People all over the world say they enjoy hearing the truth. But many become confused and like Pilot who queried of Jesus, they feel compelled to ask, “What is truth?”

John the baptizer was considered a prophet in his day. He spoke the truth, calling people to be baptized for repentance and for forgiveness of sin. He was unafraid to speak the truth to the poor and rich, the lowly and the famed alike. He confronted Herod about his illicit affair with his brother’s wife. Herod decided to arrest him and place him in the prison of his palace, “for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed but he used to enjoy listening to him.”(Mark 6:20) One can enjoy listening to the truth yet not desire to give up the sinful ways exposed by the truth. This choice is defiant and will end in confusion and confusion leads to the inability to resist doing evil. Herod being confused in his unwillingness to act upon the revealed truth and turn away from his sin, went on to kill John, even though he wanted to keep John safe.

Subjectively, the natural man will define truth as that which he has come to believe is truth. But Truth, as revealed by the Originator of Truth, is not subjective. It is an absolute which is divine and constant, established above and beyond subjective, limited human reasoning. It is a divine principle that governs life even as the natural laws were established to govern human activity on earth. Just knowing about the Truth does not presuppose that a person will desire to live within the Truth. To live within the Truth means that we will live by a standard of rightness that is established by the same One who set up the Truth. Believing the Truth does not presume that I will do what is right, for I may choose to defy what I believe and do the opposite. By choosing to defy the truth and its call to do what is right, I, by my choice, negate the fact that I know the Truth and, if I persist in defying the Truth, I will find myself confused and unable to discern both truth and what is right. Saint James, in his letter to the church, asserts that if a man is indecisive about what he believes, then he will be unstable and unable to resist evil. He further says, “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

Furthermore, Truth is not defined by the traditions of men--what we have done over and over again through the ages. One can persist in doing something he thinks is right and be dead wrong, for man is corrupt and must come to depend on the Incorruptable to define what Truth is in purity and with clarity. And there is only One who is incorrupt, He is God. Truth and righteousness are joined in Him (Psalm 85:10). Jesus, Himself admonishes the religious traditionalists of His day in their insistence that they knew the ways of God, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” Peter, in his letter to the dispersed believers, repeats the warning, “For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them.”

Truth is not found in what man says, or even in what man believes, but in the moral fiber of God and what He says and does. You want to enjoy the truth? Look to God. Consider Jesus Christ.