Sunday Thoughts: Truth for John

Truth.

All Truth.

All Truth is God’s truth.

Just ponder that for a moment.

I had to stop and think about that today while studying for my first class at Knox Theological Seminary.

The reading I had to do today was pretty dry.  And long.  But it was energizing to plow through it, I felt excited to get started again at digging deep into the materials.  I feel like I accomplished something–like I’ve started something important.

In the midst of the dry material, I came across this paragraph:

……Christians before the rise of the more skeptical forms of historical criticism not only immersed themselves in the text……but they also believed that the text told them the truth. (An Introduction to the New Testament by D.A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo.

It reminded me that as much as I enjoy delving into the technical aspects of the study of Scripture because I’m searching for the answers to my hundreds of questions, I can not forget the main objective.

The text tells us the truth.

And I want to know the truth.  And you want to know the truth.

Part of my assignment today was to read the first 14 chapters of Matthew.  In doing so, I came across a story that I had forgotten about.  It’s found in Matthew 11:2-6.

  Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

You see, John the Baptist is in prison.  His death is imminent–he knows it could come at any time.  Yet he has a question.  A question burning in his soul.  Is Jesus the Messiah?  Or was someone else to come and be the Messiah?  He’s sitting in prison.  He’s reflecting on the events of his life.  No doubt he is remembering baptizing Jesus.

But now, John wants to know the truth.  He NEEDS to know the truth.

So he sends word by his disciples to ask Jesus: “Are you he one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

Remember what I said above, that all truth is God’s truth?

Jesus sends word to John:  Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

This was truth:  Jesus was the one.  Jesus was the Messiah.  John died, knowing the truth.

But how do we know the truth?  I want to know what is true.

• First, we immerse ourselves in Scripture–in the text.  Daily.  We develop a hunger for God’s word through reading and studying it, through listening to the word preached.  This is vital.
• We ask God for the faith to believe what Scripture says is truth; and we trust that scripture is truth.

For some, they may think “Well, of course.”  but it’s not as easy as that.  It requires time—time to do just that:  immerse ourselves in scripture.  In Prayer.  In Worship.

All truth is God’s truth.

All truth.

Truth.