KNOWING THE TRUTH
John 18:37; 8:30-32; 17:16-19; 2 John 1,2;
R.H.B. I have been struck with this reference of the Lord Jesus; “I have been born for this, and for this I have come into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth”. I wondered if we could get some help as to that. It was distinctive to the Lord, of course. This gospel opens with grace and truth subsisting through Him (John 1:17), or coming into being. The note brings that out: ‘grace and truth actually commenced to be .... in revelation and actual existence down here. But its so taking place supposes its continuance’1. While there was what was unique to the Lord as He witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate as Paul speaks of it (1 Tim.6:13), I think the Lord is a model for us in that. I wondered if we could get some help as to “the truth” – what the truth would involve. John wrote of how it began to be in the Lord, and then in the verse we read in his epistle, that the truth “abides in us”, that is in the saints, and “shall be with us to eternity”. The word in its common usage is relative to what is false, but when Scripture uses the word truth, or the truth, it has more in mind than simply what is in contrast to a lie. The Lord speaks in chapter 8 of persons coming to know the truth; “If ye abide in my word, ye are truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free”. One would like to promote exercise with us all, and I am exercised about it myself, as to knowing the truth, in the sense in which John speaks of it, and being set free by it. In His prayer to the Father, the Lord speaks of not simply being set free but being “sanctified by truth”.
I read the verses in the epistles because I thought we see there the thing in substance. This sister could be written to by the apostle as being loved in truth, “and not I only but also all who have known the truth, for the truth’s sake which abides in us”. Then John wrote to Gaius as to him “holding fast the truth”, and walking in it. I hope these thoughts will open up for enquiry.
N.J.H. The Lord Jesus had served for three and a half years, but in the whole of His pathway here, He had borne witness to the truth. It is not exactly the truth of God requiring an answer through God’s work in the soul that is being witnessed to here.
R.H.B. Yes. You get the two thoughts in chapter 1. There is the revelation of truth, but this is the declaration of God; all the truth was brought out by Christ. It is helpful to remember, when we think about the truth, to go to the fountainhead. As I understand it, there was nothing brought out by the apostles that was not expressed in its germ in the Lord’s own ministry.
N.J.H. Yes, His witness was universal, a witness that made the whole world responsible, and that truth had been witnessed to in the life of Christ.
R.H.B. There is a reference in the Acts to the universal witness in creation. God did not leave Himself without witness. It says, “he did not leave himself without witness, doing good, and giving to you from heaven rain and fruitful seasons”, Acts 14:17. But this is something much greater. It is all that can be known of God as being testified to, and that must put the creature under responsibility before God.
T.R.C. It is one of the references to ‘I am’ in John’s gospel; “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”, John 14:6. What is your impression of that?
R.H.B. I would be glad to hear what you have to say about it.
T.R.C. I wondered whether it linked with what has been brought out, that it was not just the fact of what the Lord said in His teaching, but it is what He was. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”.
R.H.B. So it was manifested in Himself, and what He said was the expression of what He was. He was “Altogether that which I also say to you”, John 8:25.
W.M.P. What has been said is important. The One who witnessed to the truth was in Himself true; “He is the true God and eternal life”, 1 John 5:20.
R.H.B. Yes, and He was the “faithful and true witness”, Rev.3:14. This is the Lord in hostile circumstances, and the man to whom He speaks says, “What is truth?” (v.38). The Lord had said, “Every one that is of the truth hears my voice”. Such persons recognised the veracity of what Christ brought out in His speaking, but here was a man who raised that question, “What is truth?”. In the world in which we live, expressions like ‘fake news’ are used, and things that are manifestly untrue are said by persons in authority. It is very easy to be affected by that; it is the world in which we live. But the Lord, whether amongst His own or in these hostile circumstances, bore witness to the truth, and the consequences of that, the suffering involved in doing so, did not deter Him.
J.T.B. Ephesians speaks about “as the truth is in Jesus”, (Eph.4:21), and Mr Darby’s note explains the emphasis on Jesus2. Paul says, “But ye have not thus learnt the Christ” (v.20); not learnt about Him, but learnt Him. Does it suggest that an intensity of communion with Christ is needed to identify what the truth is? He must be the test in every exercise.
