(Does it really matter?)
I vaguely recall having to testify in a court proceeding concerning an accident, and I believe that witnesses are still required to swear or affirm that they will tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” Questions are asked to hopefully determine whether the witness is truly telling the truth. The object of the trial is to uncover the truth and punish lawbreakers. And yet it seems that often in spiritual things truth is not always the object. The purpose of this study is to raise the question, “Does it really matter?”
Does it matter if what you believe is the truth? Does it matter if the things we do in service to God are based upon the truth? Many seem to think that it really doesn’t matter, or that truth is subjective and thus different for each person. Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Jesus taught a group of the Jews, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). In His prayer in John 17 Jesus said to the Father, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (verse 17). If you believe the Bible, truth matters to God, and should matter to us.
Further proof of the seriousness of “truth” are statements like those found in both John 12 and 2 Thessalonians 2. Jesus said, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak” (John 12:48-50). Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonica, “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10).
All of these passages tell us that truth does indeed matter, and that failure to seek and love the truth will cause us to be lost eternally. Truth matters in everything pertaining to serving God; God’s plan of salvation, all things regarding the church and it’s work and worship, and our daily living for Him. Let it be our daily motto that we seek “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
