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Scripture Reading: 1 John 1:5-7
In this message we shall continue to consider the meaning of the word truth in the New Testament.
We have seen that truth is God, Christ, the Spirit, the Word of God, and the contents of the faith, the reality concerning God, man, and the universe, and the genuineness, truthfulness, and sincerity of God as a divine virtue and of man as a human virtue. In addition to these seven aspects of the truth, we need to see that truth in the New Testament denotes things that are true or real, the true or real state of affairs (facts), reality, veracity, as the opposite of falsehood, deception, dissimulation, hypocrisy, and error (Mark 5:33; 12:32; Luke 4:25; John 16:7; Acts 4:27; 10:34; 26:25; Rom. 1:25; 9:1; 2 Cor. 6:7; 7:14; 12:6; Col. 1:6; 1 Tim. 2:7).
Nearly all these eight aspects of the truth refer to the Triune God. The Triune God, who is the reality of everything, is revealed in the Word and conveyed to us by the Word. What is revealed in and conveyed by the Word is the content of our Christian belief and also the content of the New Testament. This content implies the real situation concerning God, man, the universe, man’s relationship to God and to others, and our obligation to God. All these different realities are related to the unique reality, which is the Triune God Himself. Then through our experience of Christ this reality becomes our human reality, that is, it becomes our human virtue with which we worship God. Finally, truth refers to things which are true and real.
All the different realities revealed in the New Testament are related either directly or indirectly to the unique reality — the Triune God. Therefore, for us Christians the knowledge of what is true or real must come through our experience of the Triune God.
Of the eight matters we have covered concerning truth, the first five refer to the same reality in essence. God, Christ, and the Spirit — the Divine Trinity — are essentially one. Hence, these Three, being the basic elements of the substance of the divine reality, are actually one reality. This one divine reality is the substance of the Word of God as the divine revelation. Hence, it becomes the revealed divine reality in the divine Word and makes the divine Word the reality. The divine Word conveys this one divine reality as the contents of the faith, and the contents of the faith are the substance of the gospel revealed in the entire New Testament as its reality, which is just the divine reality of the Divine Trinity. When this divine reality is partaken of and enjoyed by us, it becomes our genuineness, sincerity, honesty, and trustworthiness as an excellent virtue in our behavior to express God, the God of reality, by whom we live; and we become persons living a life of truth, without any falsehood or hypocrisy, a life which corresponds to the truth revealed through creation and the Scripture.
The word aletheia is used in the New Testament more than one hundred times. Its denotation in each occurrence is determined by its context. For example, in John 3:21, according to the context, it denotes uprightness (opposite to evil — vv. 19-20), which is the reality manifested in a man who lives in God according to what He is and which corresponds to the divine light, which is God, as the source of the truth, manifested in Christ. In John 4:23-24, according to the context of this chapter and also to the divine revelation of John’s Gospel, it denotes the divine reality becoming man’s genuineness and sincerity (opposite to the hypocrisy of the immoral Samaritan worshipper — vv. 16-18) for the true worship of God. The divine reality is Christ who is the truth (John 14:6) as the reality of all the offerings of the Old Testament for God’s worship (John 1:29; 3:14) and as the fountain of living water, the life-giving Spirit (John 4:7-15), partaken of and drunk by His believers to be the reality within them, which eventually becomes their genuineness and sincerity in which they worship God with the worship He seeks. In John 5:33 and John 18:37, according to the entire revelation of the Gospel of John, truth denotes the divine reality embodied, revealed, and expressed in Christ as the Son of God. In John 8:32, 40, 44-46, according to the context of the chapter, it denotes the reality of God revealed in His word (v. 47) and embodied in Christ the Son of God (v. 36), which sets us free from the bondage of sin.
Here in 1 John 1:6 aletheia denotes the revealed reality of God in its aspect of the divine light. It is the issue and realization of the divine light in verse 5. The divine light is the source in God. Truth is its issue and realization in us. When we abide in the divine light, which we enjoy in the fellowship of the divine life, we practice the truth — what we have realized in the divine light. When we abide in the source, its issue becomes our practice.
I believe that after a period of time, perhaps another ten years, the truth in the Lord’s recovery will be very prevailing. We do not care for numbers. But if several thousand saints can be trained with the truth, the prevailing truth will accomplish much for the Lord’s purpose.
Let us now consider certain verses in the Epistles where the word truth is used. In Rom. 1:18 Paul says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold down the truth in unrighteousness.” What is the truth in this verse? In order to answer this question, we need to read verses 19 and 20: “Because that which may be known of God is manifest among them, for God has manifested it to them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world, being apprehended by the things made, are clearly seen, both His eternal power and divinity, for them to be without excuse.” According to these verses, the truth in verse 18 means all that God is and all the things concerning God and His existence and the knowledge of them. Therefore, with Romans 1:18-20 as the basis, we may say that truth denotes the reality concerning God, the universe, and man. Because this truth has been manifested, man is without excuse.
Paul goes on to speak further concerning the truth in chapter two of Romans: “But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth upon those who practice such things” (v. 2). What is the truth in this verse? Truth here means the actual situation and condition of man. No doubt, it also refers to the truth in Rom. 1:18-20, the truth concerning God’s reality being manifested. Those who hold down this truth will one day be judged by God according to it.
In Rom. 1:18 truth refers to what God is. According to Rom. 1:19 and 20, this truth, this reality, can be known through God’s creation. We need to hold to this truth. One day, God will judge according to this truth all those who hold it down.
