What Is Truth and Why Is It Important?

What Is Truth and Why Is It Important?

Posted on by Michele Morin

I’m planning a party for the kids who attend the church I call home. On the first Sunday in September, we will celebrate Promotion Sunday–and we’ll do it with Promotion Sundaes! Before we start a new year of classes, we’re going to pile ice cream and sticky toppings into bowls and pause to give thanks for the strong biblical foundation we are building together.

The kids and adults who come to Sunday school gather weekly around truth as we open the Word of God together. We bring our questions and then submit to the authority of Scripture, even as deeper questions arise:

  • How and why did God create us?
  • What is our only hope in life and death?
  • How can we glorify God?
  • Can anyone keep the law of God perfectly?

The Truth Done, Loved, and Lived

Research shows that one of the most significant factors in determining whether a high school graduate will continue attending church and following Christ after leaving home is whether or not they have been given the opportunity to learn and know the Word of God for themselves. That’s a powerful motivation for shaping our time together on Sunday morning around eternal truth and for equipping parents to be spiritual leaders in their homes.

But knowing the truth is not sufficient, and George MacDonald said it well:

No abstract truth held by purest insight… can make any man free.
But the truth done,
the truth loved,
the truth lived by the man,
the truth of and not merely in the man himself,” that is the truth that makes him free.

Knowledge in Scripture is always much more than what’s going on between your ears. Biblically speaking, knowledge means experience. When Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free,” he wasn’t probing his listeners’ Scripture memory habits. He was probing their sinful hearts!

Our interaction with the truth is intended to impact what our hearts love and the choices we make every day.

Is truth the governing force in your life?
Or is it just the swirl of whipped cream and the cherry on top?

“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Jesus wasn’t probing Scripture memory habits. He was probing sinful hearts. Is truth your governing force? Or is it just the swirl of whipped cream and the cherry on top?

And Now Let’s Talk Books…

Like Our Father

Mining the pages of Scripture for all they’re worth, we discover the treasure of God’s character. After all, the Bible’s a book about God, so when we resist the urge to make it all about us, we meet him there, and, ironically, we receive the gift of self-knowledge as a bonus.

Because God is holy, I can live in purity and integrity. Because God is love, I can be fueled by self-giving love with no hidden agenda. As we image God with our limited but faithful reflection of his attributes, we are even empowered to image him in our parenting practices.

This premise separates Like Our Father from other parenting books I have read, because Christina Fox has not set out to answer the question “How?” Instead, she urges readers to embrace “Who?” as the guiding question for our parenting journey.

Who is God?

  • The biblical record and our own experience reveal that his dealings with us, his fractious, prone-to-wander children, are always conducted with patience and love.
  • He is consistent, and he tenderly trains us.
  • When we drift off course, his discipline awaits us.
  • He provides what we need, but when we ask for stones that look, to us, like bread, his perfect love requires that he refuse.

Even in my present season of parenting adult children, I found Like Our Father pointing my heart back to gospel underpinnings. I still make mistakes and fail to be the mum I want to be. Once again, the question is not “How can I be better?” but “To WHOM can I turn for forgiveness and reconciliation and grace to start over?”

As we understand God’s motives, he, the perfect parent, invites us to seek his wisdom for ways in which we image him to our children in everyday situations–and over the course of a faithful lifetime.

Holding you in the Light,

God is holy, so I can live in purity. God is love, so I can be fueled by self-giving. In our limited but faithful reflection of his attributes, we image God in our parenting practices. #LikeOurFather @christinarfox @MoodyPublishers

Many thanks to Moody Publishers for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.

Is It Time for You to “Get to Know God?”

I recently heard from a reader, awake at 3:00 a.m., and downloading my latest free resource: “Although I have been a follower most of my life I have never really tried to get to know God.” She had decided that Isaiah 43 was a good place to start.

How about you?

This guided meditation based on Isaiah 43 highlights the truth that we live and work according to our concept of God. What if you began every day with the conviction that God, YOUR God identifies himself as the God who does a new thing, who makes a path through the wilderness, who blots out your transgressions and says, “Fear not!”

