I want to read you something that Jesus said. This is from the New Living Translation of Matthew 7:22, 23.
“On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you.’”
Do you think that there is a priest on this earth, or a minister, bishop, Archbishop, Pope, humble pastor or padre, or a congregation elder, who thinks that he will be one of those crying out, “Lord! Lord!”? No one who teaches the word of God thinks that he or she will ever hear Jesus say on judgment day, “I never knew you.” And yet, the vast majority will hear those very words. We know that because in the very same chapter of Matthew Jesus tells us to enter the kingdom of God through the narrow gate because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction and many are those who travel upon it. Whereas the road to life is cramped, and few find it. A third of the world claims to be Christian—well over two billion. I wouldn’t call that a few, would you?
The difficulty people have in grasping this truth is evident in this interchange between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day: They defended themselves by claiming, “we were not born from fornication; we have one Father, God.” [But Jesus told them] “You are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father.… When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition because he is a liar and the father of the lie.” That’s from John 8:41, 44.
There, in stark contrast, you have the two lineages or seeds that were prophesied at Genesis 3:15, the seed of the serpent, and the seed of the woman. The seed of the serpent loves the lie, hates the truth, and dwells in darkness. The seed of the woman is a beacon of light and truth.
Which seed are you? You may call God your Father just as the Pharisees did, but in return, does he call son? How can you know that you’re not fooling yourself? How can I know?
Nowadays – and I hear this all the time – people say that it doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you love your fellow man. It’s all about love. Truth is a highly subjective thing. You can believe one thing, I can believe another, but as long as we love one another, that’s all that really matters.
Do you believe that? It sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? The trouble is, lies often do.
If Jesus were to suddenly appear before you right now and tell you one thing you don’t agree with, would you say to him, “Well, Lord, you have your opinion, and I have mine, but as long as we love one another, that’s all that matters”?
Do you think Jesus would agree? Would he say, “Well, alrighty then”?
Are truth and love separate issues, or are they bound inextricably together? Can you have one without the other, and still win God’s approval?
The Samaritans had their opinion about how to please God. Their worship differed from that of the Jews. Jesus set them straight when he said to the Samaritan woman, “…the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24 NKJV)
Now we all know what it means to worship in truth, but what does it mean to worship in spirit? And why doesn’t Jesus tell us that the true worshipers whom the Father seeks to worship him will worship in love and in truth? Isn’t love the defining quality of true Christians? Didn’t Jesus tell us that the world would recognize us by the love we have for one another?
So why no mention of it here?
I would submit that the reason Jesus doesn’t use it here is that love is the product of the spirit. First you get the spirit, then you get the love. The spirit produces the love that characterizes true worshippers of the Father. Galatians 5:22, 23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Love is the first fruit of the spirit of God and upon closer scrutiny, we see that the other eight are all aspects of love. Joy is love rejoicing; peace is a state of tranquility of the soul that is the natural product of love; patience is the longsuffering aspect of love—love that waits and hopes for the best; kindness is love in action; goodness is love on display; faithfulness is loyal love; gentleness is how love controls our exercise of power; and self-control is love restraining our instincts.
1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love. It is his defining quality. If we are truly God’s children, then we are remade in the image of God through Jesus Christ. The spirit that reshapes us fills us with the godly quality of love. But that same spirit also guides us to truth. We cannot have one without the other. Consider these texts which link the two.
Reading from the New International Version
1 John 3:18 - Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
2 John 1:3 - Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, will be with us in truth and love.
Ephesians 4:15 - Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
2 Thessalonians 2:10 - and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
To say that all that matters is that we love one another, that it doesn’t really matter what we believe, only serves the one who is the father of the lie. Satan doesn’t want us to worry about what is true. The truth is his enemy.
Yet, some will object by asking, “Who is to determine what is the truth?” If Christ were standing before you right now, would you ask that question? Obviously not, but he is not standing before us right now, so it seems like a valid question, until we realize that he is standing before us. We have his words written for all to read. Again, the objection is, “yes, but you interpret his words one way and I interpret his words another way, so who’s to say which is the truth?” Yes, and the Pharisees also had his words, and more, they had his miracles and his physical presence and still they misinterpreted. Why couldn’t they see the truth? Because they resisted the spirit of truth.
