“Make them holy by Your truth; teach them Your word, which is truth. Just as You sent Me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give Myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by Your truth.” (John 17:17-19 NLT)
Truth isn’t as obscure as many would like to make it out to be. There is truth and there is error; there is truth and there is falsehood; there is truth and there are lies; there are those who speak truth, but there is only One embodiment of Truth.
I love what Dr. William Barclay wrote about this: “Moral truth cannot be conveyed solely in words; it must be conveyed in example. And that is precisely where the greatest human teacher must fall down. No teacher has ever embodied the truth he taught—except Jesus. Many a man could say: ‘I have taught you the truth.’ Only Jesus could say: ‘I am the Truth.’ The tremendous thing about Jesus is not simply that the statement of moral perfection finds its peak in him; it is that the fact of moral perfection finds its realization in him.”[1]
When Jesus prayed for His Disciples in John 17, notice some parallels with how He prays for us today. He asked the Father to “Make them holy by Your truth.” The term used that we translate “holy” is the same word from which comes our English word “sanctification.” It basically means to be set apart for sacred purpose or use.
It’s important that we understand our role in the service of our Master. It’s never to hide ourselves away, it’s to be set in the midst of life! “Where the action is” was where kids in my generation wanted to be. For us as Jesus followers, it’s where His heart is, out among the people who need Him most. He sends us “into the world,” He doesn’t hide us from the world.
By His holiness, the presence of His Holy Spirit living in us, we are equipped with the qualities of mind, heart, and character essential for the completion of our service in His Name and to His honor. Truth, which is the presence of Jesus, abides with us and lives in us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Whatever we need to be everything He’s called us to be is provided by the Holy Spirit, who is our “Parakletos” (par-ak-lay-tos).
The term literally means: “One who is summoned, called to one’s side, especially called to one’s aid; one who pleads another’s case before a judge, an advocate.” (Strong’s) Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be with us in the same sense that Jesus was with the original disciples. It’s the Holy Spirit who teaches us about Jesus, who IS God’s Word to mankind.
To the extent we understand the Bible, to that extent we’re able to see Jesus more clearly. And to the extent we understand who Jesus is and what He accomplished on the Cross, to that extent we understand the meaning and purpose of Truth. To love Truth isn’t to admire a concept or embrace a body of knowledge, it’s to love a Person and be devoted to a Master, in much the same way as the disciples were devoted to Jesus. So much so they were willing to lay down their lives for Him.
The original disciples didn’t simply listen to Jesus’ words, they watched His life in action. Not only how He spoke, but how He lived His life from day to day: loving, serving, healing, motivating, sending, expecting, exalting His Father, worshipping, praying, believing, in short, being everything He died to enable us to become. They were watching and learning from Truth in the flesh – exactly what He desires us to become to His honor and fame today.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
[1] Barclay, W., ed. (1975). The Gospel of John (Vol. 2, pp. 216–217). Westminster John Knox Press.
Walking With Jesus 