What is truth?

Romans 2:2b

...God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.

Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, "Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." Pilate asked, "What is truth?" (John 18:37-38). Indeed this is the big question of not only Biblical times but our present-day as well: What is truth?

Truth is especially difficult to find amidst "spin control" -- when the fact is regularly shaped, turned, and twisted toward whichever meaning will benefit the agenda of the spinner. So what hope do we have of ferreting out fact from fiction? Of making the right decisions? I guess it is one reason I am grateful we have a just God who sees through spin control and falsehood into real truth. In our passage today, Paul tells us God's judgment (unlike our own) is based on reality, not suspicion or imagination. Hebrews 4:13, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

But what about help today with making decisions or judgments when the facts or truth seem so elusive? The Bible tells us in Malachi 3:5, "So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me." In other words, it is our relationship or nearness to Jesus through the Spirit and the Word which allows us to discern truth in confusing circumstances.

The Psalmist writes in Psalm 86:11, "Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name." There we have it: for the truth to be revealed to us the requirement is an undivided heart. His counsel, His way, His heart -- and you will find His truth.