“I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray. But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.” (1 John 2:26, 27 NLT)
What do we learn from this? Let me illustrate it this way: you put two people in a room. One says that bad people burn in hell fire, and the other one says, “No, they don’t”. One says that we have an immortal soul and the other says, “No, they don’t”. One says God is a Trinity and the other says, “No, he’s not”. One of these two people is right and the other one is wrong. They can’t be both right, and they can’t be both wrong. The question is how do you find out which is right and which is wrong? Well, if you have the spirit of God in you, you will know which one is right. And if you don’t have the spirit of God in you, you will think you know which one is right. You see, both sides will come away believing their side is in the right. The Pharisees that orchestrated the death of Jesus, believed they were right.
Perhaps when Jerusalem was destroyed as Jesus said it would be, they realized then that they had been wrong, or perhaps they went to their death still believing they were right. Who knows? God knows. The point is that those promoting falsehood do so believing they are right. That’s why they run to Jesus at the end crying, “Lord! Lord! Why are you punishing us after we did all these wonderful things for you?”
It shouldn’t surprise us that this is the case. We were told about this long ago.
“In that very hour he became overjoyed in the holy spirit and said: “I publicly praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have carefully hidden these things from wise and intellectual ones, and have revealed them to babes. Yes, O Father, because to do thus came to be the way approved by you.” (Luke 10:21 NWT)
If Jehovah God hides something from you, you’re not going to find it. If you are a wise and intellectual person and you know that you are wrong about something, you’d seek the truth, but if you think you are right, you won’t look for the truth, because you believe you have already found it.
So, if you truly want the truth—not my version of the truth, not your own version of the truth, but the real truth from God—I would recommend you pray for the spirit. Don’t be led astray by all these wild ideas circulating out there. Remember that the road that leads off to destruction is wide, because it leaves room for many different ideas and philosophies. You can walk over here or you can walk over there, but either way you’re walking in the same direction—toward destruction.
The way of truth is not like that. It’s a very narrow road because you can’t go wandering all over the place and still be on it, still have the truth. It doesn’t appeal to the ego. Those who want to show how smart they are, how intellectual and perceptive they can be by deciphering all the hidden knowledge of God, will end up on the wide road every time, because God hides the truth from such ones.
You see, we don’t start off with truth, and we don’t start off in love. We start off with the desire for both; a yearning. We make the humble appeal to God for truth and understanding which we do through baptism, and he gives us some of his spirit which produces in us his quality of love, and which leads to the truth. And depending on how you respond, we will get more of that spirit and more of that love and a greater understanding of truth. But if ever there develops in us a self-righteous and proud heart, the flow of the spirit will be restrained, or even cut off. The Bible says,
“Beware, brothers, for fear there should ever develop in any one of YOU a wicked heart lacking faith by drawing away from the living God;” (Hebrews 3:12)
No one wants that, yet how can we know that our own heart isn’t fooling us into thinking we are humble servants of God when in fact we have become wise and intellectual, self-assuming and presumptuous? How can we check ourselves? We’ll discuss that in the next couple of videos. But here’s a hint. It’s all tied up with love. When people say, all you need is love, they’re not far off from the truth.
Thank you so much for listening.
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Comment by Jerome on 2021-04-15 19:32:54
Very good post Eric. Sadly, I have noticed how many Christians are passionately engaged in debate on social media. It seems, the fact that there are so many denominations proves this has been the case for centuries. Personally, I believe what accounts for this is in large part a lack of humility and desire to let God be the judge.
Reply by Meleti Vivlon on 2021-04-16 08:42:41
I agree with you on that.
Comment by Fani on 2021-04-16 03:24:50
"si vous pensez que vous avez raison, vous ne chercherez pas la vérité, parce que vous croyez que vous l'avez déjà trouvée"
Je crois effectivement que pendant des années j'ai fait obstacle à la vérité sans m'en rendre compte, car en tant que ex témoin de Jéhovah, je pensais avoir la Vérité. Donc je ne demandais pas à l'esprit de m'enseigner la Vérité puisque des hommes prétendaient me l'avoir portée sur un plateau.
Je crois aujourd'hui fermement que c'est l'Esprit qui nous enseigne, car il nous permet d'avoir le cœur réceptif à l'enseignement du Christ.
