As Bel Air Church, we believe that through the Bible, we are able to encounter and experience the truth of Jesus Christ who holds all things together by the power of His word. And it’s in the Bible where we are able to discover the truth regarding the life that God designed and desires for us to live both now and into eternity. As a result, we choose to humbly stand under the witness of God’s Word, both the Old and New Testaments, in order to understand the truth for what we are to believe and how we are to live.

In one of Jesus’ prayers for us, his disciples, he prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17) As Christians, we follow Jesus in seeking to be shaped and sanctified by the truth we find in God’s Word.

That word ‘sanctify’ isn’t a word we use every day, but it’s so important for us to understand in order to grasp the point Jesus was trying to make. Sanctify simply means that God not only relates with us as sinless because of what Jesus did for us on the cross (justification), but God is also committed to helping us sin-less as we follow Jesus every day, and everywhere, with everyone (sanctification).

How does God do this? One primary way is through us knowing and applying accurately the truth found in God’s Word (1 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Timothy 2:15). When we say something is true, what do we mean?

Let’s hold on to this thought as we practice our daily rhythm.

Pause 

As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly; to recenter my scattered senses upon the presence of God.

Jesus, the living Word, as I engage with Scripture I ask that you would speak to me, that you would sanctify me, and that I would be filled with joy as I follow you today.

Read & Reflect 

As we enter into the conversation on ‘what is truth’ today, we need to address the elephant in the room, relativism. Relativism is the view that every belief on a certain topic, or perhaps about any topic, is as good or true as every other. Let’s just come out of the gate by saying, “Relativism is unreasonable.” However, there is a HUGE chasm between “anything goes” and knowing “absolute truth absolutely.”

“Everyday certainties do not require that we get the whole truth before we get any truth.” – Simon Blackburn [iv]

Simon Blackburn reminds us of the error in the view that truth is either all-or-nothing.  Some of us might say to ourselves, “If we can’t know it completely than it’s not worth knowing.” This too is unreasonable.

As we discussed in yesterday’s reflection, only God can know absolute truth absolutely. Even the Bible doesn’t hold the full truth about who God is and how God works. It was never meant to. However, even though we can’t know God fully doesn’t mean we can’t know God truly. God has been gracious enough to reveal to us truth about God’s-self and ourselves through the Bible.

When we say something is true we often assume others agree, understand what we mean, and if they don’t agree or see things from our perspective, we tend to label them as ‘wrong.’ However, much of our misunderstandings occur because we tend to try and stuff a mess of meaning into this briefcase we call ‘truth.’ What if truth needed a bit more unpacking, organizing, and explaining than we allow? What if truth means much more than we might think?

Let’s open up our briefcase called ‘truth’ and explore the first of three senses of what we might mean when we say something is true:

Fact-truth

We find ourselves living in a day and age where we are having a hard time navigating between what is true and what is false, “alternative facts” and “fake news.” As a people, it seems as though we are trying to create, shape or hold on to some sense of reality that benefits us or allows us to feel safe and secure. However, problems arise when our ‘reality’ is based upon ‘alternative facts’ because “alternative facts are not facts; they’re falsehoods.” [v] As Christians, we are not interested in ‘alternative facts’, but rather actual fact.

For many generations, the events recorded in the Bible were passed on orally from one person to another and from one generation to another. The letters in the New Testament, for example, were written 20 or more years after Jesus’ life. The gospels were written even later. As a result, details in the same stories are not always identical. Does that mean the stories are no longer true?

The original writers were not concerned for the kind of historic, scientific accuracy that we now impose on written material. They were more concerned with telling the amazing news of God’s goodness, the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

As Christians, we believe the Bible is the inspired word of God. Some interpret this to mean God whispered in the ear of each writer or pushed the pen on the parchment. For others, inspired means that as we read the accounts of God’s interaction with all of creation, God’s Spirit inspires the Word in order that we may understand and apply it to our lives. Regardless of where one lands in the debate of biblical inspiration, without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, none of us would understand biblical truths regarding who God is, what God wants, and how we are to live life well.

