The Bible should dictate our beliefs.
Why do you believe what you believe?
Paul, writing to a young pastor, Timothy, told him what the purpose of the church is. In 1 Timothy 3:15, he says that “the church of the living God” is “a pillar and buttress/foundation of the truth.”
What is truth? That’s the same exact question Pilate asked Jesus before His crucifixion.[1] It was in response to Jesus saying, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”[2] You know what Pilate did after asking “What is truth” and encountering the Truth face to face? He walked away and said, “I find no guilt in him.”[3] Yet he still handed Him over to be crucified because of the people’s insistence.
That is what we’re going to see a little of today and next week. People still do the same thing. The Truth stares them in the face, and they seek to crucify it. To begin, though, we have to ask the same question that Pilate did: “What is truth?”
Truth is what corresponds to reality. Truth is what is actual. It is the way things really are.
Steven Lawson says,
“Theologically, truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory, and being of God. Truth is the self-disclosure of God Himself. It is what it is because God declares it so and made it so. All truth must be defined in terms of God, whose very nature is truth.” [4]
All things were created by God and for God. He is the source of all reality. So, the quest for Truth begins with a proper understanding of God and our relation to Him.
Ok, we see that Truth is what truly is. But how do we know come to know what is true? There are several ways in general we arrive at truth, but there is one of greatest importance, and of which is the basis of all truth.
We know truth because God has revealed it. You have to have an objective standard by which to measure truth.
I love what Francis Schaeffer said about this in his book True Spirituality. Schaeffer is who coined the term “true truth” to combat the notion of relativism in his day. He said about Christianity, “Christianity is not just a series of truths but Truth—Truth about all of reality." And the only way we come to know that Truth is through God’s Word.
In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul tells Timothy,
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
What is something that needs to be taught? The truth. You teach kids that 2+2=4. They don’t know it instinctively. You also teach them how to live. They don’t always know right from wrong instinctively, so they have to be taught the true way to live.
Why would something need reproof/rebuking? If it doesn’t line up with the way things should be. If someone is doing something harmful to themselves or to another person, that’s not the right way to live, so they need to be rebuked in order to correct their actions to correspond with the true way to act.
Why would something need correction? If it doesn’t correspond to the correct way. If you are a manager and an employee is doing a job incorrectly, it is your duty to correct them so that the task can be performed the true way it was intended for maximum productivity.
What do you need training for? To get to some standard that you are not currently at. You train for jobs and sports and any activity you don’t yet know how to do correctly. My son was doing piano lessons online just yesterday and getting frustrated, because just one wrong note and one wrong timing makes the whole thing not be played as it’s intended to. So to play things the true way they are meant to be played, training is needed.
What has God given you for each of these areas for our life? Scripture. All Scripture. All Scripture points you to the Truth.
John 8:31-32 – 31
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Remember what Jesus said earlier to Pilate… “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
So now that we know the truth and how we come to know truth, it makes it more clear as to how we are to function as a church. Let’s go back to our main text again. What is the purpose of the church? To be a pillar and foundation of truth.
Paul is writing this to a young pastor who is serving in Ephesus. When he mentions a “pillar” of truth, an image would immediately pop into their head. In Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Temple of Artemis/Diana. You can still see some of the ruins to this day. Of the ruins, what do you see? Giant pillars.
This was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world for a reason. It was beautiful and magnificent. It had a massive, shining, marble roof held high with one hundred strong columns all around it, each measuring around 60 feet high.[5] With this in mind, I want us to think of how we are to exist in relation to the Truth.
We are under Truth. We are not above truth. We don’t dictate what is true. We can only discover what is true.
There is a phrase that’s prominent in our culture, and it is this: “my truth.” There is no such thing as “my” truth and “your” truth. There is only true Truth.
Over and over, the Old Testament refers to God as “the one true God.” (Jer 10:10)[6] In the New Testament, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). I want you to notice how exclusionary this is. Someone’s “truth” says that there are many ways to God. Other people’s “truth” says there is no God. And still others say that we are all like God and one with the universe. Can these all be true? No. They contradict each other. Either they are all false or only one of them is true. There is no “my truth” and “your truth.” There is only true Truth, and Jesus says it is Him and that He is the only way to the Father.
If this is true about something as important as salvation and eternity, it’s also true about everything else the Bible says. Jesus isn’t just the only way to eternal life. He is the only way to abundant life.
We got our daughter a kids kitchen for Christmas. I didn’t open the box to start putting it together until 11pm Christmas Eve (not a great idea). It ended up taking me three hours to complete. There were SO many instructions because there were SO many individual pieces and SO many screws. What if I would have put it together however I saw fit? It would have taken me even longer to put together, and it would have fallen apart! In order for it to function as it was intended to, I had to read the instructions. That is and should be our only guide. And it comes straight from the manufacturer.
