The problem of truth

The problem of truth.  
In a world that’s so filled with applications – therefore the image at the top – why do we seem to be so quick to forget application when it comes to truth?

“Truth is never determined by looking at God’s Word and asking, “What does this mean to me?” Whenever I hear someone talk like that, I’m inclined to ask, “What did the Bible mean before you existed? What does God mean by what He says?” Those are the proper questions to be asking. Truth and meaning are not determined by our intuition, experience, or desire. The true meaning of Scripture—or anything else, for that matter—has already been determined and fixed by the mind of God. The task of an interpreter is to discern that meaning. And proper interpretation must precede application.”

from The Truth War, by John MacArthur

 

Would it be ironic if I was to say – “wow, isn’t that the truth!”?

Because it certainly is true.

According to dictionary.com, here’s what “truth” means –

1. the true or actual state of a matter:
   He tried to find out the truth.
2. conformity with fact or reality; verity:
   the truth of a statement.
3. a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like:
   mathematical truths.
4. the state or character of being true.
5. actuality or actual existence.
6. an obvious or accepted fact; truism; platitude.
7. honesty; integrity; truthfulness.

Number 7 there is a real killer, isn’t it?
Honesty.  Integrity.
Guess that means we need to be truthful about the difference between truth and application.

So – with that in mind, here’s the meaning of application –

1. the act of putting to a special use or purpose:
   the application of common sense to a problem.
2. the special use or purpose to which something is put:
   a technology having numerous applications never thought of by its inventors.
3. the quality of being usable for a particular purpose or in a special way; relevance:
   This has no application to the case.
4. the act of requesting.
5. a written or spoken request or appeal for employment, admission, help, funds, etc.:
   to file an application for admission to a university.
6. a form to be filled out by an applicant, as for a job or a driver’s license.
7. close attention; persistent effort:
   Application to one’s studies is necessary.

In the spirit of honesty – I can’t help but wonder, where is the definition of “application” that matches up with the image I used for this article?
For instance, if I use the search app to find something – that was its intended use, so it doesn’t fit with #2.
Huh.  It must be buried somewhere in with one of the others.  Which it is – but which one(s) would depend on exactly what I’m doing.

Which brings us to the truth about what MacArthur said above.

It’s not a question of whether we look at the truth of the Bible based on what it means to us.

It’s a question of how does the Truth of the Bible apply to us.

We didn’t write the Bible – inspire the Bible – or anything even remotely like that.
The Bible is God’s Word – it has the truth that He meant it to have – and then we are to apply it to ourselves.
It’s the application of God’s truth to our lives that counts.
Not the application of our lives to determine what God’s Word meant.

Look at it this way.
If you thought 1 + 1 = 3,
but you used a spreadsheet program – like Excel – and it told you 1 + 1 = 2,
would you report a bug to Microsoft because they got it wrong – or would you examine you’re own thinking and find out you were wrong?

God’s Word is the same way.
It’s not for us to look at our lives – and then justify them by finding the right words in the Bible, or by twisting the meaning of some of the words in a way that would allow us to justify the things that we do – because our life is “truth”.
Hardly – the Bible is for us to look at it – look at our lives – and correct our lives – based on the Truth in the Bible.

Paul to Timothy

Let’s look at something from Paul’s second letter to Timothy to verify that –

Paul’s Charge to Timothy

^{2Ti 3:10} You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, ¹¹ persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. ¹² In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³ while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, ¹⁵ and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Paul starts off talking about persecution and suffering.  
Those things happen to us too.  
Maybe we want to avoid them.  Maybe we even like the things those who persecute us do.  Like we live a certain lifestyle – following God.  Others don’t.  They make fun of us.  Some will want to avoid being made fun of, bullied, harassed, Etc.  Others will look at the lifestyle of the people who are doing the harassing – and think that maybe they are having more “fun”, maybe we should change “sides” and go with them.  They’ll want to switch – join the harassers – but there’s still a twinge of guilt about abandoning God.  So they look for something in the Bible that will say the things they want to do are actually OK.

That is using the Bible as a way to find the “truth” in our lives – as a way to, if I may say it – apply our lives to the Bible – rather than the way it should be.

But – Paul continues –  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness – 

And there’s the tough part.  

teaching – rebuking – correcting

We want so much to learn that what we are already doing is OK.  Good even.

But if we look at the Bible as Truth – we’ll find out that we have a problem.  
We’ll find out that rather than us using the “truth” of our lives to correct – rebuke – and train the Bible – 
God wants to use the Truth of the Bible to correct – rebuke – and train us.

Conclusion

As MacArthur says – the Bible had meaning long before we came along.  We aren’t to apply ourselves to determine what it means.

We are to apply the Bible to ourselves to determine the “untruth” in our lives – correct our lives – and live in Truth.

Think it’s no big deal?
Think it’s OK to do it?
What’s the harm in only doing it a “little bit”?

The Narrow and Wide Gates

^{Mt 7:13} “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

 

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the quote and info on the book are available from biblia.com at — https://ref.ly/o/truthwar/35137?length=586