YES, HE is Talking to YOU!
What is truth? Was Pilate’s answer to Jesus and has been a question that has always beguiled humanity. Truths are many though ultimately there is but one Great Truth which is our God. Beneath this however is a steady stream of truths dependent on our place and our beliefs. What may be a great truth to the Buddhist is considered a falsehood to the Christian and so on through most all religious and philosophical lines of thought. There is a truth that God exists but this is not shared by all because of differing perspectives on the matter. Our conscious personalities control the truth as we see it; what we are physically, emotionally and mentally as men in form plus what we have learned from life, our nurture and our nature so to speak, combined with the Light from within and from above to create our own versions of the truth. In the True Light of the Inner Man lies the Truth, clouded by the glamour and the illusions of Life in form which come from the our nature and the nurture we have received.
If we are of average intelligence, emotionally stable and in a well body and are brought up in a home where there is a certain attitude toward life, we will most likely exhibit that attitude. Atheistic or religious Christian upbringing will result in that predominance in our outward character. The atheist upbringing or being from a family background where parents and close persons have no spiritual lean whatsoever will result in a person with similar views. One may overcome this through outside learning or it may become repressed in his thinking depending on the nature of his overall personality. The idea of God may be rather alien to this person and the promptings of the Inner Man are either not seen or they are seen as conscience with no attachment to God or Spirit.
The religious Christian family will bring up a child in a church going, praying family and this will result in a person who is accustomed to this but again, this can be overcome through outside learning and this too may become repressed dependeing on one’s personality makeup. For this person God is real and, depending on the level of religion on the family and the type of Christianity, the promptings of the Inner Man can be seen in a range from conscience based in one’s faith to the ‘voice of God’ speaking directly to him.
The promptings can be the same for both and in many ways, for average good people, conscience is conscience; we understand right from wrong and good versus evil. These divergent upbringings may not result in either one having more or less or better or worse conscience. Now there are ‘leanings’ for each of us that are based upon our makeup and our attitudes plus what it is that we listen to and watch and who we associate with. A criminal attitude can come from either the religious home or the non-religious one and so can the saint. Chances of a normal life are found in each though it is likely that the religious upbringing can give a child a better ‘head start’.
So here we are men in the world subject to all the preconceptions and ideas of virtue and vice that we have accumulated over the years of our lives. The Spirit of Truth is in each of us waiting to be noticed by the personality consciousness as we go through our days and nights. By its very nature it is always trying to get through and comes through in ideas and thoughts that we, as personalities, either accept and act on or ignore. Premonitions and flashes of intuition come to us; a sudden sense of understanding of a matter or an idea for a business or an invention come to us; we remember suddenly where some thing is or we see a vision of some possibility of accomplishment. All these things can be seen as the promptings of the Inner Man, of the Soul and, for most of us and for a long long time, the majority of these go unheeded. But, by its very nature the Spirit of Truth continues to try to get our attention and to move us past our preconceptions and ideas and the glamour and the illusions of life.
The Master had much to say about Truth which we can see as the very nature of the Father. God is Life, God is Love, and God is Truth can be another way of looking at the Trinity of the Christian faiths. The Father is the giver of all and the giver of Life; the Son is the Word, the creative and cohesive power of all and this is Love; the Holy Spirit is the Truth of all in this created universe. In the major bible translations, before the ‘everyday English’ versions, Jesus is recorded as calling the truths that He was telling as a truth. Now we can look at this as just the way it is written or we can see it as the Master’s understanding of truth and His telling us that there is not just one truth in our everyday existence but many truths in this material world. More important than this are His teachings in the Gospel of John on Truth; let us look at some of what He said after a brief look at what the Apostle John says of the Master.
- “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Here in the prologue to his gospel John is telling us about the very nature of Christ Jesus. Made flesh like us all but “full of grace and truth“. The fullness of His Spirit, the Spirit of and from God, in flesh as “grace and truth“.
- A few verses later John says that: “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Again we have “grace and truth“; here, being brought into being in the world by Jesus. This is not to say that the law was not true; it is to say that Moses gave the law but the greater Truth came by Jesus the Christ.
