the pursuit of truth

The Pursuit of Truth (Read time ≈ 7 minutes)
1 Timothy 4:1–2 (ESV)

1Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,

                It’s easy to look at a text like this and blame the liar. There is no shortage of liars today, but the greater tragedy is that there is a vast shortage of truth seekers. The issue is not that there are people out there who desire to deceive others for their own wicked gain; the issue is that people are willingly believing them without seeking out the truth for themselves. A good lie is believable, at least on the surface, but people today very rarely scratch the surface of what they are being told. We willingly follow the norms of the day without asking a question. A doctor said it, so I will do it… A teacher taught it, so I believe it… A news article wrote it, so I shared it… Don’t even get me started with the nonsense that people pass around as “truth” throughout the internet! So frequently, we hear, read, watch, etc. things and we simply accept it as the truth, and we move on carrying that lie with us.  The issue isn’t that there are so many lies in the world. The issue is that there are so many people who are willingly blind and are not seeking the truth.
                It’s not as if these lies are hard to believe. We are told we need ‘X’ in order to protect us against ‘Z’ or told if we want ‘Z’ we need to do ‘X’ and so on and so forth. We are told that there are dangers. We are told we will be rejected. We are told damage will be done if we do not conform with what we are being told. We are presented with scenarios and issues as if they are factual with inevitable outcomes and we must comply, or else. It almost sounds more like a threat than anything else. A good lie is hard to identify as just that, a lie. It’s been said that “every good lie has a shred of truth to it”. These elements can make the lies of the world today hard to identify and easy to accept, especially when many of these lies tug at our emotions, offer us what we want in our flesh and seem to be the right thing. We must pursue genuine truth and not settle for anything less, no matter how much our flesh desires it. It is not hard to find lies that are called truth, that will cater to our desires and make us feel okay (for now), rather than seeking truth. The genuine pursuit of truth will always result in finding genuine truth. The pursuit of what you wish to be true will always result in finding what you hope is true. However, they are not usually the same thing.
                In the face of these lies and in the midst of, perhaps, the most lied to generation this world has ever seen, we must do our due diligence. We must be truth seekers and truth speakers! It can be a challenge to identify these lies, so what do we do? How do we see them for what they are? Well, the answer is actually quite simple, seek God FIRST. If something is being told to you and it is going to take you or someone else farther away from God, it is a lie. A life spent in the pursuit of God, is a life spent pursuing truth. The Bible says, “You will seek me (God) and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13) this is a promise from Scripture that when we seek God whole heartedly, we will find Him! Seeking God is synonymous with seeking truth because God IS truth (John 14:6). Sometimes truth is hard to find, and when we find it, can be a hard pill to swallow but the truth promises freedom from the lies of this world (John 8:31-32) and sanctification by the truth of God (John 17:17). Church, we must allow Biblical truth and the Holy Spirit (John 16:13) to guide us through how we navigate this world of lies. We cannot afford to believe that there are things that are true for our faith and things that are true for the world, but on the contrary, if it is not true to our faith, it is a lie. We cannot isolate the worldly “truths” of our common culture to their own category of truth within itself. Rather, God is the first and only authority of what is true, regardless of what any experts in today’s world says. Time is running out, we must seek the truth today, in all things, and expose the lies of our generation so that we may all walk in the light of truth that can only be shined by the Gospel (Psalm 43:3). Pursue God and His truth only, for His truth, is the only truth.