R.H.B. Yes; He Himself said “learn from me”, Matt.11:29. It was not only what He said, although the words that He spoke are very precious, they are very special. There are no words like the words that Christ used; He said that His words would never pass away (Matt.24:35). But there was what was manifested in Himself that we can take as a pattern. You had more in mind.
J.T.B. He must personify, exemplify and express the whole spectrum of the truth. We are to learn Him; “ye have not thus learnt the Christ, if ye have heard him and been instructed in him according as the truth is in Jesus”. That really suggests our communication or communion with such a Person. So that we learn what the particular aspects of the truth for the moment are.
R.H.B. Yes, and that personal name – “as the truth is in Jesus” – is intended to touch our affections. Paul speaks of “the love of the truth”, 2 Thess.2:10. The truth is loved because of the Person in whom it is expressed; He has become endeared to us.
N.J.H. The Lord says here, “I have been born for this”. His witness to the truth was more than His three and a half years of service, wonderful as they were. Is there some relation to Jesus Christ come in flesh? It was immediate; that new order had been introduced, come in flesh.
R.H.B. Yes, and as John said at the beginning of his gospel, grace and truth began to be. The law was given by Moses. You could say that there was some partial revelation of God in the law, particularly of His attributes, but the law was never sufficient to make God known to men. All it did was reveal man’s inadequacy. But those two things, grace and truth, subsisted in Christ. They are sometimes spoken of by us almost as in contrast, but the scripture presents them in Christ as inseparable. If a thing is not of the truth, it is certainly not grace, or gracious, and if it is not in the grace of Christ, it cannot be the truth. The two are inseparable.
J.C.G. It has been remarked that God is true. He is never said to be the truth; the Lord is said to be the truth, as has been said. The Lord and the Spirit, the two divine Persons who have taken relatively lower places in the economy, have come to express that attribute which is of God Himself.
R.H.B. Did you say God is said to be true? Could you give us that reference?
J.C.G. “… let God be true, and every man false”, Rom.3:4.
R.H.B. So the thought of truth, or the truth, has in mind our coming into the knowledge of God Himself and being formed by it. John says in his first epistle, “No one has seen God at any time: if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us”, 1 John 4:12. John goes on to say, “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God” (v.15). These things are immense. But it is in God’s mind, going back to the universality of it which was referred to, that “all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Tim.2:4.
P.A.G. In what you have brought out in these scriptures, there are three features that come to mind. The truth is substantial, and it is effective, and it is productive – it has results. In John 18 where you have read, the Lord speaks of what is of the truth. That must be something substantial, and then there are the effects of liberty and sanctification that you have drawn our attention to. Then in the epistles that you have read from, these persons addressed are the product of the truth. It generates something that answers to God.
R.H.B. And as we have been saying, the truth has come out not only to put men under responsibility, but for the pleasure of God. It is for His glory that it should be so.
J.C.G. David says in his psalm of repentance, “thou wilt have truth in the inward parts”, Ps.51:6. That is seen perfectly in Christ, of course, as has been said already, but the exercise would be that it should be with us too, in the “inward parts”.
R.H.B. That is exactly what I was thinking, that the truth in the sense in which we are speaking of it is not exactly in books. We are very thankful for the inspired word of God, and we are thankful for spiritual ministry, but the truth in the sense that we are speaking of it is in persons. It began to be in a Person, and the Scriptures draw attention to persons in whom the truth was formed, who could be spoken of as “of the truth”.
A.M.B. It is very important that the truth should be hearkened to. “Every one that is of the truth hears my voice”. You might say that the truth was there substantially and fully in Christ and borne witness to by Him, but it is with a view to those who are of the truth hearing His voice, which would involve receiving the truth.
R.H.B. Yes, and submitting to it, would you say? This is in the context of kingship; Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world” and the governor says, “Thou art then a king?”. Jesus says, “Thou sayest it, that I am a king”. It is really submission to Christ personally that is the beginning of any apprehension on our part of the truth.
