The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Donald J. during the 2008-2009 League.
Mission: Research - Truth
Psalm 15:1-2 – "LORD, who may dwell in Your sanctuary? Who may live on Your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart." These verses are describing truth as a necessity to be in the presence of God.
Psalm 25:5 – "Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are my God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long." This verse is saying truth needs to be taught, that we must guided through it.
Psalm 43:3 – "Send forth Your light and Your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell." This verse is describing truth as a light for our paths that it will guide us to God.
Psalm 51:6 – "Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom." This verse is referring to how God wants truth in us.
Psalm 86:11 – "Teach me Your way, O Lord, that I may walk and live in Your truth; direct and unite my heart to fear and honor Your name." This verse is referring to the ways of the Lord, and how learning them we can gain truth.
Psalm 119:30 – "I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on Your laws." This verse is referring to truth as a path that must be chosen.
Psalm 119:43 – "Do not snatch the word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in Your laws." This verse is asking God not to make us out to be liars because we hope in His word.
Proverbs 12:19 – "Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts for only a moment." This verse is portraying truthful lips as everlasting, in other words, that the truth passes far beyond that of the moment it’s in.
Proverbs 12:22 – "The LORD detests lying lips, but He delights in men who are truthful." This verse is speaking of God’s love for truth and hatred for lies.
Proverbs 16:13 – "Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value a man who speaks the truth." This verse is referring that among men, the man who is truthful is valued higher than any other.
Proverbs 23:23 – "Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding." This verse is speaking about truth being the most valued item acquirable, and that we are to gain it and not let go of it.
Isaiah 48:1 – "Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel and who came forth from the loins of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness." This verse is referring to Israel and how although they call on the name of the Lord, it is not in truth. Later on they are rebuked for this.
Isaiah 59:14 – "Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the street, and uprightness cannot enter." This verse is speaking of truth failing and how a city is corrupted without it.
Isaiah 59:15 – "Yes, truth is lacking; and he who turns aside from evil makes himself prey. Now the LORD saw, and it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice." This verse is referring to the men that hold to the truth in a city that hates it, and how they become prey because of it.
Zechariah 8:16 – "These are the things which you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts." In this verse God is commanding that we speak to each other in truth.
John 3:21 – "But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." This verse is stating that a man who live in the truth will be in the light.
John 4:24 – "God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and truth." This verse is referring to how God is spirit and truth and we should worship Him in spirit and in truth.
John 8:45 – "Yet because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me!" This verse is referring to how when people reject the truth, they reject the truth tellers.
John 14:16-17 - "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you." This is referring to truth in that it must be added to us, that we cannot gain it on our own.
John 16:13 - "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come." This verse speaks of how, with the Spirit, we will gain all truth in time, not just some.
Romans 1:18 - "For God's wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative." This verse is speaking of how the hindrance of the truth will bring God’s wrath.
2 Corinthians 12:6 - "Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say." This verse is referring to how boasting in the truth, about God, is not foolish when it is for the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 13:8 - "For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth." This verse is saying that we cannot harm the truth, only that we can further it.
Galatians 2:14 - "When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?" This verse is rebuking those who do not follow the truth of the Gosple.
Ephesians 4:15 - "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ." This verse is referring to how if we speak the truth in love we will grow in Christ.
Ephesians 4:24 - "and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." This verse is referring to us, and how when we put on our new selves (become saved) we put on perfection made in truth.
Ephesians 4:25 - "Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body." This verse is speaking of how we should speak to one another in truth since we are members of one body.
Ephesians 6:14 - "Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place." This verse is telling us to put truth on like a belt, one to hold our spiritual armour on.
Colossians 1:5 - "the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel." This verse is referring to the Word of God as truth.
2 Thessalonians 2:12 - "and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." This verse is referring to how denying truth leads to condemnation.
1 John 1:6 - "If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth." This verse is referring to how if we say one thing and do another we don’t have the truth of the gospel.
1 John 1:8 - "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." This verse is referring to how if we claim we have no sin, we do not have the truth of the gospel.
1 John 2:4 - "The man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him." This verse is referring to how if we really know the truth we will do as God commands.
1 John 2:21 - "I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth." This verse if referring to how the truth is most openly received by those who already have the truth.
1 John 3:18 - "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." This verse is talking about how we are to love in truth and not with sweet words.
2 John 1:4 - "It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us." This verse is referring to how we should rejoice in the truth and those who have it.
In the many verses found, a common theme arose that I noticed quickly. That God is the source of truth, and that truth is often times related to righteousness and holiness. Not only that, but also, we as a fallen people cannot gain truth on our own without God. If it is anything worth noting, also I found that truth is something that must be learned. Along with that idea, truth is something through which you are guided. The way I take this is that we must be guided through truth in order that we do not mistake something false for something true. When I thought about this it made perfect sense when reading some other verses, saying how we are corrupted and pervert the truth as it is.
Although I could have added many verses on lying and why it is wrong in comparison to the truth. These verses on truth speak plenty well on why the truth is good and righteous. Not only does it speak of truth being valued among both God and men alike, it is commanded by God for us as believers to speak in truth to others and Him. In step with that, one of the verses also commands us to worship in truth, in other words, that we should mean what we sing on those Sunday morning services and any other time we are in worship.
Although I have done studies on subjects related to truth and/or lying, actually doing one directly for truth was a nice change of pace. It is simple to understand truth and even more obvious to see that it is a Christ like character trait. However, that still doesn’t make it easy to keep to as a practice. Someone once said "It is as easy and as hard as that." In simple translation it means something along the lines that although the concept is very simple the act itself is extremely difficult. Take the example of someone trying to quit smoking, although the concept of just stopping is simple, actually doing it takes a lot of will power and support from either people or special medicines. This applies to all areas of life, not just telling the truth all the time. However it is an effective way to show what it is like. It is hard to always tell the truth, but the concept is very simple, "Do it."
In the end, it helped me see a few things I didn’t always notice. A good example is the application of truth or definition of truth. It was a good experience to study truth as it is rather than what it is related to or how it is a part of something else. I also was happy to find the verses needed for this, because although there are many verses with the word "Truth" not all of them have to do with why it is good or why it should be practiced. It was overall, a worthwhile study.