Us being under the Truth also means that nothing else should be above the Truth. There are four major reasons people believe what they believe.
(from James Sire, “Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All?” in D.A. Carson, ed. Telling the Truth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), 93-101.)
If something we believe doesn’t line up with what Scripture says, we don’t go “Hmm, well maybe that’s not what Scripture would mean.” We don’t change the meaning of Scripture to line up with our beliefs. We change our beliefs to line up with Scripture.
We are to uphold the Truth. This means we are to preserve God’s Word…to hold it firm. One way we do this is that we pass it on. “From age to age, from generation to generation, we have the responsibility of passing this Word on, holding it fast, and defending it against false teaching that would threaten it, from the first century to the twenty-first century.”[7]
That’s how Timothy came to know the Truth. It was passed on to him.
2 Timothy 1:5 – I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.
2 Timothy 3:14-16 – 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…
The world is going to disciple your kids if you don’t. Also, if you are to truly love somebody, you will tell them the truth, even if it hurts. Do you know why you believe what you believe? If you don’t, you need to study up on it. If you don’t, you’re not upholding it. Defending it. Sharing it. Lifting it high.
God has put on my heart this mission statement for this year for us to pursue as a church: United, Growing, and Going in Truth. That means we’re to be united in the Truth as revealed in the Word of God. (That’s part why Membership Matters, which is starting tonight, is so important.) We are to be growing in truth means that we should be growing in depth of understanding. We should be in discipleship groups with others. We should be reading the Bible and books that grow us deeper in our understanding of God. To go in the Truth means we share it and defend it. And we boldly enter a world who wants to crucify the Truth and those who follow it.
We are to elevate the Truth. This means we are to proclaim God’s Word…to hold it high. “Like the columns of the temple, we lift high the truth of the Word. We want this Word to shine so that the world will see and hear and know the only true God. This truth also means that, as the church, there are some things we don’t hold high—man’s opinions, man’s innovations, man’s creativity, man’s wisdom, and man’s possessions. Instead, we lift up one thing: the Word of God. Let us magnify it, amplify it, spotlight it, and spread it—in the church and all over the world.”
The importance of Timothy’s commission is set forth by reminding him of the excellence of “the house” in which he serves; and this in opposition to the coming heresies which Paul presciently forewarns him of immediately after (1 Ti 4:1). The Church is to be the stay of the truth and its conserver for the world, and God’s instrument for securing its continuance on earth, in opposition to those heresies (Mt 16:18; 28:20). The apostle does not recognize a Church which has not the truth, or has it only in part. Rome falsely claims the promise for herself. But it is not historical descent that constitutes a Church, but this only, to those heresies (Mt 16:18; 28:20). The apostle does not recognize a Church which has not the intermediate; the “ground,” or “basement” (similar to “foundation,” 2 Ti 2:19), the final support of the building [Alford].[8]
If we are not elevating the Truth, we are not functioning as the church. We are a part of a different building. If you are elevating “your truth,” you are a member of the church of you. And you make a horrible God. And I’m not saying you should proclaim and defend your every personal conviction. We have far too many personal apologists and far too little biblical apologists.
This isn’t what draws the biggest crowds. Entertainment does that. Truth hurts. Someone in our church posted this cartoon just the other day, not knowing we would be talking about this very thing today.
Let’s be a people and a church that stands on the Truth of the gospel as revealed in the Scriptures. And let’s let it change us, to conform us to the reality of how our Creator intended us to be and to believe. “Each local Church has it in its power to support and strengthen the truth by its witness to the faith and by the lives of its members.”[9] Let’s be the pillars of truth that God has called us to be.
[1] John 18:38
[2] John 18:37
[3] John 18:38
[4] https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/what-is-truth
[5] John Stott, The Message of 1 Timothy & Titus. The Bible Speaks Today (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1996), 105.
[6] Deut 4:35, 39; 32:39; 2 Sam 7:22; 1 Kgs 8:60; 2 Kgs 5:15; 19:15; 1 Chron 17:20; Neh 9:6; Ps 18:31; 86:10; Is 37:16, 20; 43:10-11; 44:6, 8; 45:21; 46:9; Hosea 13:4; Joel 2:27; Zech 14:9; 1 Cor 8:4-6; John 17:3, 1 Thess 1:9; 1 Tim 2:5; James 2:19
[7] 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus in Christ-Centered Exposition, 69.
[8] Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 411.
[9] Lock, Pastoral Epistles, 44.