Nous ne decouvrons rien par nous mêmes. Si nous laissons agir la Parole de Dieu, Christ nous éclaire.
C'est l'Esprit qui a donné la compréhension aux apôtres. Jésus a dit à Pierre Mathieu 16 : 17 : "Heureux es-tu, Simon fils de Yona, parce que ce ne sont pas la chair et le sang qui t’ont révélé [cela], mais mon Père qui est dans les cieux".
Oui, soyons humbles et continuons a demander sincèrement l'Esprit Saint.
Merci Eric, c'était si rafraîchissant.
NicoleReply by Meleti Vivlon on 2021-04-16 08:42:09
Vous êtes les bienvenus. Tout le plaisir est pour moi.
Comment by Ad_Lang on 2021-04-16 09:33:16
I noticed there is a common misconception about truth. There is only one truth/reality, but our perspective (or: perception) of it differs. For example, we all have knowledge of a particular subset of all the facts that exist. For that reason, it is logical and sensible to expect that our beliefs would slightly differ. However, as you noted before: there are certain indisputable facts that each Christian should agree on. I find it interesting to note that many seem to slightly change their beliefs to suit their chosen lifestyle.
I had this discussion about the importance of truth with a student, and noted two important points:
(1) Jesus told Pilate: "For this I have been born and for this I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is on the side of the truth listens to my voice" (Joh 18:37).
(2) About the Spirit coming as a gift, Jesus noted the following:
- "And I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, the spirit of the truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither sees it nor knows it. You know it, because it remains with you and is in you" (Joh 14:16,17); and
- "But the helper, the holy spirit, which the Father will send in my name, that one will teach you all things and brings back to your minds all the things I told you" (Joh 14:26).
What I understand is that it all starts with an attitude that Jehovah can appreciate. An attitude that produces action, e.g. mercy. This is what Jesus will judge on.
Truth is essential. It is learned over time and we all make progress (hopefully) in that area. However, some may be further in that process than I am, others not as much. This doesn't matter, long as we continue making progress. Wouldn't it be reasonable for Jesus to keep that in mind once time for judgement has arrived?
Some of us had an opportunity, some did not. Jesus won't look at the opportunity itself, he will be considering the extent to which we make use of it (Luk 19:12-26). That is why the fear that I see that we, Jehovah's Witnesses, have around the importance of the preaching work is misplaced. True, we need to share our faith, but Jesus showed that it would be based on and begin with our lifestyle (Mat. 5:14-16). Note that people would glorify God on the basis of our works, as somehow revealed so that they would come to see. Again, this requires a lifestyle of mercy. Teaching is part of it, indeed, but by itself certainly not the whole thing expected from a Christian.
Comment by Dan on 2021-04-16 09:54:43
Thanks for another great and incite filled topic. Funny how I can miss that the biggest thing the Spirit is = love.
Side note, I stuffed up the article rating voting, think i gave it a 2 star which i wasn't trying to do. I never tried to do that before. :)
Comment by Bamba64 on 2021-04-17 07:25:42
I know you won't post this because you're not interested in the truth, You're only interested in those that are in agreement with you, those that give biblical and logical rebuttals to your ideas are just censored, you can't give a logical and biblical answer to how Jesus is the first and last (which obviously means He's Yahweh) so you come up with an unbiblical and illogical idea that Jesus was created in eternity. You can't see that you are steeped in JW hatred for the Tri-unity doctrine, and will make any excuse not to agree with proper exegesis.
I'm sorry if this sounds vindictive but you are making a dangerous new religion and leading those that are not so astute astray. Ask yourself why it is that the greatest number of biblical language grammarians are trinitarian, Oh yes you answered that, it's a big conspiracy!Reply by Meleti Vivlon on 2021-04-17 08:34:56
I give a very logical explanation of why we can consider Jesus to be eternal, and you reject it out of hand without any reasoning of your own to counter it. Yet you feel your comment has a right to be read.
The fact is that my understanding of the eternity of the Logos is not necessary to defeat the assumption that being the first and the last means being eternal, i.e., without beginning and without end.