I’m committed to the truth that women can become confident followers of God and students of his word, and it’s my goal to provide resources to help you along that path. Subscribers receive them automatically, and you can receive your copy by simply entering your email and then clicking on the button below…

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and an affiliate of The Joyful Life Magazine, two advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees. If you should decide to purchase any of the books or products I’ve shared, simply click on the image, and you’ll be taken directly to the seller. If you decide to buy, I’ll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Photo by Molly Keesling on Unsplash

Published by Michele Morin

Michele Morin is a Bible teacher, writer, reader, and gardener committed to the truth that women can become confident Christ-followers and students of God's Word. She has been married to an unreasonably patient husband for thirty-plus years, and together they have four sons, four daughters-in-love, and six adorable grandchildren. Michele loves hot tea and well-crafted sentences, poems that stop her in her tracks, and days at the ocean with the whole family. She laments biblical illiteracy and advocates for the prudent use of “little minutes.” She blogs at Living Our Days, and you can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

53 thoughts on “What Is Truth and Why Is It Important?”

  4. I love the idea of Promotion Sundaes! Will have to remember that. And truth – yes, it is the only foundation that stands the test of time and the world’s troubles. We have an awesome responsibility and opportunity to ground young people firmly in Biblical truth. May we be faithful.

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  6. I love this post, Michele. One of my favorite passages to share is Hebrews 5.11-14. We don’t grow simply by knowing the truth but by living it out, knowing it experientially. And understanding that truth about our young people should make us approach youth ministry differently.

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    1. I’m pasting the passage in that you referred to become it’s so helpful: “About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
      It certainly does apply to youth ministry!

      Like

  8. Kudos to you Michele, for living out the truth of God’s goodness and grace to the children of your church. They may not remember Bible trivia, like the name of Moses’ wife (!), but they’ll remember those sundaes and the joyful celebration of studying God’s Word together. They’ll especially remember the love and attention that teachers like you gave them. I still carry with me fond memories of several godly, caring Sunday School teachers from long ago!

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  11. Jesus said He IS TRUTH. Out of all God’s attributes Jesus focused on truth – not love, not justice, not mercy. I believe it is because deception brought down Adam & Eve at the beginning and the Book of Revelation warns that deception is what will bring us down in the end. If possible, even the elect…. Jesus/Truth is our weapon for victory over lies and deception. Thank you, Michele, for putting the cherry on top of this like a warning beacon!

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  12. I loved “Is truth the governing force in your life?
    Or is it just the swirl of whipped cream and the cherry on top?” It challenges me to work at following the leading of the spirit through His word. Thanks for this nugget of truth!

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  13. Michele, such a thought-provoking post. Raising kids up to know and walk with Jesus in this age is challenging. With ours close to/just launched, we did all we knew to help them embrace the Lord and His truth. But, as you know, it comes down to what they do with what they’ve learned.

    I especially liked this: “Our interaction with the truth is intended to impact what our hearts love and the choices we make every day.”

    So much truth here!

    Like

  14. We knew that this would happen,
    with leaders oh so flawed,
    old anchor chains a-snappin’,
    and they would outlaw God
    because He’s inconvenient,
    makes sinners feel their guilt,
    quiets the irreverent,
    and makes elections tilt
    away from the progressive
    toward the older truth
    that some find so depressive
    since it defines the proof
    that the pagan life they love so we’ll
    is the fast track straight to hell.

    Like

  15. Love the Promotin Sundaes idea!

    I also loved when you said, ““To WHOM can I turn for forgiveness and reconciliation and grace to start over?” because I, too, am the parent of adult children. I can see now many mistakes I have made. I would love to go back; but since that’s impossible, perhaps starting over is the mindset I need to use.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. This so true: “Our interaction with the truth is intended to impact what our hearts love and the choices we make every day.” I pray for that in myheart and life and in the lives and hearts of my family! Thank you for your insights, Michele!

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  20. That sounds like a very fun reward! It’s great to open your home to the kids—I’m sure they will remember it!

    And you are right. Truth is important. Seems these days like it’s becoming very difficult to find, but if we look, it’s right there.

    Thanks for sharing your post at the Sunday Sunshine Blog Hop last week!

    Blessings, Laurie

    Like

  21. I’m grateful for your commitment to truth, Michele … living it, writing it, teaching it. It’s an important ministry in a culture that seems to be governed by feelings above all else.

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  23. Everyone would love the truth if it came in chocolate! You’re the first person I’ve seen compare the truth to ice cream instead of to lean beef and veggies, even though God compares God’s Word to sweet honey. I’ll eat truth with you any day!

    Like

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