Revelation 3:14, 17 English Standard Version

¹⁴ “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. ¹⁷ For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

Recent conversations with a Muslim acquaintance in Indonesia has been about truth. He gives me poor examples and then quotes dictionaries. As I ponder how to answer him fairly and without rancor, the Lord brought me these verses today.

We cannot rely on opinion nor worldly wisdom to discover truth.

We have to rely on the Words of the Amen, who was with God in the beginning, by whom the whole world was created.

John 1:1-5 English Standard Version

The Word Became Flesh

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The gospel of John identifies Jesus Christ as the Word, He is the true witness.

In Revelation 3:17 we see two parts which distinguishes our ability to see and accept truth.

The first part is man’s acceptance of his condition. The second part is being exposed to what is true by the true witness. Apart from the true witness there can be no understanding of truth.

Dictionaries will change to reflect usage, they only speak to how man uses word to communicate with one another. Those definitions change as man abuses the language they were given and redefine their understandings by agreement via popular usage.

Jesus Christ declare He is Truth. Believing on Him is believing the truth.

Hebrews 6:1-7 English Standard Version

6 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, ² and of instruction about washings,^{[Or baptisms (that is, cleansing rites)]} the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And this we will do if God permits. ⁴ For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, ⁶ and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. ⁷ For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.

Has anyone else struggled with these verses? I did at one time. I struggled with them for a number of years. Prayer did not bring consolation to my soul. I sought understanding and it escaped me. At the time of my struggle I was not trained up in my own heavenly gifts. That may have been the reason that peace was withheld from me. I will not lay claims to the why but to who.

The key to my peace in these verses came with in verse 1. I had not gone on to maturity at that time. I was in a rush for knowledge and we know that knowledge “puffs up”; 1 Cor. 8:1. It can make one proud and God loves us enough to withhold the knowledge of a thing which will cause pride in us. This is seen in verse 3 above, “if God permits”. Maturity seeks permission.

If it be your will O Lord.