What is Truth?
Truth is that which corresponds to reality.
Now then what is reality?
Reality is the way in which things exist in life, the state of actuality. It could also be what you run into when you are wrong.
For example if someone believes they can fly naturally, without any mechanical aids and try to prove their claim by jumping off a high building, reality hits them a few seconds later proving their belief in the ability to fly was false or a lie. We call something a lie when it does not correspond to reality.
So we can see that truth is always based in reality, and lies in unreality.
Let’s go one level deep. We all live by what psychologists call mental maps of reality, they are the reference points in our minds by which we navigate the world. Sociologists call them as worldviews. If our mental maps are to be true they should correspond to reality.
Our mental maps are made up of a collection of ideas. Dallas Willard defines ideas as “assumptions about reality”. They are working theories, usually based on some kind of evidence or experience about how life actually works. Our ideas coalesce to form a mental map by which we navigate reality. Here is an example of a time management mind map.
The wonder of human beings is our ability to hold ideas that correspond to reality as well as ideas that do not correspond to reality, to which Dallas Willard states “we truly live at the mercy of our ideas”, because ideas shape how we live and who we become. Our capacity to believe and conform to a lie or an illusion, make us vulnerable and weak when we put our faith in them.
When we believe in ideas rooted in reality i.e. truth based on God’s wisdom and good intentions – we tend to flourish and thrive. We are happy as a result of it.
When we believe in ideas rooted in unreality i.e. lies that are opposite to God’s wisdom and loving design – tragedy and suffering visit us, we become unhappy.
Jesus called the devil “the father of lies”. In the Garden in Eden, the devil came to Eve with an idea, specifically a lie “You shall not surely die”. Adam and Eve listening and believing the lie opened the door of sin and death into the world. The devil and his lies distort our souls and drive us into ruin. So yes, ideas can be dangerous, they are spiritual entities that enslave our souls. How can we then escape this tyranny of unrealistic ideas?
Answer: Jesus – the God incarnate, the embodiment of truth, the moral cartographer declares “truth will set you free” (John 8:32). It is only in coming face to face before the reality, that Jesus Christ is the truth, we find our peace, security and freedom. Jesus gives us the mental map to reality. Laying down our crown and humbling ourself to follow Jesus leads us to true and everlasting freedom from the bondage and tyranny of devil’s lies.
When Jesus said “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free”, He was simultaneously saying that we are enslaved by lies. We are in bondage to the tyranny of false ideas about reality that hold our souls and our society in captivity to suffering and pain. Jesus came to liberate us with the weapon of truth. Note that Jesus said “You shall know the truth”, for Jesus truth was something that can be known, because truth is a person and it is HIM. He reveals Himself to us in many ways so that we are without excuse to not know HIM.
Many of us have been taught that following Jesus is about faith and not about knowledge. But according to Jesus faith is based on knowledge. It is a deep trust in God that is grounded in reality. Jesus goes on to define eternal life as a form of knowledge – “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
Jesus at the start of his ministry in Galilee proclaimed “Repent and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15) which means to rethink our mental maps of unreality and ground it in the person of Jesus – who is truth itself, He is Emmanuel - God with us in the flesh, this is good news. Therefore faith is not a blind leap into the dark, it is a lifestyle of unwavering trust and loyal submission to the risen King.
P.S. Some words that I have found to be helpful in forming a fuller and a richer understanding of the word faith are adoration, affection, allegiance, devotion, fondness, loyalty and love.
May the Holy Spirit enlighten our minds and grant us discernment so that we do not live by lies.