I Tell You the Truth

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

I TELL YOU THE TRUTH

John 18:38-40

38 "What is truth?" Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release 'the king of the Jews'?" 40 They shouted back, "No, not him! Give us Barabbas!" Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion.

NIV

Jesus had just said that everyone on the side of truth listens to him and Pilate makes this astonishing response, “What is truth?” This could be seen in two different ways. First, truth is the age-old question man has been in search of, or second, truth is the last thing anyone wants to know. It also might be seen as everyone has their own truth and thus there is no absolute truth. We can certainly see each of those views expressed in the world. Those who believe in Jesus also believe he is the absolute truth. He has even said so when he said, “I am the way, and the truth and the life”. Jesus also started off many teachings with, “I tell you the truth”. But there are many who do not acknowledge that Jesus is the truth, they have either suppressed the idea of Jesus being the truth so as to not having to acknowledge their deeds as evil, or they simply do not know the truth and are actually in pursuit of finding truth, in whatever form that is for them. We wonder what kind of response we would receive if whenever we said anything we started off with, “I tell you the truth”? Then again there can be another view that most people do not tell the truth, in fact, they always lie, as does the father of lies, Satan. So then how would we be seen if we did always said, “I tell you the truth”? If we do say that, we better quote the word of God, for anything else uttered from our lips may not be absolute truth. There are a whole lot of opinions, but only one truth. Well, after Pilate makes this amazing comment, he goes back out to the Jews and tells them he finds no basis for a charge against Jesus. Pilate tries to get rid of this problem by offering the Jews a chance to have Jesus released, but that is the last thing the Jews wanted, at least the Pharisees, the teachers of the law and the high priest wanted, they want Jesus executed, they what to quash this rebellion of his, this so-called truth, of his. We can still see that prevalent in our world today. Those who want any evidence of Christianity removed from the public square, miss-quoting or miss-using the intent of the founders regarding the separation of church and state. What the founders and thus our constitution states is that the state cannot demand any one region be practiced by the people. Which means the freedom to practice any religion. They want their beliefs to be displayed in the public square, but not the belief of Christianity. Again, what is truth? Man has been trying to make up his own truth in an effort to discredit the truth of Jesus, the truth of the word of God. But we will continue to live by this truth of God, we will not go silently into the night, we will speak up and we will speak the truth. We will tell you the truth.