Feb. 25, LH, God’s Truth

God’s Truth Leads to Complete Freedom

John 18:33-34 ESV – So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” ³⁴ Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 

To give truth to him who doesn’t love it is to only give him more multiplied reasons for misinterpretation. – George McDonald

John 18:35 ESV – Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 

John 18:36-38 ESV – ³⁶ Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” ³⁷ Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”  ³⁸ Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

Are you open to truth?

Truth Restricts my Freedom? 

‘Truth’ is linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces and which extend it. A ‘regime’ of truth. – Michel Foucault

You cannot go on ‘explaining away’ forever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on ‘seeing through’ things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it.”

The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. …

If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see.” – C.S. Lewis

What is IN the Truth Claim?

WHO is Making the Truth Claim?

Does Jesus have a history of power trips?

Philippians 2:6-7 ESV – Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant

Truth Claims Keep Us from Being Free

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they need more masters. – Benjamin Franklin

Why do we pursue truth?

Does it Correspond with Reality?

Can you live in consistently and life still work?