In this paper we are concerned with just what truth is in relation to the Holy Spirit.

E-mail: secretary@ccg.org

This paper is available from the World Wide Web page:
http://www.logon.org and http://www.ccg.org

The Holy Spirit gives understanding. Christ had promised the capacity that was given to the Church (Acts 1:4-8). Before this, the Holy Spirit had only been given (at the direction of God) to select individuals within Judah or Israel – it hadn’t been taken outside of Israel. But this promise was that it would be given to the Gentiles. It would be given to a larger number of people who were then called and placed within the body of the congregation of God. That was an extension of the previous capacity.

John has a lot to say about the Holy Spirit. The gospel of John is extremely important and indeed turns, or pivots, on the concept of truth (Jn. 14:12-21). Truth is the essential message of John’s gospel and epistles, and the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. This message is throughout John to 2John and 3John also.

As Christ was in the Father, so the Father was in him and so he and the Father are in us. That is the promise and it is the Spirit that makes that possible.

The Spirit gives to the elect the capacity to speak and what we say is given through the Spirit, which is the spirit of truth and that Spirit is the witness (Jn. 15:26-27).

Pilate said to Christ: "What is truth?" (Jn. 17:38). Truth is the centrality of God. It is uprightness; that which is factual; can be relied on and is correct. It implies justice, because by truth things can be determined correctly and fixed in place. Conversely Satan, the adversary, is the father of lies and deceives people so they will act irrationally against the will of God. The only way to do that is to lie.

Truth becomes a deed and a right action. From true thinking we get true actions, which lead to true worship. The Father is seeking those people to worship Him in spirit and truth. Therefore only truth will determine our correct worship.

God is a God of truth. Truth is one of the five centralities of the law and of the nature of God.

Both John the Baptist and Jesus Christ came to bear witness to the truth (Jn. 5:19-46).

The word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ is the truth that is to be believed and relied upon, so that we can inherit eternal life. So John 17:3 plus this word of God are methods of eternal life.

Through Christ, and the knowledge of the One True God and that Jesus Christ is His son (Jn. 17:3) truth is imparted and that truth makes the individual free (Jn. 8:21-32). Even though they imprison our body, they cannot imprison our mind.

The Spirit is the mechanism, and Christ is the way, truth and the light and we go to the Father through that way, truth and light (Jn. 14:6). Once we are given to Christ, we proceed in that way which is the way of truth. So we have to be concerned to rightly discern truth from fiction, because the truth is the way of action. The Spirit then guides us in that mechanism or core of truth (Jn. 16:5-15).

The concept is that the truth is the word of God and we are sanctified in the word of God. So the determination of the right structure of the word of God is central to our sanctification; because the word of God is truth (Jn. 17:17).

Failure in the truth was the condemnation of the priesthood (Mal. 2:1-12).

Christ prayed that we may be all one as he and the apostles were one in God’s truth (Jn. 17:20-26). The entire reason for Jesus Christ’s ministry and his birth and his death was to consolidate the truth (Jn. 18:37). That is how important truth is to the elect.

The words of the Bible are truth and they interpret each other. The Bible is a living organism. Only with the Holy Spirit can we know the truth that is in God.

Our job is to defend the truth (Rom. 15:1-6). The function of the Church is to glorify God the Father (the Father and God of our Lord Jesus Christ) and not to glorify Jesus Christ as God. The Father is the subject of the glorification.

It is the truth and the knowledge of the truth that gives us the capacity to correct, encourage, educate and edify one another (Rom. 15:7-13). That is done in love because love follows from truth.

Even Paul’s work, in terms of his boasting, was based on truth. The whole structure was of truth (2Cor. 7:14). He was boasting about the churches and not of himself (2Cor. 11:10). The truth must be rightly divided.

In the church all of us have different uses or tasks – some to honour, some to dishonour. Dishonour occurs by sin but menial tasks also can fall within the ambit of the understanding (2Tim. 2:19-20). All of us have a mixture of truth and sin and it is from sin that we purge ourselves, so that we are vessels of honour (verse 21).

Repentance is the fact of acknowledging the truth and then acting on it in deeds (2Tim. 2:24-26).

We can’t do anything against the truth of God. God’s word does not come back empty. We can only work for the truth (2Cor. 13:5-8).

If we are not concerned with what is true then we are not of the elect (Eph. 4:17-32). The expectations of the elect are dealt with in Ephesians chapter 5.

All of the illumination of the elect is based on truth and done in love. The fruits of the Spirit which lead to that situation, as a church, a family, or as a group, are achieved through goodness and righteousness and truth. Without truth none of these other things are possible.

Once we are chosen we cannot fall from the truth (Heb. 10:26-39).

Truth is central to the faith. The false system concerning Christ is that of Antichrist and of lies. It is not acceptable in the faith to ignore truth in biblical matters, and say they are not relevant. That is not embracing the truth. The truth of God is rightly divided by the elect in the Holy Spirit. Selective truth is ignoring the truth, i.e. we take the truths we want to hear and believe.

The whole truth of the Bible requires action in deeds and in worship. By committing our ways to the Lord, He then establishes our thoughts (Prov. 16:3), not the other way around. When we are given knowledge of a matter, we act on it. Then our ways are established and our thoughts are then established in a more complete understanding of what we are doing.

Evil is a function of lies and deceit because it seeks to wrest the word of God. It is no longer truth. Our function and duty is the preaching of the truth of God, the acting upon it and the worship of God in spirit and in truth through the Holy Spirit.