“Satan uses…every form of evil deception in order to deceive those who are perishing because they rejected the love of the truth…Because of this, God sends them a powerful delusion that leads them to believe what is false.” 2 The 2:10,12

It has been wisely spoken that the best defense is a great offense. This is true in sports. It is true in war. It is also true in life where Satan’s powerful arsenal of deception, his persistent and aggressive plots against us, are obliterated by any believer who wields the sword of truth without wavering. The true disciple is the one who never winks at or compromises on any point of truth. My mind must agree with truth. My will must submit to truth. My steps must align with truth. My heart must be totally and unshakably in love with truth. 

Truth is not open to negotiation. Whenever I am confronted with truth, I must never allow my feelings, or culture, or relationships to influence my commitment to follow her unflinchingly. Like David, I must be resolved: “I have chosen the way of truth; Your judgments I have laid before me” (Ps 119:30). 

Whenever we dismiss or dilute truth, refusing to accept her standards and demands upon our decisions and behavior, we do not remain in a neutral state. We are instantly and thoroughly disarmed and vulnerable. Satan lies in wait, ready to unleash “every form of evil deception in order to deceive us.” Even more sobering is the realization that the force and frequency of these powers are increasingly prevalent and effective in the days leading up to Christ’s return (Mat 24:4,10-11). Beloved, this time could be rebranded The Disinformation Age, a chapter in history marked by half-truths based on manipulated and manufactured “facts”. I have painfully watched too many people fall off a precipice into confusion, illusion, and error. When the books are opened, their indictment will be returned: they rejected the love of the truth. 

John penned his epistles in the voice of a father or grandfather in the faith looking back over a lifetime of service to warn and guide those he called “my [little] children” nine times in 1, 2, and 3 John. As such, his messages are a distillation of perspective, filtering out extraneous ideas in order to highlight and promote what is pertinent, essential, and eternal. Who could remain unmoved by the deep yearning found is his appeal in 3 John 4? 

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” 

As one of the pillars of our faith, he emphasizes that truth must never be tampered with. Mentioned 21x in his gospel (compared to Mat 1x, Mar 3x, Luk 1x), there are also seventeen usages in the seven chapters of John’s letters. The apostle could not have been more clear: truth is not an abstract or subjective matter. Either we believe and walk in it, or we don’t; and everything of consequence in this life and eternity hinges upon what we do with it. There is no such nonsense as “my truth” or “your truth”; there is only “the truth”. 

When Paul wrote his warning to the Thessalonians above, he was not wearing his theology hat. He had personally and painfully witnessed those who had fallen away and become trapped in the Devil’s snares. As he wrote to the Ephesians, he had seen them “tossed to and fro by every wind and wave of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting” (4:14). In the next verse, his remedy is unequivocal: He tells them to “speak the truth in love”.

The reason for their tottering and floundering was they had a casual relationship with the truth. Truth is not relative. It does not change with the times. It is unaffected by opinion polls. It remains constant even when its rivals get all the “likes” and accolades. It can never be perverted or pushed to the shadows. When all else fails and fades, when the popular and the fanciful and flashy have run their courses, we must all be found holding on to the one thing that will remain with all our hearts and strength. My prayer in closing is simple: Lord, even as we grow in our love for You, grant it that we also fall completely head-over-heals in love…with the truth.