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Scripture Reading: 1 John 1:5-7
In our Life-study of 1 John we need to insert at this point, as a parenthesis, some messages on the divine light and the divine truth. After these parenthetical messages, we shall consider further the conditions of the divine fellowship.
The divine light is the essence of God’s expression. When God is expressed, the essence of that expression is light. What is the divine truth? The divine truth is the issue of the divine light. When the divine light shines in us, it becomes the divine truth, which is the divine reality. This means that when the divine light shines in us, we receive the divine reality. We may also say that the divine light brings us the divine reality.
In 1:5 John says, “And this is the message which we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” In verse 7 he speaks a further word concerning light: “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” As we have indicated, the divine light is the nature, the essence, of God’s expression and the source of the divine truth. This divine light shines in the divine life. Hence, if we do not have the divine life, we cannot have the divine light.
John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” In Christ there is the divine life, and this life is the divine light. Therefore, life is light. When we have the divine life, we also have the divine light.
By this we can see that three matters are related: light, truth, and life. First, we need to learn to experience these matters and then learn how to present the truth regarding them to others.
Among Christians today there is a great lack concerning the knowledge of biblical truths. Some know the truth, but their understanding is rather superficial. The goal of the Lord’s recovery, therefore, is to recover all the biblical truths, all the biblical realities. As those who are in the Lord’s recovery, we must realize that there is a desperate need for us all to have the full knowledge of the truth, the experience of the truth, and the skill to present the truth to others.
Suppose the parents of a certain young person in the Lord’s recovery are opposing him. That brother should not be offended by his parents, and he should not argue with them. Instead, with a good spirit and a pleasant attitude, he should present the truth to his parents. Perhaps during a visit with them he may say, “Dad and Mom, let me tell you that light is the essence of God’s expression and that truth is the issue of this light. Aren’t you glad to hear about this? This light shines in the divine life, and the divine life is in Jesus Christ. Christ is even the life. The Lord Jesus says, ‘I am the life.’ When we are in this life, we have the shining of the divine light. Then as we are under this shining, we have the truth.” Perhaps this brother’s parents will accept his word, or they may reject it. But whatever the case may be, when he leaves them, he may want to say, “Dad and Mom, I need to go now. But I leave with you three ‘diamonds’ — life, light, and truth.”
Many Christians are familiar with biblical terms, but they may not know the meaning of these terms. If you ask them concerning the meaning of light, truth, and life, they may answer that they do not know the meaning of these things. Therefore, we need to be able to present the precious truths regarding these matters to others. The need in the Lord’s recovery today is that we all learn the truth, experience the truth, and develop the skill to present the truth to others.
The Lord’s recovery spreads by means of the truth. Many of us can testify that we were not attracted to the Lord’s recovery by a powerful and charming speaker. Rather, we were attracted by the truth. We were drawn this way by the presentation of biblical truth. For example, I know of one brother who was attracted by the presentation of how the first two chapters of the Bible, Genesis 1 and 2, and the last two chapters of the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22, reflect each other. Eventually, this brother was gained for the Lord’s recovery by this truth. My goal in all the conferences and the trainings is simply to present the truths of the Bible.
I am glad to see that many of the young ones among us are eager to know the truth of the Word. After a period of time, these young people will be useful in the Lord’s recovery. Those who are teen-agers at present will eventually be useful in spreading the biblical truths. Praise the Lord for the opportunity He has given us to be trained in the truths of the Bible!
We have seen that the divine light is the nature of God’s expression, that it is the source of the divine truth, and that it shines in the divine life. Now we must go on to see that the divine light is embodied in Jesus as God incarnate. Because He is the embodiment of the divine light, the Lord Jesus said, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). He spoke a similar word in John 9:5: “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” The divine light that issues in truth and shines in life is embodied in the Person of the Lord Jesus, who is God incarnate. This matter is deep and profound. I would encourage you to pray-read these verses in order to touch the reality of these matters concerning the divine light.