A.M.B. And that is part of the truth, part of the mind of God, that His creature, man, should submit to His will, and submit to His Man.
R.H.B. God is going to see to that; He is going to bring everything into submission to Christ, but it is through His grace. In the manifestation of the truth, He is working to accomplish that, even in the time and conditions in which we are.
D.S. So is it right to say that obedience is the way into this matter? In Matthew’s gospel, the Lord in separating His own takes them up into a high mountain and teaches them (Matt.17:1). Does coming into the kingdom make persons suitable and teachable in order that they are obedient to Christ? As being obedient to Him, they come into the truth in that sense.
R.H.B. Yes. I think that leads us on to the second passage, because the Lord speaks of abiding in His word and becoming His disciples. Disciples are followers, but they are persons who are disciplined by the teaching of the One who they follow. I think it was Mr Stoney who said that every truth has been opposed3. There has been opposition to it, and the grace of God has had to overcome that. We have to submit to Christ personally and to the authority of His word and His example, and then we make progress.
N.C.McK. I wondered if you had some thought as to the difference between Christ being born for it and coming into the world. Perhaps you could open that up.
R.H.B. I thought that it brought the whole matter into focus. The Lord said that this was His reason for being here and that must be a pattern for us; there must be a model in that for those that have been enlightened through God’s grace. The Lord spoke about not keeping the light under a bushel (Matt.5:15). That was in hostile circumstances, but now we are speaking over the truth this afternoon in the most favourable circumstances. What more favourable circumstances could there be in Glasgow this afternoon than being here to speak over the truth? But we have a responsibility in the scene of testimony to bear witness to what we know. Perhaps we need encouragement in that, but I am looking for help.
N.C.McK. Coming into the world involves public testimony, the declaration of the truth of God in Christ. Nonetheless the truth was there in His whole life; God took immense pleasure in that there was one true Man here on earth.
R.H.B. What you are saying reminds me of what Paul said: “we have rejected the hidden things of shame, not walking in deceit, nor falsifying the word of God, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every conscience of men before God”, 2 Cor.4:2. We are responsible to do that whether that testimony is received or not.
P.A.G. The fact that the Lord refers to being born here, which does not come in at the beginning of this gospel, suggests that it was possible that God could be justified in a Man. The only time the Lord refers to Himself as a Man is when He refers to Himself as “a man who has spoken the truth to you”, John 8:40. He was born to speak the truth so that God would be justified in the world where God’s rights had been denied.
R.H.B. Yes, denied by man. That is very helpful, and it is striking that the Lord should speak of His birth and His coming into the world in John’s gospel, because He is presented in this gospel as a divine Person manifested to the world. But I think your connection with that reference, “a man who has spoken the truth to you”, is helpful, because He is setting out an example for those who follow Him.
A.R.H. The Lord was communicating things to them. He says, “I have made known to them thy name” (John 17:26); it was His purpose to make known the Father’s name, to make God known.
R.H.B. Indeed, both in His nature and in His attributes. I suppose this was leading on here to the cross. There was witness to the truth at the cross, the declaration of God; “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, John 1:18. What a declaration of God there was at the cross of both His nature and His attributes. The Lord was bringing out the truth, the whole truth. He is spoken of in that connection as the Apostle as well as the High Priest; He is “the Apostle … of our confession”, Heb.3:1.
D.C.B. I was wondering about the Lord’s expression used frequently in John’s gospel, “verily, verily”, as if He really asserts the truth that He is expressing.
R.H.B. I think it has been said that where the Lord says “verily, verily”, it is in the nature of a revelation. What is coming out, what the Lord is drawing attention to, is something that has not hitherto been known, it is in the character of revelation. Is that how you understand it?
D.C.B. That is helpful. I was thinking of chapter 3 where He says it in regard to the necessity for being born anew (v.3), that it is persons who are born anew who are characteristically of the truth.
