And Ye Shall Know the Truth…

Not too infrequently it would be well to turn attention to Pilate’s timeless question,”What is truth?”⎯for on the answer hangs all we are or ever hope to be. On the answer hangs our health and happiness, our peace and purpose, the very meaning of time and eternity. (We can never be assured of health or happiness or peace or settled purpose, unless we face the facts, the truth, about ourselves, our very nature, and about the things we should or shouldn’t partake of and the things we should or shouldn’t do.)

“What is truth?” It has been variously defined. Shakespeare said of it:”Truth is truth to the end of reckoning.” Which is very like another definition that denoted truth as the absolute opposite of things changing and transitory:”Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come.” Of this we may be sure: Truth doesn’t depend upon the theories and opinions of people. If men are in error, and if we follow them in their errors, that won’t change truth. Socrates suggested this when he said:”If you will be persuaded by me, pay little attention to Socrates, but much more to the truth.”

Some fear the truth. Some have reason to. Some suppose it to be dangerous, frightening, uncomfortable⎯and often it is. Truth is so dangerous it sometimes makes martyrs of men. And surely it is dangerous and fatal to falsehood. It is dangerous and disturbing to complacency, to lazy thinking. It is disturbing to minds that are too comfortably closed. And because it is dangerous and disturbing there are always some who would suppress it and some who would dispense it sparingly. But disturbing or not, we are faced with this fact: Truth is never so dangerous as falsehood, never so dangerous as error, never so dangerous as deceit, and not nearly so dangerous as ignorance is.

Perhaps the most satisfying utterance of all time as to truth is this sentence from our Lord and Saviour:”And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” With this kind of counsel we cannot safely do other than seek the truth wherever it is, wherever it leads. Theories come and go. Popular opinions prevail for a while. Fashions have their cycles, and conflicting ideas have their seasons of acceptance⎯but”the spirit of truth is of God” and “abideth forever” “and hath no end.” God help us to seek, to see, to say, to accept, to live by the truth, and find it wherever it is and follow it where it takes us⎯for it is not nearly so dangerous as ignorance is.