Truth in Love

Have any of you ever heard that you eat 7 spiders a year in your sleep? Did you also know that fact was made up by someone trying to prove we will state a fact with no evidence of where it came from?

Or have you heard that cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis? That also isn’t true.

Have you heard that you can see the Great Wall of China from space? Also not true

See, people have a hard time attempting to verify facts and beliefs. If someone who we agree with tells us something we believe it, and if someone who believes something different then us tells us something we are automatically skeptical. But in either case we don’t often test if things are true or not. We just blindly believe things.

John here is seeking to tell us the greatest truth that holds all other truths together and the greatest point from where to find truth: love. Because those who truly love us will not seek to deceive us but to bring us the truth.

Test the truth

These readers were often uncritically accepting the teaching of others and claiming it as “truth”.

John calls them to investigate the source of what others are telling them. To critically assess what others say.

There are a lot of “false prophets” in our world today. Those who make claims as to what is right and wrong, what is true and false, what you should affirm and who you should consider “not an ally”. Every voice you listen to, that is telling you what they believe is true, is a prophet of a spirit of either good or evil.

Paul tells us this in 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 “Don’t stifle the Spirit. Don’t despise prophecies, but test all things. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil.”

See, there are a lot of voices trying to get our attention. Many who try to tell us they have the “truth”. But we need to be able to discern what is the truth and what is not. To not be naive or gullible, to not just agree with everything the world tells us we should believe. That would be misguided. Everything that you watch, read, and listen to is trying to influence you for a certain belief. And just because the majority of people believe something does not make that thing true. In fact, it is very easy for a large group of people to be misguided about something.

(Elevator experiment video)

Why didn’t that girl ask everyone else why they were turned that way? Or when they started doing that? Or question if she was getting pranked? Because in the face of overwhelming majority we will just go along with anything without testing its truthfulness. That is why, if we were born 300 years ago, almost all of us would have been fine with slavery. No matter what we hope we would have believed, that is the truth.

But John gives a test to help us figure out the truth. How? He says “what do they confess? Do they boldly confess Jesus as Lord?” Are they unwilling to do that? Are they unsure? Are they afraid to confess that in the face of those challenging the Bible?

Jesus warns us of this in Matthew 7:15 ““Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.” And Jesus tells them that they can tell who are the wolves by their fruit.

So there are two important things we have to factor when testing for the truth. Not everyone who says they are looking out for our good is telling the truth. And that we will know what people truly believe by what they say and if their fruit is consistent with their words.

To be a Christian doesn’t mean that we believe everyone has good motives, it doesn’t mean that we are naive or gullible. It doesn’t mean that we are superstition about everything because we are scared everyone is lying to us. In fact, it means that we are able to distinguish between godliness and worldliness.

Listen to the right voices

John in v 4 reminds us that even though the world is confusing, that it sometimes may be hard for us to distinguish between what is the truth and what is a lie, that we can overcome this because God has overcome the world. That God is greater than the deceiver, and Christ can bring us hope in a confusing world.

He tells them there will be things the world says that will be enticing to us. That it is easier for us to listen to what the world says rather than God but that we must seek to listen to God through it all. That we must seek the source rather than the imposter. We should not be surprised when the world listens to the world. We shouldn’t be surprised when what those around us say sounds different than what we say, in fact we should be expecting that.

Let me put it this way: If everything you believe is what those around you believe. If the morals of the world aligns with your morals. If what you accept as truth aligns perfect with a political party. Then you aren’t seeking the truth you are just trying to look like the world around you. You have been caught hook, line, and sinker, with what the world wants you to believe.

See the world likes to tell us two things. “Tolerance means you can’t disagree with another persons life style.” And “Those people who believe differently then us are dangerous and we need to ban everything they believe is true.” Both of those are false.

And that is exactly what John says in v. 6. He says “Anyone who knows God listens to us. Anyone who is not from God does not listen to us.” He is saying “those who disagree with God will be hostile to the truth and to what you say. The world will only be satisfied if you agree with them.” But it is also saying “those who are from God will be open to listening to you even if they disagree with you and they won’t try and deceive you to what they believe”.

In the last chapter John told them to “love on another as he commanded us” and now he is saying “love means seeking the truth”. The truth must be sought in love but true love seeks the truth to bring others to the truth. It would be unloving to not want others to know the truth.

It wouldn’t be loving of me to let my kids eat candy and potato chips all day just because they wanted to. It wouldn’t be loving of me to let my kids not wear their seat-belt in the car just because they “don't like it”. It wouldn’t be loving of me to let my kids stay up all night because they “don’t want to go to bed.” Love means seeking the truth and believing that even when others say something different you are confident in what you believe.

So when you are seeking to know the truth from those who are deceiving don’t look for the person who just tells you what you want to hear or agrees with everything you say. Listen to the voice who is willing to tell you the truth even when it is hard and when you don’t want to believe it. Listen to the person you know has your best interest in mind. Listen to the person who loves you even at your worse and even when you disagree with you still desires to be there for you.

See, the world is confused in the difference between tolerance and belief. Tolerance is to say “there are things other people do that I may believe is wrong but of which I will not force a person to change.” And “Since this person believes they should be allowed to do this I must as well believe that it is right for them to do that.”

I will give a few examples. As a Christian I believe that our words should be out of love and that we shouldn’t use curse words, because as it is stated, you are saying something to “curse” another person. You are speaking that something bad happens to them or you are degrading the image of God that they are made in. Calling them some form of an animal. I also believe it is a sin to get drunk but that does not mean that I force those who are unbelievers to not get drunk. That doesn’t mean every time someone I know uses bad language or gets drunk I tell them they are a terrible human being or that I believe that those should be illegal. I may tell them that I believe that decision may have negative consequences on their life and is not the best for them, and if they are a believer or we in a group of Christians then I will tell them they are not being obedient to God. But in any case it does not mean I don’t love them or stop having a relationship with them. It just means I disagree with their choices.

That is why love is so important. Because we want love to overcome the world. John says that we “know we have the Spirit of truth. Which is the Spirit of God. The Spirit is our reminder that Christ came and died for us, that He took away our sins, and He has given us the power of the Spirit and His Word to help us distinguish between the deceiving world and the truth of God. And we are led by the Spirit to guide us to the truth and in the truth He helps us to love others as He has loved us.

And we can trust this Spirit because Jesus showed us true love on the cross. He showed us that He loved us even at our worst and He showed us the truth even when we denied it over and over again. We can trust the Bible because we can trust who Christ was and is and we can trust who He sent to us.

And you may be asking, “well how do I know if I am believing the truth or a lie?”

John 10:4-5 “When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers.””

Jesus says that we will know the stranger from the shepherd from their voice. You can only know the voice of God if you have listened to it. How many of you have been lost at a mall or in a crowded area and you had to listen for your parents? The only way you would know who to listen to is if you knew their voice from all the conversations you have had with them. You can only know God’s voice if you are practiced listening to it.