R.H.B. That is a good example, because the man who the Lord was speaking to in chapter 3 was a Jew, and all his blessings, as Nicodemus would have thought, relied upon his birth as a Jew. But there was something in the character of a revelation in what the Lord said to him that was wholly new.
J.C.G. Keeping His word is very important in this scripture that you have referred to in John 8; “ye shall know the truth”, but only in relation to abiding in His word. The Lord’s word in the gospels was public when He was here on earth, but the word that He gives now is by the Spirit from the glory. We do not lose sight of the fact that His word continues in relation to what the assembly is.
R.H.B. That is right. How does the truth set us free? How have you been set free by the truth?
J.C.G. Well, as the Lord says, it is only by coming to know it; “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free”. Would that be through communication by divine Persons?
R.H.B. Yes, it is what delivers us practically from what would hinder. The knowledge of the truth at its most basic level delivers you from superstition, it delivers you from fear. By the knowledge of the truth of the glad tidings, for example, you come into peace with God, you are set free from a guilty conscience, you are set free from the fear of death, you are set free from the fear of judgment. But all these things are not just simply for my comfort, but God has in mind to secure a worshipper and a worshipper needs to be free. He needs to be free from every hindrance and obstacle that would bring in distance between him and God: “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free”. It seems to me that it is very blessed, and would cause our hearts to go out in thanksgiving to the blessed God, that we have been brought into the light of the truth and through it we have been liberated from the things that persons who do not know God are held in bondage by.
N.C.McK. Do you see that somewhat at Ephesus? It was after Paul spoke the word of truth to the elders from Ephesus that they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-6), and the truth that Paul ministered at Ephesus was opened up from there. They believed, received the Holy Spirit and the word of truth opened up what we read of in the epistle.
R.H.B. I think you see it very much in the Acts. The people who had been practising curious arts at Ephesus burned their books of charms and they reckoned up the cost of them (Acts 19:19). They were very valuable books, but they were put on the fire. In the light of the truth, they had no further time for rubbish like that, but it had previously held them in slavery. Of course, the Lord as we know goes on to speak of the Son setting you free (John 8:36), which might perhaps more connect with your thought of being brought into the fulness of divine thoughts. I was just thinking of it at its simplest level, that the knowledge of the truth sets us free. The question is whether we want to know the truth. Do we want to be set free? Are we committed to looking into the truth of God and making it our own and proving its liberating effect, so that when trials and tests come we are not swept away, for there is a bedrock in the soul that things can be measured against. The knowledge of the truth in the soul as having set us free gives us something against which everything can be tested.
W.M.P. In John 4 we find tradition and superstition, but the One into whose hands the Father has committed everything reveals the great matter that “God is a spirit; and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth” (v.24). I can see in what you are saying how the knowledge of the truth is going to liberate us in view of being responsive to God.
R.H.B. I think that is a good example, because the woman who Jesus spoke to was burdened by a sense of guilt – maybe by sorrow too, but certainly by guilt. She came to draw water, as has often been pointed out, when no one else was about, but she was set free. She went to the men of the city – she was no longer inhibited. The truth had set her free in a very real sense. So I ask myself, has the truth set me free? Is it just what I have been born and brought up in or what I can read about in books on the shelves, or have I been set free by the truth of God? The sense of that is exceedingly blessed in the soul and it causes the heart to go out Godward.
T.R.C. I wondered if in a similar vein you see in the man in John 9 the steps of a believer growing in his knowledge of the truth. I was thinking of the scripture that you referred to as to God’s desire that all men “should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”. The man in John 9 started with “One thing I know” (v.25), but then as he goes on in his experience and he is cast out by the Jews, the Lord finds him and he becomes a worshipper, and in that sense is set free. The exercise you are raising with us is that, while we can take comfort in the fact that we are saved, God’s thoughts go beyond that.
R.H.B. That man is a good example because he was in hostile circumstances. He took his place in the testimony, and all sorts of efforts were made to draw him off the ground that he knew, with the Jews making comments about various matters. But “One thing I know”; he stuck to that. And then, as you say, it resulted in him being cast out, but in the language of the next chapter, the good Shepherd was putting him out of the fold and he was led on in his soul into the greatest light of the moment, the knowledge of the Son of God. I think that John, in urging the importance of this matter of the truth throughout the gospel, brings forward tangible examples like that man of what he is saying.
