Zechariah 8:16 English Standard Version (ESV) These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace;

One cannot speak the truth without knowing the truth. This is a mystery to the secular world but is not hidden from us who believe.

Jesus declared in John 14:6 that “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” To know Jesus is to know truth. How do we know Jesus? If we simply say in scriptures then we fall into the same category as the apostle Paul being taught by Gamaliel. We rely on men.

John 14:26 English Standard Version (ESV) But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Be born again in the Spirit. Have this new life in Christ. If this is true then the Truth dwells with us. We no long have to rely on men to reveal Truth because He dwells in us.

Matthew 10:20 English Standard Version (ESV) For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

This is true, the Spirit of truth in us hears the truth, we will recognize it as truth when we hear it being confirmed in our inner being. This unwavering truth will not lie, cannot lie because He is God.

Romans 1:17 English Standard Version (ESV) For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

The revelation of truth is by faith. We shall know the truth by faith.

Continued Thought by Larry Perry

Isaiah 29:12-14 English Standard Version

¹² And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

¹³ And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
¹⁴ therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

I will not disparage the practice of any administration of faith. We all have a responsibility to our God to worship him in Spirit and in Truth. That is a private matter. Nor can we stand in judgment of others in those things they practice. This leaves us with a self-examination of the motives within our own hearts.

I can only point to God’s Word as a guide to right judgment. Just a hint of motivations of the heart are given here by Isaiah. “Fear of me is a commandment taught by men.”

Acts 26:9-10 English Standard Version

⁹ “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. ¹⁰ And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them.

These words are a confession by the apostle Paul. This was a man thoroughly educated in God’s Word by Gamaliel perhaps the greatest theologian of his time. It was not until Saul met Jesus on the road to Damascus that Paul emerged in the light of the Truth.

Do we hear Jesus in our hearts when others speak? Truth does no waiver.