This year the words of the apostle John (from my recent study of his letters) dominate my ponderings of our annual remembrance of the coming of Jesus Christ as a human baby. The first two Sundays, we looked at Life and Light. Today we turn our attention to TRUTH.

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Advent 3: JESUS IS TRUTH

Truth is the opposite of lies. Truth is fact. Lies are false. Lies abound around us. Especially during this season. You’ll get everything you want if you’ve been good. Attend this party, meet the right people, and you’ll achieve success. Receive a new car for Christmas and have instant friends. Fill the month with activity and you won’t feel the ache of loneliness. Find your Hallmark ending and live happily every after. Gather all your children around you on December 25^th and be loved. (The latter is the one that trips me up!).

The trappings of the holidays try to convince us that all is well when in reality it is not. The façade of happiness sold in Christmas advertising does not mask the truth of our pain. But Advent reminds us that these are but falsehoods.

Truth, instead, is embodied in the baby born to Mary of Nazareth in the town of Bethlehem in Judea. John describes him as the one who “became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He’s repeating what Jesus said of himself, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6).

Jesus was born in Bethlehem so we can know The Truth.

We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we can know the True One. And our lives are in the True One and in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and the eternal life.

the truth which abides in us will be with us forever

1 John‬ ‭5‬:‭20‬ ‭NCV‬‬, 2 Jn 1:2 NKJV (also Jn 18:37)

The ultimate truth John wants us to know is that Jesus is God in flesh. Knowing him, believing in him, and following him means we receive eternal life and we are in him. He then becomes the truth by which we gauge all else.

The Holy Spirit in us teaches us to recognize the truth.

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.

But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.

1 Jn 2:20 NIV, 1 Jn 2:27 NLT, (also 1 Jn 4:6, Jn 14:16–17)

John wrote these words to refute lies from Gnostic teachers who believed they alone had the special knowledge required to know God. John is not saying we don’t need pastors or spiritual teachers, but that we ALL can know the truth because the Holy Spirit reveals it to us.

We live out the truth we believe.

If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.

Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

1 Jn 1:7; 1 Jn 2:4; 1 Jn 3:18 (also Jn 3:21)

Consider Mary. She could have disbelieved the angel. This angel is fake. This is impossible. There’s no way I’m having a baby. Or she could have believed the taunts of neighbors because she was pregnant before marriage. Everyone hates me. I’m a disgrace to my family. Instead she believed the truth (Lk 1:45) and lived it out by accepting God’s commission for her life (Lk 1:38).

Let’s identify the lies we’ve believed from our 21^st century western Christmas traditions. Let’s take time to acknowledge the ways we are being deceived. Then look at Jesus—who he is, what he taught, how he lived, what he did for us, how he died, what he’s doing now in our lives, what he requires. He is our truth. Imitate him (1 Jn 2:6). Obey him by loving others (1 Jn 3:23).

Pastor Ian Simkins eloquently states, “When we embrace Jesus as the truth, we’re allowing his presence to reshape our lives. To embrace truth means aligning our actions, our thoughts, and our relationships to him.”¹

Today we marvel at the One who is Truth and demonstrates how to walk in the truth.

How will you embrace Jesus as truth today?

PRAYER

As you anticipate the coming of the One who is TRUTH, may his Spirit help you discern the lies swirling around you, replace them with truth, and live as Jesus did.

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1. Ian Simkins from his sermon at The Bridge Church, “The Tightrope of Truth and Love,” November 17, 2024 ↩︎

For further mediation:

Consider these verses. How to they illuminate what it looks like to know and walk in the truth?

• ¹⁹ This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 1 Jn 3:19–20
• ³ Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love. ⁴ It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. ⁵ And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 2 Jn 1:3–5
• ²¹ But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” Jn 3:21
• ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. Jn 14:16–17
• ³¹ To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jn 8:31–32
• ³⁶ Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”³⁷ “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” ³⁸ “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. Jn 18:36–38