Ask 

Although we are not able to access absolute truth absolutely or to have all knowledge and discern all wisdom, the good news is that it’s not entirely up to us. God is faithful and reveals God’s own self in factual, meaningful and life giving ways. As we seek to be people who obey, speak, and walk in the truth we get to partner with the Holy Spirit in the discernment and the preservation of truth revealed to us through God’s Word. This is an essential priority for the work of the church.

Pause and Pray

Holy Spirit, guide me in the direction of your truth today. Lead me and reveal to me what is true about you, about myself, and about others as I continue on this journey of discovery.

Journal and/or self-reflect:

• What has been my relationship with fact-truth over this past year?
• How has my engagement with God’s Word guided me, corrected me, or sanctified me with regard to “alternative facts” or the threat of “fake news”?
• How do I respond to the reality that the Bible contains details of the same stories that are not always identical?
• What is my understanding of the inspiration and truth of God’s Word?

Yield 

Let’s yield ourselves to God by completing the following prayer prompts:

Yielding Prayer

Holy God, the one who is Truth, I am humbled in who you are once again. Lead me into your truth as I seek to know you and be known by you. I am reminded of all the truth you have already made known…

I yield myself to your invitation to approach your truth with humility and respect. Unite me with my brothers and sisters as we seek to walk in your truth by following The Truth-in-the-flesh Jesus Christ every day, and everywhere, with everyone.

Father, help me to live this day to the full…. 

Jesus, help me to give myself away to others… 

Spirit, fill my life with your presence…

Amen.

As humans, we know truth doesn’t have to be fact in order for it to hold true meaning. An example of this would be Neil Gaiman’s adaptation of G.K. Chesterton’s famous quote, “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” [vi]

If we are functioning solely under truth as fact, then this sentiment would not be true. However, we as humans we are far more multifaceted and understand that truth is not limited to fact, but can also include meaning. We know that G.K. Chesterton’s thought is in-fact untrue. We also know his idea is filled with true meaning. [vii]

Are dragons real? The scientific method would say no (although Loch Ness monster fans might disagree). But the dragon means much more than a literal dragon. And this meaning is equally true.

Let’s hold on to this thought as we practice our daily rhythm.

Pause 

As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly; to recenter my scattered senses upon the presence of God.

Jesus Christ, my Truth and my Teacher, as I dive into your Word I ask that you would soften my heart, redeem my understanding, and fill me with wonder as I follow you today. 

Read & Reflect 

Meaning-truth is tricky. It’s one thing to think about what a dragon metaphorically means in our lives and what it might mean for us to truly conquer it. But it becomes even more complicated when we are searching for meaning-truth between two people. We experience this complexity on a regular basis.

Think of all the times where, when in conversation with another person, we might think we understand what the other person is saying, but in actuality we falsely assume or misunderstand. We might have heard one thing, but the person communicating intended for us to hear something completely different.

Now let’s apply this example to the Bible. When it comes to reading a song, poem or any kind of literary form found in Scripture, we often ask, “What does it mean?” Yet, in this one question, we are really asking two. There is the question, “What did the author of this text intend to communicate?” This is what we should first be concerned about. And second, “What does this passage now mean for either us or our cultural context?” These two questions can be summed up as us seeking the passage’s “Intention” and “Significance.”

When it comes to interpreting Biblical truth, we are concerned with both fact and meaning.  We not only want to make sure we understand the details of a particular event or story, but also what the author was intending to communicate and whether or not this message is relevant to our lives today (significance).

Author Jared Byas in his book Love Matters More says it this way,

“This task of respecting the author’s intentions while also finding ways to integrate the Bible into my life in a way that is relevant, significant, and has value is messy. Like most relationships, it isn’t bound by rules but by principles.” [viii]

Let’s explore some of these principles as we consider the following parable of Jesus:

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’” (Luke 10:30-35)

From a fact-truth standpoint, this story would be falsehood. Why? Because it never factually happened. However, we know this story to be true not because of actual events, but because of its meaning. The particulars of this parable (fictional story) of Jesus may be well-known to us. However, it’s one thing for us to name the details of the story, but do we really know what it means?

