What is truth?

Pilate famously responded to Jesus with these words during his trial. Pilate asked Jesus a few minutes before, So you are a king? To which Jesus replied, You say I’m 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.

Pilate’s response feels like an offhand remark, but it reveals much about the man and his day. Ancient Greek and Roman philosophers wrestled with the idea of truth. Pilate, an educated man, likely adopted the view that no one can really know truth, thus his retort to Jesus.

Questions about truth continue to this day. I certainly can’t say that I understand post-modern philosophy, but I do realize this worldview assaults objective truth. I often read things like, “that’s true for you, but not for me,” or “that’s true for your particular culture and your time and your place, but not for me or my culture or my place.”

How do we live as a person, or a culture, without some concept of truth? Look around, there’s plenty of evidence of lives going off the rails with no regard to objective truth. Everyone does what’s right in their own eyes.

Fortunately, Jesus provided a different way. To know Jesus is to know truth. Or, to put it another way, to listen and respond to Jesus guides me into truth. Or, with more clarity, the words of Jesus are Truth.

If I’m interested in truth, then I will read the words of Jesus, wrestle with the words of Jesus, dissect the words of Jesus, search for the meaning of the words of Jesus, and most importantly—apply the words of Jesus in my daily life.

Because other than the word of God, what is truth?

John 18 in week forty six of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Michael Carruth