Walking in the Truth—New Years Day Message

I got to preach to the whole congregation on New Years Day. If anyone missed it, here is my manuscript and a recording of the message.

INTRO

I was talking to a friend of mine at school about my preaching topic. I wanted to do something that was New Years related—it just seemed appropriate. I have taught on vows three times over the last six months and felt that would probably be appropriate. My friend didn’t think so. Over the next few hours I began to ponder what my truest desires for this church were; what could this church accomplish in 2012 that would bring me the most joy?

I love this church. There is some ambiguity surrounding the word church as we use it in the English language. For example:

Is the church a building? To a great degree, I do love this place. I grew up going to church in this building. When we drive by this building in the car, the kids say, ‘there’s the church’. There is something nostalgic and sentimental about this building for me, but this building is not the church.

Many times we refer to a church by their leadership? ‘That’s John MacArthur’s church’ or ‘Rick Warren’s church’ ‘Jim DeVore’s church’. I love our pastors and our elders. They have been great mentors to me. But, our pastors and elders—our leaders—are not the church.

How about the community? We are, after all, Cornerstone Church of Littlerock. We identify with this community. Often when we talk about ‘the church’ we are referring to the body of believers in a community. In missions discussions, we often talk about ‘the church in England’ of ‘the Church in South America’ as a way of quantifying the body of evangelical believers in a particular geographic region. I do love Littlerock. Jami and I were both raised here. We decided to buy our house here. I have lots of great God fearing friends in the community. Our families live here. But, the church is not this community.

The apostle Paul went to great lengths to identify the church in several places. I don’t think any other definition serves my purposes better. When I say I love this church, I mean what Paul wrote. In Romans 12.4-5 he wrote:

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

We are individually members of one another. That is to say that every one of us who meet, in this building and are a part of this community and submit to the leadership of this body of believers—we are each, individually, a member of Christ’s church. We are all uniquely gifted for service in the body; each one of us is valuable for the progression of the gospel and the building up of Christ’s church. When I say I love this church, I mean no less than that I love each and every one of Christ’s people here today.

So for each one of you—the church—my desire is the same as that of the apostle John for his churches. This should be a familiar passage for most of you, especially if you attend regularly and have heard Pastor Jim preach through second and third John.

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (3 John 1:4)

Let’s get a quick handle on the context. John is writing this letter to a dear friend Gaius. In verse 3 you can see that John is happy to see that Gaius is ‘walking in the truth.’ They had issues with teachers coming in and teaching false doctrines and taking advantage of the believers, even leading some astray. There is a sense that John must have feared for his friend Gaius and was happy to hear he was standing firm in the truth. Verse 4 comes as almost a footnote—a generalization—from John in which he makes a blanket statement about all of those whom he ministers to. He has no greater joy than to hear that they are ‘walking in the truth.’

For most of us, we will read a verse like this and make a sensible assumption about what it means, but sometimes this can be an underestimation of the value of such a verse. In this verse, there are three character traits which we will look at that will help us to understand more clearly what it means to walk in the truth.

BODY

1. Reflect the truth (walk).

It’s pretty obvious that walk is not referring simply to walking. It is an idiom. In general walking has to do with living. To ‘walk the walk’ is to show what you believe by your actions. To ‘walk on egg shells’ is to carefully consider your words and actions. To ‘walk a thin line’ is entertain opposing views (ie. the line between the world and Christ). If we are going to walk in truth, our lives will be a reflection of the truth that we find.

1. Be IN the truth (in—as opposed to by).

The Greek word used for in is ἐν. This word is most commonly translated as ‘in’ or ‘by’. But, all major translations translate it as ‘in’, in this verse. The verse simply makes no sense if translated by. My Dad always says, “Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.” If I’m going to blow up a building and I throw a hand grenade by it that might do the trick. I don’t have to throw it in the building. But, in all other circumstances, by is just not good enough.

I could ask you this. Do you want to spend your eternity in heaven or by heaven? Just near it or actually in it? If I go to the lake to go swimming, I’m going to need to be in the lake to get wet, not just by it. In the same way, we must walk in the truth. Whatever this truth is we must be steeped in it. We have to be getting wet. We can’t be observing it from a distance. When we walk in the truth, we walk a narrow path. It’s not good enough to cut our own path that stays in eye shot, so that those on the path can see us and count us as with them; we must walk in the path of truth.

All this to say, be consistent. We will certainly falter in our walk and get out of the path, but get back in it. Don’t think that walking in your sin and simply being near the path is close enough.

1. Be real, genuine or authentic (truth).

Let’s start by asking, ‘What is the truth?’ Truth is what is real, genuine or authentic. To recap quickly, walking in the truth is living a life in consistently in pursuit of reality, genuineness and authenticity. Another way to say it is that we seek what is real. We have heard it said time and time again that no one’s theology is perfect. I’m not satisfied with that. I want to know the truth. And so in every way, we should desire to live according to the truth; always seeking, always refining our ways, and constantly being sanctified as we live lives which are closer to the truth.

‘Walking in the truth’ is an idiom. There is a sense in which truth simply means truth in this statement and certainly there is nothing in the text that would cause us to pursue this idea of truth to some further end, except for the author of the letter. We can look at John’s other letters and get a better idea of what he meant by truth. I think we find that easily in John 14.6 when John records Jesus’ words, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Jesus is the truth.

And I think we will find that this understanding is consistent with the idea of truth anyway. John tells us in John 1 that Jesus is the very word of God made into flesh. Everything that Jesus did and lived is the demonstration of God’s truth. I don’t want to leave you with this abstract concept of walking in the truth, so let’s look quickly at four ways that we can walk in the truth.

EXHORTATION

1. Live according to Christ—John 14.6
2. Live because of the Gospel (the word or testimony of truth)—Ephesians 1.13, James 1.18
3. Live as a hard worker of the truth—2 Timothy 2.15
4. Live in humility—Ephesians 4.1-2 (the calling is to come to Christ—to truth), Colossians 3.12 (God’s chosen ones are those who He saved), 1 Peter 5.5 (instruction to the church.)
   1. Explain the context of the verses
   2. Define humility

CONCLUSION

Tie the three points into the opening illustration.

If we, as individuals, live according to Christ, remembering the gospel of our salvation, working hard for the truth and living in humble submission to Christ and one another, imagine what God will do in His church…

• …in this building.
• …with this leadership.
• …in this community.

If you are going to make a New Year’s resolution this year, resolve to pursue truth and walk in it.