“What is generally overlooked among humankind is that truth as set forth in the Christian Scriptures is a moral thing; it is not addressed to the intellect only, but to the will also. It addresses itself to the total man, and its obligations cannot be discharged by grasping it mentally.
Truth engages the citadel of the human heart and is not satisfied until it has conquered everything there. The will must come forth and surrender its sword. It must stand at attention to receive orders, and those orders it must joyfully obey. Short of this any knowledge of Christian truth is inadequate and unavailing.
Bible exposition without moral application raises no opposition. It is only when the hearer is made to understand that truth is in conflict with his heart that resistance sets in…Much that passes for New Testament Christianity is little more than objective truth sweetened with song and made palatable by religious entertainment…On the other hand, the man who preaches truth and applies it to the lives of his hearers will feel the nails and the thorns. He will lead a hard life, but a glorious one. May God raise up many such prophets. The church needs them badly.” ~A. W. Tozer, Of God and Men
Everyone who is a seeker of truth, or who cares even the least bit about striving to attain it, must come to terms with the fact that the truth will require something of them. Apprehending truth is thought by many as simply having knowledge of what is “right.” But truth is not an abstract knowledge consisting of a bundle of details about the cosmic universe, the Creator, human salvation, the future of the world, or other undiscoverable facts. Truth will address itself to the entire person. It will require the submission of oneself to all its decrees.
Truth is not something that we can just hold in our minds; truth is something that grips our souls and changes us from the inside out. A person who does not let truth bind them and cause them to surrender their charge has not attained truth. Truth is more than mere mental accent to facts. If someone really grasps truth, they will bow their will before it and render their actions to its command.
As Tozer also said:
The hypocrisy of claiming to know truth without having experienced the resistance it produces means that the person has failed to understand the moral obligation that truth places upon their soul. They have fallen short of knowing truth because they have not yielded themselves to its beckoning call and have not experienced the conflict that arises between its will and their own. Truth will assault our will and challenge the carnal passions we house within ourselves. But when we have come to the battlefield with truth and have raised our white flag, we have come to the end of ourselves. At that point, we can comprehend the moral necessity that truth demands of us and we let it capture our heart.
When truth has been fully grasped, we have allowed it to overwrite what is in our head and what is in our heart. Anything short of this reality means we are still on the battlefield and have not found truth to be our friend. We oppose it and defy its constraint.
What can we expect if we stubbornly resist truth? A life filled with heartache, trouble, and disappointments. What can we expect if we humbly accept truth? Atill a tough life that will have heartache, trouble, and disappointments—but it will be a far better one!
Relinquish you pride and self-will and let truth rule your heart. Like Tozer said, “Only the servants of truth can ever know truth.” ~JW
