A Personal Committment to Truth

A Personal Commitment to Truth

Truth is abstract but very real. It is the standard in every realm of existence. There are true or genuine products and there are those which are false and counterfeit. There are true and false friends. We are confronted daily with true and false information. There true and false answers to questions. There is also true and false religion, true and false doctrines and practices, hopes and promises. It is of this category of religious truth of which we write.

The illustrious Bohemian reformer and martyr, John Hus (1369-1415), is credited with the following lines. "Seek the Truth, Listen to the Truth, Teach the Truth, Love the Truth, Abide in the Truth and Defend the Truth unto Death." This was his personal credo. For God's truth he lost his life to the fiery flames of the executioner's stake.

Truth exists,. It is within our reach but we must seek and find it (John 5:39; Acts 17:11). God's truth is bound up in a remarkable book of sixty-six units. It is time-tested and universally applicable to the needs of man. The message contained therein renovates ruined lives and makes men acceptable to their Creator and Judge. Truth is attainable. It can be known (John 8:32).

To profit from God's truth, we must be willing to listen to it. Not all are willing to do so. Some harden their hearts and close their ears to truth (Matt. 13:14-15). Truth cannot save or benefit those who will not listen to it.

The true servant of Christ will teach the truth of God (Acts 20:26-27). Paul liked to say, "I speak the truth, I lie not" (I Tim. 2:7). In a very hostile environment, John Hus believed and taught that the Sacred Scripture was the sole final authority in all things moral and religious.

For truth to be fruitful in our lives we must love it. Some do not have a love for the truth (II Thess. 2:10-11). Their faulty attitude leaves them vulnerable to delusions and lies. Truth can easily slip through their fingers and be lost or forgotten.

For truth to do its perfect work in our lives, we must abide in it. Those who go onward and abide not in the teaching of Christ have not God. Only those who abide therein have the blessings of the Father and the Son (II John 9-11). Abiding in truth means to live by its precepts, to abstain from that which truth forbids and to keep truth ever in our minds and hearts (Eph. 5:18-19).

We must be willing to defend the truth at any cost. Paul understood this. He was set for the defense of the gospel (Phil. 1:16). In the 2000 years of Christian history thousands of believers have paid the ultimate price in defense of God's Truth. Weak, cowardly men quail before the enemies of truth. They flee when the hateful champions of error appear. The very thought of suffering for truth enervates their fickle hearts. At best they are peacetime soldiers, short-timers hoping the avoid the enemy

John Hus searched for the truth. When he found it he loved it and abode in it. He preached the truth throughout Catholic dominated Bohemia. He shook the foundations of error and struck fear in the priestly tyrants. They responded with deceit and violence. On July 6, 1415, the Catholic authorities declared Hus an obstinate heretic and ordered him burned to death. May it never be said of us that we failed in our duty to God's Truth.

Sincerely,

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