If we just took the story at face value it would have very little relevance to our lives and our culture today. However, by following some key principles, the story’s meaning-truth comes to light.

Principle 1 – Context is Queen – Perhaps the most common mistake we make when reading the Bible is “taking things out of context.”  This means we select part of the Bible – sometimes a single word or verse – and attempt to draw out meaning without any consideration of what went before it or what comes after it.

“I can do all things through a verse taken out of context” – coffee mug

The above quote is a satirical example of Philippians 4:13 meant to emphasize how we should rarely read only a Bible verse. By doing so we may pull out meaning, but the meaning often has nothing to do with the text itself or what God’s Spirit is trying to communicate. By pulling verses out of context, we end up treating Scripture like a fortune cookie rather than the inspired word of God. [ix]

Principle 2 – Context is King – Not only do we need to understand the context of the singular verse in its surrounding paragraph or complete thought, but we must also seek to understand the context of both the original author and their primary audience. “But I thought I was the primary audience of God’s Word?” Well, not exactly.

“The Bible is written for us, but not to us.” – John Walton [x]

The Bible was written in a particular place, at a specific time, addressing a distinct group of people with a unique set of questions or concerns. It is necessary that we ask questions of the text based upon this reality. Questions like: “Who and what was being addressed?” “Where and when was this written and why does it matter?” “What was the point for the original audience?”

“Does this mean Scripture is irrelevant for us today?” Absolutely not. But it does mean that we need to understand as best we can the original context and author’s intent in order for us to apply it’s meaning to our lives today.

Ask 

Let’s try practicing these principles as we journal and/or self-reflect on the following:

• Read Luke 10:30-35
• Now read this passage in its context (Luke 10:25-37)
• What did I learn by reading the passage in its context?
• What questions stir in me as I seek to understand the specific time, place, and people Jesus is referencing? [xi]
• What is the meaning-truth Jesus is trying to communicate to his audience?
• How might this meaning-truth be relevant for my life today? [xii]
• Take some time, journal or simply talk with God about what you are processing.

Many of us might still be confused as to what Jesus meant by his parable of ‘The Good Samaritan’. Welcome to the club! Even the earliest disciples didn’t get it most of the time (Mark 4). Be encouraged! Our genuine curiosity and attempts to understand demonstrate our desire to truly follow Jesus.

Yield 

God of all Truth, I yield myself to your Word once again. Jesus, you alone are trustworthy. All of myself, my understanding, my convictions, and even the deepest truths in my soul I offer to you today. Holy Spirit, reveal to me your truth so that I can follow Jesus every day, and everywhere, with everyone. Amen.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” (Proverbs 9:10)

As we seek to be the Church, the Church at work ‘Preserving the Truth’, we have spent our time exploring our motivations and attitudes as we approach one another and the truth of God’s Word. We’ve also focused much of our energy unpacking, reorganizing, and explaining how truth can be defined. And we still have more unpacking to do.

Up to this point, we’ve discovered that truth is about both facts and meaning, but if we stop here truth remains only in our heads and in our hearts. God reveals truth for more than this. God-given truth is meant to move from our head to our hearts into our hands and feet as it manifests into a life well lived.  

Let’s hold on to this thought as we practice our daily rhythm.

Pause 

As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly; to direct my attention to the presence of God.

Lord Jesus Christ, Wisdom in-the-flesh, as I dive into your Word I ask that you would teach me how to live life well, awaken my mind to your instruction, and center me in your love today.

Read & Reflect 

It’s been said that the farthest distance to travel is from one’s head to one’s heart.  It is even farther for truth to move from our head to our hands and feet.  Fact-truth is helpful for knowledge and meaning-truth is useful for deeper understanding, but wisdom-truth, when applied, leads to a life well lived.

