Would you know the truth if you heard it?

There’s never been a time when truth wasn’t critically important.

From Eve deciding whether to believe the claims of the serpent, to knowing how to live your own life today, knowing truth is of paramount importance for us human beings.

Do you know the truth when you see/hear it?

Many don’t.

There’s a story about a young Chinese boy who wanted to learn about jade, so he went to study with a talented old teacher. This elderly gentleman put a piece of the stone into the youth’s hand and told him to hold on to it with a tight grip. Then the teacher began to talk of philosophy, men, women, the sun, and almost everything underneath it. After an hour, the teacher took back the stone and sent the boy home.

This same procedure was repeated for weeks, resulting in the boy becoming frustrated. When would he be taught about jade? But he was too polite to interrupt his venerable teacher. Then one day, when the old man put a stone into the boy’s hand, the boy cried out instantly, “That’s not jade!”

Would you know if someone was speaking truth or something false? We need to know, and John wrote about our need to discern the truth …

“Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world,” 1 John 4:1.

Like the boy being trained to know the real jade stone from the false, we need to train ourselves to know that which is from God …

“Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong,” Hebrews 5:14.

In order to have truth, you must be pointed to Christ Himself …

“Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me,'” John 14:6

Better than the young boy with a wise teacher, Christians have the perfect Teacher to help us discover and understand truth …

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future,” John 16:13.

It is this truth that transforms our lives, as we see in this prayer of Jesus …

“Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth,” John 17:17-19.

Have you surrendered your life to Christ so that you can be made holy by the truth? Have you been trained to know the truth, “… to recognize the difference between right and wrong”? How do you discern what is true and what isn’t?

Scotty