In Rom. 2:20 Paul goes on to say, “An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.” The law here refers to the Mosaic law. In the Mosaic law there is a certain amount of the divine truth. All human beings should act according to this truth. Otherwise, God will judge them according to it.
I use these verses from the book of Romans to illustrate the fact that in the New Testament the word truth signifies different things. The point concerning the truth we have considered in Romans 1 and 2 is very different from the meaning of truth in the Gospel of John. According to the Gospel of John, God is incarnated to be the truth, Christ is the truth of the divine life, and the Spirit is the truth, the reality, of Christ. All these matters, of course, concern the Trinity. But the truth in Romans 1 and 2 does not concern the Trinity. Rather, the truth in these chapters is related to what God is, as revealed through creation. Whatever is revealed concerning God through creation is a truth, a reality, and we need to hold on to this truth. Furthermore, truth in these verses from Romans denotes the reality concerning God, the universe, man, man’s relationship with God and with others, and man’s obligation to God, as revealed through creation and through the Scripture.
In Rom. 3:7 Paul speaks concerning a different aspect of the truth: “But if the truth of God abounded in my lie unto His glory, why still am I also judged as a sinner?” In this verse truth refers to the faithfulness of God. This, of course, is different from the meaning of truth in 1:18, where truth denotes the characteristic of God as revealed through the visible things in the universe. But in Rom. 3:7 we have another matter concerning God — God’s faithfulness.
How can we prove that the truth in Romans 3:7 denotes God’s faithfulness? This can be proved by studying the context. Verses 3 and 4 say, “For what if some disbelieved? Shall their unbelief make the faithfulness of God of none effect? Certainly not! But let God be true and every man a liar, as it is written, That You should be justified in Your sayings and will overcome when You are judged.” Notice that in verse 3 the word “faithfulness” is used. Then in verse 4 we have the adjective “true.” Verse 4 indicates that God is true, faithful, in what He says; that is, God is faithful in His words. In verses 5 and 6 Paul continues, “But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak according to man. Certainly not! Otherwise how shall God judge the world?” These verses also are related to God’s faithfulness. Then in verse 7 Paul goes on to speak concerning the truth of God. According to the context, therefore, truth here denotes God’s faithfulness. Instead of saying “the truth of God,” Paul could have said, “the faithfulness of God,” since truth here equals faithfulness. This is the reason we interpret the word truth in Romans 3:7 as denoting God’s faithfulness.
Romans 15:8 says, “For I say that Christ has become a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises given to the fathers.” In this verse truth also denotes God’s faithfulness. If we do not understand the word truth in this verse as referring to God’s faithfulness, we shall not be able to understand this verse. Christ became a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises. This means that Christ became a servant of the circumcision for the faithfulness of God, to confirm the promises. Here Paul indicates that whatever God has promised, He will fulfill. God fulfills His promises because He is faithful. Once again, we see that truth in Romans 3:7 and 15:8 refers to a particular virtue of God, God’s faithfulness.
Mark 12:14 says, “And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man; for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” The Pharisees were trying to trap the Lord Jesus by asking Him this question. Before they asked the question, they said to Him that He was true and taught the way of God in truth. Here “in truth” means in honesty. Because the Lord was true and honest, He taught the Word of God in honesty, not in falsehood. Therefore, in this verse truth denotes the human virtue of honesty.
In 2 Corinthians 11:10 the word truth is again used to denote a human virtue. In this verse Paul says, “The truth of Christ is in me, that this boasting shall not be stopped concerning me in the regions of Achaia.” Here truth denotes truthfulness, faithfulness, trustworthiness, honesty. First, it denotes the faithfulness, the honesty, of the Lord Jesus when He lived on earth as a man. Then it denotes this virtue as present in the living of the apostle Paul. This virtue was an attribute of Christ. But since Paul lived by Christ, whatever Christ is became his virtue in his behavior. The important point for us to see is that in 2 Corinthians 11:10 truth denotes the human virtue of truthfulness, trustworthiness, faithfulness, and honesty.
First John 3:18 tells us to love in truth: “Little children, let us not love in word nor in tongue, but in deed and truth.” Here truth denotes sincerity in contrast to tongue, just as deed is in contrast to word. In this verse the apostle John is telling us to love in truth, in honesty. If we say that we love our brother, we should love him in deed and in truth. Otherwise, we shall love only in word or in tongue, but not in sincerity.
In 2 John 1 the apostle John uses the word truth in two ways: “The elder to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth.” First, John speaks of loving in truth. In this case truth denotes the revealed divine reality — the Triune God dispensed into man in the Son Jesus Christ — becoming man’s genuineness and sincerity. Therefore, truth in this sense denotes a human virtue. However, this virtue is not produced by our natural being; rather, it issues from the enjoyment of the divine reality. This is the divine reality becoming our genuineness and our sincerity. In this verse John also speaks of knowing the truth. Here truth denotes the divine reality of the gospel, especially concerning the Person of Christ.
I use these verses as examples to point out our need to study all the verses in the New Testament that speak of the truth. Then with the help of the note on the word truth in 1 John 1:6, we can discern how this word is used in different verses. As 2 John 1 indicates, this word may be used in two different ways in the same verse. In each case, the denotation of the word is determined by the context. Therefore, to understand the meaning of the word truth in any particular verse, we need to study its context. As we have pointed out, the Greek word for truth, aletheia, is used in the New Testament more than one hundred times. By studying this word in its context, we shall be helped to have a proper understanding of truth in the New Testament.
