“till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph.4:13)
Is the Truth an “it” or a “Who?”
In my last post (The Shift) I mentioned a prophetic word from 1982 predicting a major shift in the expression of Christianity within a generation. One of the expressions that has to change is how we divide ourselves by our doctrines. If one of the purposes of the equipping gifts (Eph.4:11) is to bring us into the “unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God,” which it is, then maybe we ought to find out what that means. Truth is a Person (Jn.14:6), not necessarily your particular interpretation of Scripture. The Pharisees possessed the truth of Scripture but they did not possess the Truth. Here’s a quote from the movie “Furious Love” where Jan Sjoerd Pasterkamp sums this up so well.
“And there was an interview with a Dutch church historian, and they asked him what did he see about the people of the Dutch church. And he made the most interesting remark. He said, “We have dozens of protestant denominations and Christian groups, because,” he said, “to the Dutch person, truth is more important than unity.” And when I heard it, I thought, “I have to write to say in a whole sermon what you said in one sentence,” because, what is truth?
What he meant by truth, and rightly analyzed, is my interpretation of the Bible, my dogmatic views, my doctrinal views. But Jesus said, “I am the truth.” Truth is not a teaching. Truth is a person, and if you have that person, you have the Truth. And in that person there is always unity. But if we put our understanding of the Scripture and our doctrinal views higher than the person of Jesus, (and I’m going to say maybe something very sharp, and I want to say it respectfully and honorably) we worship idols. Anything you place above the Lord Jesus, is an idol. Our unity is not in a teaching, it’s in a person. And in that person, we always find one another.”
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Really important message: Truth is a Person. Well said.
Thanks. I appreciate your comments.
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Hello Mel, I did a post with the similar title as yours but in a question form, “Is the truth a person?” Your explanation substantiates the point I made in my post. I wrote my post yesterday and the funny thing was I stumble on your post today and I see it as a confirmation to what I wrote.
Sounds like God. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by. Blessings.