Paul suggests people can spend their life studying and still not know the truth. “Always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 2Tim 3:7
People do course after course yet have no stability in life and beliefs? People chase philosophies and knowledge hoping for insight to give them the edge in life. Yet they end up in the same messes, frustrations and fruitlessness as everyone else.
They constantly learn, but never come to know truth.
Others devour magazines, scour the internet and chase latest ideas, hoping for something to liberate them from the ordinary.
They spend their life constantly learning, but never coming to know truth that really works for them.
Truth comes from outside this world, not from the people in the world. Truth is a person, Jesus Christ.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father except by me.” Jn 14:6
Looking for truth from man is looking in the wrong place. Man’s ways are insignificant compared to God’s thoughts and ways.
“My thoughts are not yours, neither your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours and my thoughts than yours.” Is 55:8,9
Thoughts that come from mysticism, through occult practices or new age ideas are even worse. They come from our enemy who is intent to destroy you.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Jn 10:10
When people look to man’s ideas or to the enemy’s deceptions it is no wonder they never come to the knowledge of the truth.
God wants everyone to know truth.
God “desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1Tim 2:4
If people don’t know truth they are the devil's captive.
“God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, who took them captive to his will.” 2Tim 2:25
Jesus told us truth sets us free.
“You will know the truth and truth with set you free.” Jn 8:32
The foundational truth we all need is that Jesus is God's Son, who became human to live sinlessly and then be killed, to pay for our sins, and that he rose from the dead, defeating sin and death for us. When we put our faith in Christ as our saviour, for the forgiveness of all the wrongs we have done, we are forgiven and become God’s child, to live with God forever.
That truth transforms us, because it impacts us at a much deeper level than our mind or emotions. Our spirit comes alive, because we are ‘born again’. That can’t be achieved by philosophy, mysticism, education, knowledge or any form of human or satanic effort. Only God can do that.
When people spend their life looking for truth it’s because they have not become transformed on the inside, and they know that something is missing. Sadly they end up looking in all the wrong places.
Yet there is another problem Christians suffer from that blocks them from the truth. Christians, as well as people in the world, can close their eyes and ears to the truth. They may not do that consciously.
I have often heard Christians discussing some problem or other they need to deal with and tell how they are going to do research on some possible solution or other. There is nothing wrong with getting sound advice and making wise choices, but there is real danger in rejecting what God is saying.
My wife and I have assisted families who have ignored the things we shared with them. They seem to have the notion that there may be a better or easier way to work on their issues than the Biblical wisdom we pointed out to them.
When we reject what the Bible says we are scorning it, or trampling on it, as if it was of no value. So note what wise King Solomon said about that.
“A scorner seeks wisdom, and does not find it: but knowledge is easy unto him that understands.” Prov 14:6
When we scorn God’s word we won’t receive the truth and wisdom it offers us. So we start an endless search for the truth, never finding it, since we already rejected it. We end up ‘ever learning, but never coming to the knowledge of the truth’.
When we receive God’s Word and believe what God says, and diligently put in practice what God asks of us, then we know the truth. But if we don’t like God’s way of dealing with things and won’t humble ourselves, we are scorning God and His Word. We end up on a treadmill of trying one thing after another with nothing ever working out for us. Ever learning but never coming to know the truth.
Friends, Jesus is Truth. God’s Word is sure. God has some challenging things for you, like humbling yourself and dying to your selfishness. God has a model for a godly marriage and family and for godly living. God has a very high moral standard. God asks us to trust Him when it looks like everything is going wrong. But if you don’t do what God asks and won’t accept the truth, you will end up in an endless and fruitless search that will get you nowhere.
Humble yourselves before God and come to the Knowledge of the Truth.
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