Notes of Faith September 18, 2024
The Battle for Truth
Therefore take up the whole armor of God.... Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth.
Ephesians 6:13-14
Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians is a defense of his apostleship in the face of opposition and attacks from false apostles (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). He was in a spiritual battle, to be sure. But he made it clear that spiritual warfare is not a physical battle using the world’s weapons of war. Instead, it is a battle of thoughts, arguments, and ideas waged in the battlefield of the mind (10:3-6). That is, it is a battle for the truth.
The battle for truth began in the Garden of Eden when Satan lied to Adam and Eve, contradicting what God had told them (Genesis 3:1-5). And lies remain Satan’s chief weapon. If he can convince us to doubt God’s words, he will have weakened the foundation of our faith: the truthfulness of God and His promises. That is why when describing the Christian’s spiritual armor, Paul calls the Roman soldier’s belt the belt of truth. We are sanctified—conformed to Christ—by the truth of God’s Word (John 17:17).
Just as Jesus rebuffed Satan’s temptations with the truth of God’s Word, we must do the same (Matthew 4:1-11). Truth wins the spiritual war.
The truth of Scripture demolishes speculation.
R. C. Sproul
John 17:18
17 "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
The Word of God is truth whether people want to believe that it is truth or not. It does not change to fit the culture. God cannot lie. There are no errors in the original writings of God’s Word. And Satan is still trying to deceive people with, “Did God really say?” Expressions shared on media does not change the truth of God’s Word. The largest group of people saying they don’t like something written in the Scriptures does not change the truth of God. Truth is…just as God is!
We must believe in God through the truth in His Word to be saved through its teachings of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who came to conquer the evil one, save us from our sin through His death on the cross, His resurrection from the dead, to give us life, and thus believing and following Him in truth, we have relationship with God forever, instead of the judgment we deserved because of sin.
Believe the truth and be saved!
Pastor Dale