N.J.H. Is the Spirit being the truth a subjective thought? I was thinking that John witnessed to the blood and the water (1 John 5:6-9) and his witness was true. In the epistle, it is the Spirit who bears witness; the Spirit is the truth. It is a subjective matter in our souls.
R.H.B. Yes, you get that in the epistle: the truth abides in us and that must be the Spirit’s formative work in the soul.
P.A.G. Are we set free in view of the enjoyment of life? There are three great themes in John’s gospel, light, liberty, and life. The light comes in; if we are subject to the light it sets us free, and we enter into what Paul speaks of as the life of God. This is the eternal life, to “know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”, John 17:3. But we need to be set free in order to enter into that.
R.H.B. We are in a sense speaking about the beginning of that road, but in speaking of the beginning, it is a good thing to see where it leads. What you are saying is very blessed, that we are set free by the knowledge of the truth, and although that in itself is a blessed thing, it is not the end. It has in mind our being secured and retained for the divine pleasure.
A.M.B. Does that connect with the thought of being “sanctified by truth” where you read in chapter 17?
R.H.B. I would like you to open that up for us.
A.M.B. It is a test, but as the truth of God is taken in, it must have the effect of setting us apart from the world seen in the context of what the Lord is saying here in John 17. It must set us apart from a world that has no regard for the truth, and no regard for the Man who is the truth. But if we love Him and we love the truth as it is “in him”, we will be set apart from the world. Is that what sanctification means?
R.H.B. Yes, and it is the very basis of what we speak of as separation, separation from the world. The truth must draw believers apart from where God is not. If we are going to have the experience of the presence of God, and what could be more blessed than that, it must involve holy and sanctified conditions. The tabernacle was spoken of first by God as a sanctuary; “they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them”, Exod.25:8. You get the impression that the exercises and difficulties that arise amongst us are because the enemy is seeking to encroach on that feature of a sanctuary. We have to cling to that.
A.M.B. The enemy would always be on the line of those in Nehemiah’s time who said, Come down (Neh.6:2,3). He would mix things, but what is sanctified by truth takes its character from the truth and is not mixed.
R.H.B. So speaking practically, we could experience being sanctified by the truth as we are together now. As the truth is before us, and as you say the One in whom the truth is, God may draw to our attention things that may be hindering us, so we might be sanctified by the truth. The Lord speaks of Himself; He says, “I sanctify myself”, John 17:19. Can you help us about that?
A.M.B. I do not know if I can, but it is a very wonderful thing that the Lord sets Himself apart for the saints where He is in the glory. The practical working out of this must involve the help of the Holy Spirit here, but the Lord has set Himself apart for the saints; He is our High Priest there.
R.H.B. I think that is very helpful. As you say, He is our High Priest in glory, and He has taken up the position of service to His own which continues in His new condition. He in that sense is the true Hebrew bondman, a “bondman for ever”, Exod.21:6. That should touch our hearts, that the Lord has done this for His own. In these holy communications between the Father and the Son, how much the saints – that very word ‘saints’ means sanctified ones – how much the saints form the subject of the conversation. As the apostasy deepens publicly, as the darkness deepens, particularly in this western part of the world where the light of the gospel has been, with everything that is of God being attacked and dismantled, it should hearten us that there is One above who is serving. How much that means to divine Persons. It struck me recently that we may have an inadequate understanding of what it means to God, in the midst of the corrupt conditions in which we are, that there should be those who are sanctified by truth. There is something exquisite for divine pleasure in such persons.
J.C.G. Do you think there is an example of it when Paul first went to Ephesus? He was in the company of the disciples there, and then there was contention. Some contended, but Paul separated the disciples and then the teaching began (Acts 19:9). Would that involve the truth being expounded?
R.H.B. Yes, and the truth of the assembly was brought out.