In 1:6 John speaks concerning the divine truth: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth.” What is truth? It is difficult to define truth. We may think that truth in such a verse as 1:6 refers to sound or correct doctrine. The word for truth in the Chinese language means genuine doctrine. Many have a similar understanding of the English word “truth” and consider that, at least insofar as it is found in the Bible, it means correct doctrine.
In our daily conversation we may have a somewhat different understanding of truth and regard truth as meaning something that is true as opposed to something false. For example, we speak of telling a true story.
If we would understand the meaning of truth in the Bible, we need to go beyond the traditional and common understanding of what truth is. The traditional view concerning the truth in the Bible as correct doctrine is not accurate, and the common denotation of the word should not be applied to the word truth as found in the Bible.
The Greek word for truth is aletheia. In studying this word, I consulted a number of lexicons and concordances. I was especially helped by the article on truth in Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Furthermore, I also considered all the verses in the New Testament that use either the word aletheia or a related word. After studying these verses in context and after consulting the lexicons and concordances, I came to certain conclusions regarding the meaning of truth in the New Testament, and these conclusions are summarized in the lengthy note on truth in 1:6 printed in the Recovery Version of the Epistles of John. In this message we shall consider only the first part of this note.
The Greek word aletheia means truth or reality (versus vanity), verity, veracity, genuineness, sincerity. It is John’s highly individual terminology, and it is one of the profound words in the New Testament. This word denotes all the realities of the divine economy as the content of the divine revelation, contained, conveyed, and disclosed by the holy Word.
According to the New Testament, truth is first God, who is light and love, incarnated to he the reality of the divine things — including the divine life, the divine nature, the divine power, the divine glory — for our possession, so that we may enjoy Him as grace, as revealed in John’s Gospel (John 1:1, 4, 14-17).
Second, truth in the New Testament denotes Christ, who is God incarnated and in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col. 2:9), to be the reality of: a) God and man (John 1:18, 51; 1 Tim. 2:5); b) all the types, figures, and shadows of the Old Testament (Col. 2:16-17; John 4:23-24); and c) all the divine and spiritual things, such as the divine life and resurrection (John 11:25; 14:6), the divine light (John 8:12; 9:5), the divine way (John 14:6), wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). Hence, Christ is the reality (John 14:6; Eph. 4:21).
Third, truth is the Spirit, who is Christ transfigured (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17), the reality of Christ (John 14:16-17; 15:26) and of the divine revelation (John 16:13-15). Hence, the Spirit is the reality (1 John 5:6).
Now we can see that truth, aletheia, in the New Testament refers to God. Truth is God as the divine light and love incarnated to be the reality of all the divine things for our possession so that we may enjoy God as grace. This means that the very God is the truth, the reality, of the divine things for our possession. Therefore, we need to possess God as the reality and then enjoy Him as grace. Hence, the divine reality is actually God Himself. He is the reality of all the divine things.
Truth in the New Testament also denotes Christ as God incarnate. Christ is the One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. As the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead, Christ, who is God incarnate, is the reality of God and man, the reality of all the types, figures, and shadows of the Old Testament, and the reality of all the divine and spiritual things.
What is truth? What is reality? Reality is Christ as God incarnate. Reality is Christ as the One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily to be the reality of God, man, the types, figures, and shadows, and all divine and spiritual things. In the Old Testament we have many types, figures, and shadows. Christ is the reality of them. In the Bible we also read of many divine and spiritual things, such as life, light, wisdom, and righteousness. Christ Himself is the reality of all these things. Therefore, when we read the word “truth” or “reality” in the New Testament, we need to realize that it refers first to God and also to Christ.
We have indicated that in the New Testament truth denotes the Spirit, who is Christ transfigured and also the reality of Christ and of the divine revelation. For this reason, in 5:6, John says, “The Spirit is He who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.”
It is surely worthwhile for us to study thoroughly the meaning of truth in the New Testament. In this message we have pointed out in a very brief way that truth, reality, is God, Christ, and the Spirit. In the following message we shall go on to consider other aspects of truth according to the Word of God.