Can you not see that the phrase "the first and the last" requires temporality? You apply the phrase as proof of the eternal, timeless essence of God and therefore of Jesus is just a desperate ploy Trinitarians use to find some shred of evidence to support their cockamamie theory. How can God be eternal if he has a "first" and if he has a "last"; or to put it another way, if he has a beginning and he has an end? The only way this phrase makes sense is if we apply it figuratively.
I get so tired of people trying to defend the Trinity doctrine, not by sound reasoning, but by ad hominem attacks. It is such a weak argument to try to discredit my reasoning because my former religion happened to get something right...well, mostly right. Anyone who knows anything about the Trinity knows that belief in a non-triune God goes back to the first century and did not originate with Jehovah's Witnesses.
I would be happy to allow all your comments if they were serious attempts to reason civilly and logically, but that has not been the pattern you have established. As the reach of this work has expanded, it has naturally attracted many distracters. Some make cogent arguments, and I welcome those as they give me further opportunities to solidify the truth in the minds of reasonable readers seeking to learn and free themselves from "group thought". However, there are others, a majority it seems, who only want to sound off, will not reason logically, will not answer direct questions knowing they will paint themselves into a corner, and use all manner of sophistic arguments to try to distract the reader away from the truth. I would be doing our readers a disservice were I to allow such ones unfettered access to our community of truth seekers. Both the Apostles John and Paul set the bar. I just try to follow it.
Reply by Fani on 2021-04-18 01:35:20
Arrêtez de nous traiter comme des imbéciles, "pas astucieux" qui suivent un homme pour créer une autre religion.
Si on est d'accord avec vous sur le sujet de la Trinité, considèrerez vous qu'on vous suit ?
Nous avons tous le choix de croire ou ne pas croire en une doctrine.
Rappelez vous que ce n'est pas le fait d'être "astucieux" qui nous fait découvrir la vérité de Dieu mais son esprit saint.
Dans vos propos, je ne sens pas les effets de l'esprit saint en vous.
Merci de respecter les lecteurs de ce site.
NicoleReply by Meleti Vivlon on 2021-04-18 09:44:47
Well said, Fani!
Reply by ZbigniewJan on 2021-04-25 12:27:01
Hello Mark!
Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." The truth can set us free. From what? From hypocrisy, from blindness, from enslavement to religion, from enslavement to philosophy and deceptive teachings. But truth is a philosophical concept. Philosophy is the love of wisdom. This is where the problem begins. Wisdom B is not consistent with human wisdom. 1Cor 1:25 "For the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of men, and the weakness of God is greater than the strength of men." Jesus says these things are hidden from the wise in the way of the world. Luke 10:21. "... I adore You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden all these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to the little ones. Yes, Father, for You were so pleased." It is God's will, his choice. Luke 10:22 Jesus says the Father will be revealed only to those to whom the Son wishes to reveal it. "Everything has been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is but the Father, and no one knows who the Father is but the Son, the one to whom the Son wants to reveal it." Without the help of the Spirit of God, human philosophy seeking The truth will be useful as incense to a dead. Pilate wanted to know the truth, but Jesus did not even try to explain it to him, because then he would become a wise philosopher for Pilate. The Apostle Paul says Eph 4:21, in Jesus. " Jesus replies to Pilate: "Yes, I am a king! That is why I was born and came into the world to bear witness to the truth. And everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. "Jesus is the key to knowing the truth. This key to opening the truth is given to man by God himself. John 6:65" ... This is why I told you: no one can come to me if not it will be given to him by the Father "
The apostle Paul did not accept the truth until God chose him as a necessary instrument. It was God the Father who chose Paul and the Son of God, Jesus, converted him by force. Paweł was an educated, wise Jew, but in his own wisdom he did not know the truth about the messiah, which he was looking for, because he was blind. The blindness and bondage of the mind can come from various sources: religion, philosophy, human doctrine, pride and fluff. These sources are not inspired by God but by his rebellious son Satan. I think (my guesses) that Satan envied the position of the Logos, the only one born of the Father, the First Cause of everything.
Further to the truth: God hides this truth for people who will believe in the name of Jesus Christ. John 1: 12,13 "He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. And to all who welcomed him, he gave power to become children of God - [all] to those who believe in his name, and who are born of God, neither by blood, nor by carnal lust, nor by the will of their husband. "
Is the doctrine of the triunity of the Father, Son, and Spirit necessary now to believe in the name of Jesus Christ? Do we evidently feel the doctrine of the triunity of God in the New Testament? Didn't Stephen see God and the Son of Man? Acts Revelation 7: 56 "... I see heaven open and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God!"