N.J.H. It is a very beautiful expression, “I sanctify myself for them”. Is that God’s thought for His people, that they might be as sanctified as Christ is sanctified where He is?
R.H.B. You mean that is really a standard of sanctification? I am sure that is the truth, but it is a challenging thing to lay hold of.
N.J.H. God does not give up His thoughts. The Lord Jesus does not need to be sanctified in that sense, but He has entered into that position, to show that it is God’s thought that we should be sanctified as the Lord Jesus is, where He is now.
R.H.B. That is right, and the divine service goes on with that in view while we are here in the mixed conditions in which we are. That service goes on in order that the truth might have its sanctifying effect upon our souls. It is a good thing to ask ourselves, for example, when was I last changed in my apprehension of the truth? When did I hear the truth ministered and it actually changed my outlook or my view of something, so that I became sanctified by it, when some aspect of the truth was opened up to me that perhaps I had not appreciated before? What was the effect, the practical effect of it?
J.S.S. I was thinking of the Ethiopian eunuch. He heard the truth in the Spirit’s power from Philip and it had an effect on him; “Behold water”, Acts 8:36. The eunuch had heard of the One whose life was “taken from the earth” (v.33), and not only was he baptised, but he went on his way rejoicing.
R.H.B. Yes, he did not become dependent on Philip. Philip had been a great help to him, had been used of God, but the truth had become formed in the eunuch’s soul so that he no longer required Philip; he was not needed as a prop to the eunuch. That is the effect of the truth.
W.M.P. In verse 17, the Lord Jesus speaks about “thy word”, the words of the One whom He addressed as Holy Father. In chapter 8 it was “my word”. Does coming to the knowledge of the truth, as you have been speaking of it, really bring us into relationship with divine Persons?
R.H.B. That is involved in it, that we should know “thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”, as the Lord says in verse 3. Is that what you had in mind?
W.M.P. That helps very much about what I was enquiring about. So really it is not exactly a system of doctrine, but it is intimately bound up with divine Persons.
R.H.B. That is the only thing that we as believers are going to take with us. Paul says in one of his epistles, “For we have brought nothing into the world: it is manifest that neither can we carry anything out”, 1 Tim.6:7. As far as material things are concerned, that is the case, but one thing we will take with us is the knowledge of God as revealed. We did not come into the world with that, but in His grace He has enlightened believers, the whole family of God, with the truth, and with a view to them having that for eternity. I think the knowledge of that puts everything else into perspective. What is my time and energy spent on – things that I have to leave behind, or things that I am going to carry with me into eternity?
D.C.B. You referred earlier to the reference to “the love of the truth” in 2 Thessalonians. Is the love of the truth important as having a sanctifying effect upon us? It is an interesting reference there because of course it is negative, referring to those that “have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved”, 2 Thess.2:10. It is basic to the believer, someone who has received the love of the truth, but then it is to grow and expand. As we love the truth, we will be formed by the truth.
R.H.B. That is why I read those passages in the epistles, because I thought they brought out persons who the apostle can speak of substantially, whom he loved in truth, and “not I only but also all who have known the truth, for the truth’s sake”. You can see how this thought of the truth had such a weight with the apostle. This is the apostle who wrote for our day particularly. “If I will that he abide until I come …”, John 21:22. In a day when heresies and untruths abound, John speaks of all “who have known the truth, for the truth’s sake which abides in us and shall be with us to eternity”. That brings out what you are saying, that the truth is held in affection; Paul says, “holding the truth in love”, Eph.4:15. It is not simply a mental grasp of the terms of the truth, but it has quickened the affections. The psalmist says, “quicken me according to thy word”, Ps.119:107. The affections have been reached; God has reached into the soul of believers with a view to touching their innermost beings with the light of the truth.
J.C.G. Do you think that what you have read in these two epistles is the expression of the new man? Earlier, the verse about “according as the truth is in Jesus” was referred to, but then Paul goes on to say, “put on”, and the new man comes into expression “in truthful righteousness and holiness”, Eph.4:24. That is what came into expression in John’s day, do you think?
