply share facts in a clouded, self-centered, or mean-spirited way and still miss the truth, if I am not interested in the most loving and Christ-like result.  And it seems that if I am claiming to love but I am leaving out key facts (the way those who arrested Jesus did, and the way false witnesses or spin doctors always do), then I am also missing the truth: the whole truth: the truth centered in the person and work of Jesus Himself. 

I am tired of the saturation of half-truths, which according to the Bible’s definition, really are not truths at all. 

When a person is in recovery from addiction, he or she must, according to the best counselors and researchers, take what the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous call a “fearless moral inventory.”  That means they must fearlessly yet lovingly start telling the truth about themselves, their choices, key events in their lives, and even their weaknesses.  Only then can there be any progress toward healing.

Not as Cold and Hard After All

There’s an old George Jones song that is aptly titled. The singer represents a voice that is confronting a man who has betrayed one he loves (it’s a country song… what did you expect?).  The words of the voice of confrontation go like this:

You don’t know who I am / But I know all about you;
I’ve come to talk to you tonight/ About the things I’ve seen you do;
I’ve come to set the record straight/ I’ve come to shine the light on you;
Let me introduce myself / I am the cold, hard truth. (Songwriter: Jamie O’hara)

The thing that scares people about the truth is that when we have hardened ourselves with lies and self-centeredness and the truth confronts us, it seems cold and hard.  It is quite humbling and sometimes even downright embarrassing to face the truth.  But the One who is the truth is not trying to be cold and hard at all.  Instead, He is seeking to make our lives a place where the truth – the love of Christ, the manner of Christ – is free to live. 

This freedom begins with a willingness to ask the question that Pilate asked: What is truth?  But it only comes to full fruition when we, unlike Pilate, are willing to allow the truth to cut away the self-centeredness that stands in the way of the full Truth – the person and work of Christ – to shine through our words and our actions.  The cold, hard truth is that we need more of this loving, transformative truth in all areas of our church and of our world.