The Truth

Ephesians 4:21 “if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus”

We speak a lot about “truth” in Christianity and the emphasis is a lot towards the truth. But, almost all of us are in perfect ignorance on what truth all these great verses refer to. This meditation would focus on this particular truth.

This verse clearly tells us that the owner or provider of this truth is Jesus Christ himself. It did not start from Paul or any other person. The whole bible is based on this truth only. Reading verses 17 to 24, we would find that the ignorance is the culprit that has led many towards sin and darkness. The truth brings forth a new person. This revelation of truth should be the actual reason for salvation, baptism, new birth and every other event we come through as our initial commitment towards God.

A straight direction for us to move in this understanding is John 14:6 where Jesus says that “I am the way, the truth and the life”. This means that Jesus Himself is the truth. We can also say that every other God, doctrine or even people are just fakes and Jesus himself is the truth. But, we cannot conclude our search here. Of course, it is Jesus and we should end our search, but we need the revelation on how Jesus is the truth so that we would be transformed.

The context of this verse is when Jesus has just finished the last supper, Peter is informed about his upcoming denial (13:38), Jesus immediately comforts Peter and others. This comfort in Verse 14:2, is given as an answer for our weakness and not for the absence of Jesus Christ. This is the nature of Jesus, a person who completely thinks about his children even just before He was crucified.

His promise there was that Jesus would go and prepare a place for us. This preparation does not explain that Jesus would go and build a home. This preparation points to the cross where Jesus had made us righteous. Jesus said that He will come back and take Peter and others first towards Jesus Himself i.e., righteousness and then to glory (verse 3: where I am). We know that Peter became a new person away from sin. We can also read the mention of “receive to myself”. This place is exactly where Jesus is. We are called to share His glory. The Greek term says “will lay hold closely” which is an even more magnificent display of His love and our destiny.

Now, Jesus says that I am the way when Thomas asks Jesus about the way to this destiny. But, Jesus could have stopped with the word “way”, but he went on saying that I am the truth and life. Life is again a very relevant word here as life here means actual living with Him. Jesus says that our destiny is Jesus Himself. The way and the destination is Jesus himself. Here, Jesus had the necessity to include the word “Truth” because, everything else is a lie.

Let us note that there are plenty of mansions in Heaven. But still Jesus goes there to prepare a special place. The other places are not lies, but unattainable. Jesus does not take us to heaven to leave us there all alone, but He takes us there and we would stay close to Him. We would rightfully live in His place where there would be no questioning.

This is the truth Jesus mentions here. There is no other way to glory than through Jesus. We are inheriting heaven just because we would cling on to Jesus. Heaven is a very high and inaccessible place and because of our sins, we have come very much far which cannot be attained unless we go there through Jesus Christ. Let us note that Jesus starts this explanation in John 14:1 with a request to believe Him and not lose hope.

We can see the same emphasis in John 8:32. “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”. And our understanding of truth follows in verse 36: “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” Verse 24 says that “If you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins”.

Jesus says this to the Jews who had just started believing in Jesus. The previous verse wants us to abide in His words to become His disciples and then we will know the truth. Knowing the truth here is a promise and not a commandment. The commandment is to abide in His word. 

But, since these men persisted saying that “we are not slaves”, Jesus says to them that (v 43, 44) they cannot hear Him as they belong to the devil who keeps them in lies. This is the only weapon the devil has. The truth is that Jesus can and only Jesus can deliver us. There is no other truth. Our choice of who we listen to is the person who owns us. The reason for our slavery, addiction and guilt is that we choose lies and not to believe that Jesus can save us.

We can also see an example where Satan driving people away from learning the truth in John 18:37, 38. Jesus clearly started explaining Pilate about the truth. But, interrupting Jesus, Pilate asks “what is truth” and even before waiting for an answer, he turns away. This is how Satan removes our concentration to make us ignorant of the truth.

In John 17:17-19, when Jesus was praying, he prayed “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” This verse is again said about Jesus’ disciples and at the same time as earlier.  Jesus is praying that God, these men are revealed with the truth now and have come to you. Please purify them through the covenant that I would make tomorrow (day of crucifixion). I am your word and have given your word. This word cannot fail. And in verse 19, Jesus explains that His baptism was not to bring him close to God, but for our sakes. In other terms, we can see that Jesus carrying our sins and cleansing Himself so that all our sins are washed away.

Also, the word “sanctify” also points to separation from sin. This is the same thing we read in Ephesians 4:22 onwards. Let is remove all impurity and put on righteousness and holiness.

In 1 Timothy 3:15, Paul writes to Timothy that the Church is the pillar and support for the truth. This truth should be upheld by the Church. All of us together should give the highest importance to this truth that we have learnt.