R.H.B. It did. The truth is in Jesus in an absolute sense, but in these passages the truth is in persons like ourselves; that is where it should be seen, that is where it should be manifested. We think of our dear brother who has been taken in this area recently; there was a manifestation of the truth in his spirit as he moved among the brethren. I am just speaking simply about it. The brethren here have known him far better than I did, but from my contact with him it was not just that he had apprehended the truth in its terms in his mind, but it had become built into his soul, and therefore it was his life. It was what came out as he moved among the saints.
R.B. In both of these epistles that you have read from, it talks about “walking in truth”. In the first epistle it speaks of one who – again it is put negatively – does not “practise the truth”, 1 John 1:6. Could you say something about practising the truth and walking in the truth?
R.H.B. I would like to hear your thought.
R.B. I am seeking help. Clearly, as you have drawn out, it is more than simply going along to somewhere where the truth is held. It seems that there is exercise and some active sense in which the truth is being gone on with, and I seek to find my part in that.
R.H.B. Yes. I thought that came out in the third epistle where John says, “For I rejoiced exceedingly when the brethren came and bore testimony to thy holding fast the truth”. Now, how are we going to do that? I think the next part helps us; “even as thou walkest in truth”. I suppose that in the day in which John wrote, not everyone who professed Christianity was walking in the truth. He speaks of a man in this third epistle who “loves to have the first place” in the assembly (v.9); that is, he coveted the place that belongs to Christ alone, the first place. It says, “he loves to have the first place among them”. Whose place is that? In any gathering of the saints, the first place belongs to only one Person, the Lord Jesus, but this man coveted it for himself. In spite of conditions like that, John says “thou walkest in truth”. It is to help us in walking in the truth, even when we may be surrounded by what is inconsistent with it. In holding it fast, it was precious to Gaius; he was not going to let it go. We know, speaking practically, that if something is precious, we handle it very carefully, we do not want to drop it or damage it. If something is precious to us, we are prepared to enter into conflict for it. This man was “holding fast the truth”, but the secret was that he was walking in it. He was not simply fighting for a philosophy or a creed, but he had apprehended a way of life in Christ, and that was the path he was walking in.
N.C.McK. In regard to what was said earlier about Christ setting Himself apart for us, does that mean that the place which Christ has sets out fully God’s thought for believers. Where He is, and His place before God, sets out what God has in mind for me, and that is to sanctify me and affect the way I walk as I see everything that God has for me there in Christ.
R.H.B. That is the truth, and if you have apprehended that, it sets you free practically. If the place that Christ has is your place, for example, how could a place here in this world measure up to that?
P.A.G. Does this also involve subjection to the Holy Spirit? John says in his second epistle where you read in verse 2, “for the truth’s sake which abides in us and shall be with us to eternity”. That must involve the indwelling Spirit. The exercises of the third epistle that you have referred to, in terms of one seeking a place for himself, would be taken out of the way by subjection to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit would never cause us to exalt ourselves; He would only ever exalt Christ.
R.H.B. Help us how we can be subject to the Holy Spirit. How does that work in a practical way?
P.A.G. I think subjection to the truth and subjection to the Spirit are pretty much one and the same thing, because He is the Spirit of truth. We can ask the Spirit to help us to be subject to the truth, because He will never guide us in a different direction, and He will guide us into all the truth. The full expression of the truth that is seen in Jesus, “according as the truth is in Jesus”, as was quoted earlier, can be formed in us subjectively; it is all the truth.
R.H.B. And do you think guiding us into the truth involves guiding us into the moral exercises necessary that it should take substantial form in us characteristically?
P.A.G. We have spoken about the sanctifying effect of the truth. That must involve excluding certain things. The Lord was the only One who could sanctify Himself, but we are sanctified by the truth, which is the word of God, and the means of the sanctification, as I would understand it, is the present service of the Holy Spirit.
R.H.B. Yes, I am sure of that, and the fact that John refers here to it abiding in us “and shall be with us to eternity”, must involve that. It involves not only the presence of the Holy Spirit personally in the believer, but the formative effect of His presence.
Glasgow
6 October 2018