Lesson # 8; Truth

Components of the Word of God

The Word from God’s mouth has been written, and it has been spoken. We call the Word of God “logos” for written, and “rhema” for spoken. They are one and the same. Not only are they the same, but they are in agreement, as I said in earlier lessons. Today I will begin a 4-part lesson on the components of the Word of God; truth, time, knowledge, and wisdom. We will also look at the enemy’s opposition to these components. Here is the component, truth.

• Truth – God “chose to give us birth through the word of truth . . . “ (Jms 1:18). Truth is alive, and is what gives "birth" to our new life in God. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth (Jn 14:17). He, the Holy Spirit, will help us by teaching us, and by verifying consistency in the Bible. There is no one verse in the scriptures that disallow other verses, unless the Father has set about a change. If the Father changes something, He will speak about the change and we will know a change is coming. An example of this is that we know about the change in sacrificing animals in the temple. This practice was changed when Jesus became our sacrifice. But if God does not change something in scripture, then there is no stand-alone verse which will disallow other verses in the Bible.

In the scriptures it is prophesied that men with wrong spirits (not the Holy Spirit) will try to change the consistency of truth. We find an example of this in Daniel, where he writes that the Beast tries to change the set times and seasons (Dan 7:25). We see that John also talks about the beast in Revelation, and that deceiving spirits proceed from the mouth of the dragon, beast, and false prophet (Rev 16:13-14). Paul, Peter, Jude and John also wrote about false apostles (2 Cor 11:13), false brethren (2 Cor 11:26 & Gal 2:4), false prophets (1 Jn 4:1), and false teachers (2 Tim 4:3 & 2 Pet 2:1). Jude has a longer discourse dedicated to exposing false brethren who “secretly slipped in among you” (Jude 1:3). These scriptures show us the enemy's plans to oppose truth. Here are some of the warnings against the false things being spoken during the 1st century reign of the Church;

o Took away freedom and made them slaves (Gal)
o denying sovereign Lord, exploiting Christians with greed, and making stories up (Pet)
o are of the world, speaking from the viewpoint of the world, do not listen to the truth (Jn)
o inventing teachings to suit themselves (2 Tim)
o change the grace of God into a license for immorality, deny Jesus , reject authority, slander celestial beings, speak abusively against whatever they do not understand, follow their basic instincts into sin, flatter others for their own advantage (Jude)

Application - Though we can reason with our mind that the examples above do not line up with scriptures, which scriptures do they not line up with? Can you find the appropriate scriptures (at least one) for each false teaching? In 2 Thess 2:10-12 we learn about the importance of loving truth. What is the warning for those who do not love the truth?