As followers of Jesus, we regularly find ourselves going to prayer and learning from Scripture in the hopes of navigating life well.  When we do this, what we are really doing is asking, seeking, and longing for wisdom.  Wisdom-truth, although the most talked about kind of truth in Scripture, seems to be the least talked about in our culture.  And yet, it seems wisdom-truth benefits us most in our everyday lives. 

“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” – Miles Kington [xiii]

Cultures from around the world are filled with wonderful wisdom sayings that resonate and demonstrate themselves as helpful for a life well lived. This is because wisdom-truth is often guided by culture and personal experience.  Saint Augustine gives this advice regarding wisdom-truth when he writes,

“No help is to be despised, even though it comes from a profane source.” [xx] 

We often hear his advice paraphrased this way, “All truth is God’s truth, regardless of where it comes from.” What makes the Christian faith different from any other wisdom-truth is that our standard of what it looks like to live life well is based off the life and love of Jesus.

Ask  

As we approach the Bible to discover its truth (fact, meaning, or wisdom), it’s important that we realize we are entering into a library rather than reading a novel. Imagine, as we walk into the library of the Bible we look to our left and find the history section, the prophets, and the law and wisdom literature. To the right we find the gospels, letters, and apocalyptic literature. By following this principle as well as the two key principles from yesterday (Context is Queen and Context is King) we will be able to better understand the wisdom-truth found in God’s Word.

Jesus often reflected on the wisdom literature section of the Bible library, namely the book of Proverbs.

Jesus refers to Proverbs 25:6-7 as he taught his disciples wisdom-truth while attending a wedding. Listen to how Jesus applies this wisdom,

When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.  “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 14:7-11)

Let’s take a moment to journal and/or reflect on the wisdom-truth Jesus is revealing:

• Who is Jesus speaking to?
• What is the context that they find themselves in?
• Beyond the facts and the meaning, what is the wisdom that Jesus is teaching?
• What would it look like for me to apply this wisdom in my own life?

The book of Proverbs is rich with wisdom-truth that when properly applied can lead us in living life well.

Consider the following examples:

Proverbs 11:25 – “A generous person will be enriched, and one who gives water will get water.”

Proverbs 19:1 – “Better the poor walking in integrity than one perverse of speech who is a fool.”

Proverbs 31:8-9 – “Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

The New Testament book of James affirms that hearing, understanding, and even meditating on the truth found in God’s word doesn’t lead us in a life well lived unless we put that truth to work. (James 1:23-17)

Yield 

This week has been designed to help us develop certain principles of discernment so that we can better approach and understand the truth found in God’s Word. This process of discernment isn’t always quick or easy, but it is essential for our work as the church in Upholding the Truth.

Let’s pray now for the Spirit’s power to enable us to discern and act on the truth that has been revealed to us as we complete the following prayer prompts:

Yielding Prayer

Our loving Father, I join all my sisters and brothers in naming the truth that you are…

I confess….

Thank you for….

I ask that you….

Holy Spirit, through your grace and power help me to discern and act with wisdom, in truth, and with profound meaning in all I do and say.  Amen.

As we come to the end of our fifth week, we’ve spent a great deal of time unpacking, reorganizing, and explaining all that we try and stuff into the briefcase called ‘truth.’ This has been an extremely important exercise as we seek to develop the job skills required to ‘Preserve the Truth.’

However, it is even more important for us to be reminded that truth isn’t something we can package neatly, organize properly and handle like a briefcase. Truth isn’t something to be locked down and handled, but rather someone to be opened up and followed.

When it comes to fact, meaning, and wisdom, Truth has a name. The-One-Who-Is-Truth was Fact in the flesh. He was Meaning magnified and Wisdom personified. Truth has a name and his name is Jesus.

 “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Only when we follow the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus are we sure to be steered in the right direction.

Let’s hold on to this thought as we continue our daily rhythm.

Pause 

As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly; to recenter my scattered senses upon the presence of God.

Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, as I engage with you and your Word, meet with me once again.  Help me to further discover who you are as I seek to follow you again today. Amen.

Read & Reflect 

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:14, 17)

Truth, as we have discussed, is how things really are (fact), what things really mean (meaning), and what it looks life to live life well (wisdom). As we look to Jesus as The-One-Who-Is-Truth, we only acknowledge a portion of who he truly is. The reality is, Jesus is also full of grace.

As Christians, we understand grace as the unmerited favor, undeserved love, and unconditional acceptance we receive from God. In Jesus, we learn of how we don’t have to earn God’s affection, that nothing we can do can interrupt our relationship or break our fellowship with God. As we look to Jesus, we see both truth AND grace and learn how to hold these two things together.

Just as we would never choose to enter into major surgery without an anesthetic (that would be too excruciatingly painful). In the same way, truth alone is harmful.

Truth can silence us (Romans 3:19-20), bring about anger (4:15), increase our sin (5:20), and even bring death (7:9-10).  Truth alone puts us under a curse (Galatians 3:10), holds us prisoner (3:23), and can alienate us from Christ (5:4). Truth alone is harsh and judgmental (James 2:10). As we encounter these things, the reality is, we aren’t encountering Jesus because Jesus is not simply Truth alone.

However necessary truth is for us to heal and grow as disciples, it cannot be separated from love (Ephesians 4:15). Truth without love makes us arrogant, proud, and puffed up (1 Corinthians 8:1). It makes us unloving and not worth anything to anybody (13:2). With truth alone, we become deceived, inactive, and dead in our faith (James 1:22; 2:17). We end up lacking the very things that we seek like wisdom, understanding and humility (3:13). It’s only when truth is united with grace (love that is unearned, undeserved and unconditional) that we are held together and made whole.

Jesus is the perfect reflection of God’s character and the exact imprint of God’s very being (Hebrews 1:3). In Jesus, we see the relational dimension of God’s character through his grace. We also see the structural dimension of God’s character through the truth that Christ embodies. Held together, they provide us with both unconditional acceptance and direction for a life well lived. In Jesus, we see the fullness of God’s grace and truth embodied and given for our healing and wholeness (John 1:14,17).

As followers of Jesus, in our job to Preserve the Truth means we have to protect the reality of who Jesus is as one full of Grace AND Truth.

Ask 

Journal and/or self-reflect:

• What is my relationship with grace and truth?
• What do I need more right now, grace or truth? Explain.

We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:14-16)

“Speaking the truth in love”

• What has been my experience as the recipient of someone “speaking the truth in love?”
• How do I know whether to be more gracious or more truthful with someone? [xv]

Yield 

Gracious and Trustworthy God, I have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from you, in order that I may understand the gifts given to me by you (1 Corinthians 2:12-14).

Spirit, fill me with your discernment so that I might… 

Jesus, full of Grace and Truth, I choose to follow you as I….

Amen.

As we approach the Sabbath Experiment of Humility, let’s begin by considering this parable adapted from Wayne Muller in his book, Sabbath. [xvi]

There was once a pastor who, overcome with a sense of humility before God’s magnificent creation, threw himself at the foot of the cross and cried, “I am nobody! I am nobody!

The worship leader, observing the pastor from the rear of the church, was moved by the pastor’s humility and devotion. He, too, joined the pastor at the cross, crying, “I am nobody! I am nobody!”

Then the janitor, sweeping the floors between the pews, heard the cries of the two religious men and, similarly moved by their devotion, also joined them at the cross crying out, “I am nobody! I am nobody!”

At which point, the worship leader turned to the pastor and, indicating to the janitor, remarked, “Look who thinks he’s nobody.”

• How would we articulate this week’s essential priority for us as the church at work?
• How might we engage this work as the church in our workplaces, our social networks, and our homes?
• What are some important principles we have learned this week?
• In what ways have we been equipped as the Church regarding our relationships with God, one another and our church community?