DO YOU BELONG TO THE TRUTH?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.

1 John 3:19-20

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I think most people would say that the truth is important to them.

Frankly, no one likes to be lied to, especially by those they have placed personal trust in, and most everyone has had their confidence in another violated. They can definitely attest to how hurtful and damaging it is after going through this unpleasant experience.

Now, you would think that being lied to would upset a person so much that they would vow to never do it to someone else but the reality is that a majority of people have been less than truthful themselves in their dealing with others, even with having been wronged the same way in the past.

At its core, fibbing is a sin and since all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, then there’s a high probability that people will fail to tell the truth at some time in life.

So what’s the solution to this problem? How can we get to a point where telling lies is far the exception instead of the norm?

We find the answer in this proclamation from Jesus found in the fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel:

“I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.” v.6

Here we learn that the only source of truth is Jesus, the One who is the Truth, the only person who has ever lived a life of perfect truth, sinless in every way.  And so be connected to the Truth, a person needs to believe in Him (Jesus) and then submit themselves to be led toward living as He did, through the power of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.

Need confirmation that this process is valid?

Check out today’s verses again from the third chapter of 1 John:

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything. Vv.19-20

Note here that when a person aligns with Jesus and sets their heart “at rest in His presence” then we can expect that we will feel condemned every time that we consider doing anything sinful to include not telling the truth. This is because “God is greater than our hearts” and “knows everything” about us. This includes every thought, spoken or written word, or action. When we believe in Jesus, our Lord convicts us before we fail and gives us the opportunity to respond in obedience to that conviction. When a Christian does this, then and only then can they step off the path of wickedness and onto the path of righteousness, the path paved by Jesus, the One who is the Way.

Indeed, saving from sin in life and a road to behaving in ways that are always pleasing in the sight of God, can only happen through believing in Christ. He is the Great Liberator, testifying as much when He said this regarding those who would become His disciples by believing in Him as Savior:

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32

And so we come to the question in this message’s title:

Do you belong to the truth?

Only a Christian can answer, “Yes”.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.