Truth

There’s no such thing as “your truth.” There’s just your opinion, or perhaps your perspective, and the actual truth. Obviously, there has been a major assault on truth in our culture. Truth has been replaced by weaponized narratives and personal preferences. But it’s the truth that makes us free; it’s the lies we believe and perpetuate that keeps us in bondage.

When we let go of our mooring with the truth we eventually become blind and our hearts are darkened, which results in living our lives in futility (Rom.1:21-22).

Paul said that people’s hearts are “veiled” because their minds have been blinded by the “god of this age”:

3And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Cor.4:3-5 TPT)

What Paul is saying is that Jesus is the ultimate Truth…about God and about us.

1:18 Until this moment God remained invisible to man; now the authentic begotten, the blueprint of man’s design who represents the innermost being of God, the son who is in the bosom of the father, brings him into full view! He is the official authority qualified to announce God! He is our guide who accurately declares and interprets the invisible God in us. (John 1:18 MIRROR *)

But who or what is the “god of this age?”

Traditionally, this is interpreted as Satan, the deceiver and accuser. While this is true in an overarching sense, it’s much more tangible in our everyday lives. It’s a “stronghold” that binds our minds to ideas, arguments, and philosophies designed to keep us from the knowledge of God.

3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  (2 Cor.10:3-5 NIV)

If we don’t take these thoughts captive, they will capture us. They will become our “normal” to where we may even despise the truth when we encounter it.

To quote Morpheus, it’s the “world that’s been pulled over our eyes.” It is a “Matrix” designed to distract us and keep us blind to Truth that leads to our freedom.

As Watchman Nee once said, there is a “mind behind the system“—the societal construct alienated from the knowledge of God called the “world.” And this mastermind is behind all deception, accusation, and trickery. The goal is to keep us from embracing the light of Truth that makes us free.

Its goal is to keep us in its insidious slavery.

This deception and trickery is not mostly overt, but covert. Like the Matrix, it’s the fishbowl we’ve been swimming in. It’s the lies we believe about ourselves, others, which stem from the lies we believe about God.

This is why what Paul is saying in 2 Cor.4:3-4 is so important.

Another “veil” that blinds us to the truth is our own self-deception, which affects both believers and unbelievers alike.

It’s been said that when we rationalize away the truth because we don’t like what it may mean for us, we are resorting to rational-lies.

When we begin to rationalize, our conscience—which is our heart’s truth detector—becomes hardened, “seared with a hot iron,” rather than it helping us live authentically, we become hypocritical (1 Tim.4:2).

Our lives become increasingly compartmentalized by these rational-lies. This is why we must guard our heart at all costs, for it determines the course our lives will take (Prov.4:23).

Other distractions can be rather benign, like our cultural norms, our job, the need for endless entertainment; and they can be as malignant as our fears, addictions, and our shame.

As Paul said earlier, the religious hearts of his day were blinded because of their pre-conceived ideas about God. Their Messiah did not come as they expected, so their hearts remained closed.

14But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. (2 Cor.3:14-15 TPT)

The age-old question remains, how we come to know the truth?

First, we need to understand that the truth is a Person, which makes it ultimately relational, not intellectual (see John 8:32; 14:6).

Embracing the truth requires great courage and fortitude. More than we can actually muster while living in this “fishbowl.” That’s why we need to open our hearts and let Jesus remove this “veil” so that we can finally begin to see what is true.

The good news is, this was God’s intent for us all along!

⁶ For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Cor.4:6 NASB)

Beloved of God—which is everyone because Jesus died for all and wants all people to know Him—when we begin this journey toward the truth, we can begin our transformation that makes us truly authentic and free.

16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate3:18 Or reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Cor.16-18 TPT).

* All emphasis added.

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