Look at all the introductions and endings of the apostolic epistles. The apostles refer to two figures: God and the Lord Jesus.
In Paul's speech to the Athenians, Paul began with Acts 17:24 of the Lord of Heaven and Earth and ended by 17:31 a judge appointed by God. That judge is the Son of man. Jesus is also called that after his resurrection. When He walked on the earth, He was also called the Son of Man. Are we not the children of men? Yes we are! But none of the people except Jesus calls himself that. Before coming to earth, Jesus, called the Logos, was the only son born of God. This one and only-begotten Son was the only suitable being that could carry out God's plan for the salvation of all mankind. Why the only one? Logos was the co-creator of everything that was created. He loved what he created. Both the Father and the Son wanted to give people a chance of redemption. The plan of redemption must conform to God's standards of law and justice. Life for life.
Maybe you say this is your interpretation of the truth. OKAY
John 17: 1-5 Jesus says: "And eternal life with them consists in knowing you, the only and true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." John 17: 5 "Now, you, Father, will surround me with the glory that I had with you before the world began to exist. "
The Son penetrates the Father, the Father is in the Son. We humans may have different ideas of God's nature, we try to comprehend it with our reason. Imagination allows a person to go beyond established patterns, beyond known systems, penetrate into unknown reality and impose on it the order of human categories. And this is how the doctrine of the triunity of the Father, the Son and the Spirit was born.
When Christ comes, takes us to Himself or raises us from the grave, we will be new creatures with changed bodies. The new creation will know the reality of the Father and the Son.
In order to know God and the Son in the present reality, one must ask the Father for the key. John 14: 1-6.
Greetings in Christ !!!
Comment by Menrov on 2021-04-21 11:01:51
I believe people can have endless discussions about what they believe is truth. For Christians, the scriptures contain truth though it often depends on people to interpret that truth. I often see the use of the word "facts". I often wonder about that. How can we derive facts from the scriptures if the whole concept is based on faith / belief (Heb. 11:6).
To compare, see quotes from the quran on here: http://quotesofislam.com/quran-quotes/
To the believer (Muslims) those words are truth.
Or have a look here: https://parade.com/970462/parade/buddha-quotes/
For those who follow this, these words are the truth.
Nevertheless, I like to read reviews like this as it addresses inconsistencies or questionable interpretations / doctrines among Christian denominations or in WT land. Because, regardless what one believes, their understanding should be consistent and defendable. Unfortunately among the Christians religions there are too many differences.Reply by Meleti Vivlon on 2021-04-21 13:36:05
Agreed. That is why I contend that religion is a snare and a racket.
Reply by Ad_Lang on 2021-04-22 18:58:29
I think the problem is that few things in the world are absolute. So you are seeing those religions and, unfortunately, not one of them is absolutely right, or absolutely wrong. They are all somewhere in between and all have a certain knowledge of facts. However, the difference is often in how we explain the facts and the conclusion we draw from them.
Most importantly, having the truth means that it is inevitable having to acknowledge that one doesn't have all the relevant facts. It takes courage to do so, because we tend to rely on what we know. If we then come to know that we don't, what will we hold on to? It really is a matter of faith: what -or who- do we trust? If life revolves around ourselves, we are also responsible for making it work and then any loss of (perceived) power is devastating.
"For we have partial knowledge and we prophesy partially, but when what is complete comes, what is partial will be done away with." (1 Cor. 13:9,10 NWT). The apostle Paul was well aware of this problem, but put it in context. Reading the chapter, you find that more than knowledge is our decision of the kind of person we want to be. "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up" (1 Cor 8:1). You will see that theme shining through in quite a number of passages, and not only in the Bible. Look at history, how often hasn't it happened that those having knowledge used it for self-centered purposes, and put themselves above everyone else?
So, love comes first. Then knowledge, then understanding. As Paul noted in the first verses of 1 Cor. 13: whatever we might be or have or do is meaningless, if we do not have love. I remind a quote I came across many years ago: "Knowledge without love is stupidity, love without knowledge is grace".