Twice here we see the words grace and truth together and we should here understand what they mean. Grace is translated from the Greek word charis of which Strong’s says: grace, the state of kindness and favor toward someone, often with a focus on a benefit given to the object; by extension: gift, benefit; credit; words of kindness and benefit; thanks, blessing and the word is translated as grace, favor, thanks, pleasure, etc.***. Again we have words of definition that do not reflect the true intention of the word grace as it applies to the Master. Again too we have to turn to the dictionary for a proper understanding; from the 1828 version of Webster’s we find: 1. Favor; good will; kindness; disposition to oblige another; as a grant made as an act of grace. 2. Appropriately, the free unmerited love and favor of God, the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from him. 3. Favorable influence of God; divine influence or the influence of the spirit, in renewing the heart and restraining from sin. 4. The application of Christ”s righteousness to the sinner. 5. A state of reconciliation to God. Rom.5.2. 6. Virtuous or religious affection or disposition, as a liberal disposition, faith, meekness, humility, patience, &c. proceeding from divine influence. 7. Spiritual instruction, improvement and edification. Eph.4.29. 8. Apostleship, or the qualifications of an apostle. Eph. 3.8. 9. Eternal life; final salvation. 1 Pet.1.13. 10. Favor; mercy; pardon. 11. Favor conferred. 12. Privilege. 13. That in manner, deportment or language which renders it appropriate and agreeable; suitableness; elegance with appropriate dignity. We say, a speaker delivers his address with grace; a man performs his part with grace. 14. Natural or acquired excellence; any endowment that recommends the possessor to others; as the graces of wit and learning. 15. Beauty; embellishment; in general, whatever adorns and recommends to favor; sometimes, a single beauty. 16. Beauty deified; among pagans, a goddess. The graces were three in number, Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne, the constant attendants of Venus*. and there is still more but we will end here. Can we find in this an understanding of the idea of grace that is the fullness of the Christ and that came to us in Him?
Since it is important to understand the real meaning of a word, especially a word in scripture used by the Master, let us look at the word truth as well. Truth is translated from the Greek word aletheia of which Strong’s says rather simply truthfulness; corresponding to reality***. Now when we say that God is Truth or that Jesus Christ is full of truth or that truth came by Him, can this definition suffice to give us the proper understanding? The lexicon is a bit more explanatory in saying: objectively what is true in any matter under consideration; truly, in truth, according to truth, of a truth, in reality, in fact, certainly; what is true in things appertaining to God and the duties of man, moral and religious truth in the greatest latitude; the true notions of God which are open to human reason without his supernatural intervention; the truth as taught in the Christian religion, respecting God and the execution of his purposes through Christ, and respecting the duties of man, opposing alike to the superstitions of the Gentiles and the inventions of the Jews, and the corrupt opinions and precepts of false teachers even among Christians; subjectively,truth as a personal excellence, that candour of mind which is free from affection, pretence, simulation, falsehood, deceit**. Do we find suitable understanding here?
Again to the older dictionary where we find: 1.The quality or being true; as: –(a) Conformity to fact or reality; exact accordance with that which is, or has been; or shall be. (b)Conformity to rule; exactness; close correspondence with an example, mood, object of imitation, or the like. (c)Fidelity; constancy; steadfastness; faithfulness. (d)The practice of speaking what is true; freedom from falsehood; veracity. 2.That which is true or certain concerning any matter or subject, or generally on all subjects; real state of things; fact; verity; reality. 3.A true thing; a verified fact; a true statement or proposition; an established principle, fixed law, or the like; as, the great truths of morals. 4.Righteousness; true religion; In truth, in reality; in fact. — Of a truth, in reality; certainly. — To do truth, to practice what God commands*. We can find here a greater understanding of the meaning of truth as it is stated in the gospels and a greater representation of the truth that is God and the truth that came by Jesus; the truth that He was the fullness of.
Leaving the Master’s words on truth for the next post let us close this one with an understanding of our perspective on Truth. In the words of John above we can see that Truth is a spiritual thing; that it was brought to us by the Christ and that it is the fullness of Him. This is not the same as the truths of life in this world which are little truths about this or that and of no real importance to the life of the Soul. We know that He tells us that “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63) and we know too that His words are true. Here we should see the sameness in all these three; Spirit, Life and Truth. This real Truth comes from the Spirit, from the Inner Man, the Soul, the Christ Within and not from this world. This brings us to a few lines from the play “Paracelsus” by Robert Browning which I happened to come across this morning:
Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, whate’er you may believe.
There is an inmost centre in us all,
Where truth abides in fulness; and around,
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
This perfect, clear perception – which is truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Binds it, and makes all error: and to KNOW
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without.
Much what we are trying to say is in these verses from this play about the man Paracelsus who was a Swiss Renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer, and general occultist.
Of a truth!
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come (John 16:13)
Today’s Quote of the Day is pertinent to our discussion on Truth and much misunderstood. Our Spirit of Truth speaking to us and hearing from the Greater Spirit of Truth in God. More on this in the next post.
- * Websters Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
- ** from New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- *** Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
