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What the Bible says about Seeking Truth
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Jeremiah 5:2-4

The first thing that Jeremiah did was go out on the street, as it were, into the factories, the grade schools, the shopping bazaars, the restaurants, the gas stations, and the sports fields. He went where the common man worked, played, and interacted. Perhaps he asked a lot of questions and kept his ears open for what was happening. He soon came to the conclusion that nobody there was seeking truth.

Then he began to think, "Well, maybe we can excuse these people because they are not well educated and poor. They don't have their fingers on the buttons of power. They're not wealthy enough to have any influence. I will visit academia and the think tanks and the big homes on the hill. Perhaps people in those places are seeking truth."

John W. Ritenbaugh
Truth (Part 1)

Jeremiah 5:5

How discouraging this must have been for Jeremiah! God gave this nation an awesome promise: "I won't allow you to be invaded. Your culture and civilization will continue. Your young men will not be killed in warfare. I will rescue you and give you peace. I will give you all of this—if you can just find one person who is seeking truth." Judah, at this time, is a nation of corrupt leadership and apathetic people. It is an appalling, horrible picture.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Truth (Part 1)

Ezekiel 36:25-27

This prophecy refers to the Millennium and beyond, when Satan will be bound and thus rendered ineffective in spreading his evil attitudes. At that time, God will repair the damage—first done in the Garden of Eden and in every human heart since—by replacing man's human nature with His Spirit. He will work to change man's heart from a hard, unyielding one to a soft, humble one that will be eager to hear and obey God.

Notice that Ezekiel prophesies that God's Spirit will cause people to walk in His statutes and to keep His judgments. God's Spirit provides both motivation and strength to do what is good and right. We do God's work—believing, obeying, overcoming, growing, producing fruit—not by our power and abilities but by His Spirit (Zechariah 4:6). It is readily, freely, abundantly available to those who have believed, been baptized, and received the earnest of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands.

But that is not the end of the matter. We must continue to request God's presence in us, our daily Bread of Life, by His Spirit. We must ask, seek, and knock, constantly pursuing God, His Kingdom, and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). If we do this, He promises to add "all these things," our daily needs.

Jesus tells His disciples just before His arrest, "I am the vine, you are the branches: He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). If we request His presence in us each day and obey Him in faith, we will, by His power, produce astonishing spiritual growth.

Staff
Ask and It Will Be Given

John 8:32

What kind of message does it send to God if His children, those called by His name, either do not seek truth or carelessly ignore what they have? Perhaps it would be good for us to think of it like this: He is Truth personified. Therefore, to ignore truth is to ignore Him and, by extension, to ignore salvation. Remember, salvation is the active, continuous process by which God delivers us from what causes disease in the mental and physical areas of life and eternal death in the spiritual. Is it really worthwhile to ignore truth?

Truth does not come to us all at once. It gradually accumulates in those who ask, seek, and knock for it, then use it in their own lives to glorify God. We do not always easily find it. Sometimes truth emerges only after a long and confusing search that is constantly impeded by conflicting information. Nevertheless, we must persevere!

John W. Ritenbaugh
Eating: How Good It Is! (Part Six)

2 Timothy 3:6-7

The word "self-control" does not appear in these verses, but its lack is a major part of these women's problem. Their exact problem is unknown, but what we see here makes a good illustration.

Many modern versions change "the knowledge" in verse 7 to "acknowledge." Spiros Zodhiates says regarding this Greek word, "In the New Testament, it often refers to knowledge which very powerfully influences the form of religious life, a knowledge laying claim to personal involvement." Put another way, this word indicates not mere agreement with or admission of truth newly found but of truth already affecting the seeker's life. The knowledge these women received was not affecting their lives for the better.

Our challenge in life is not to become a tremendous reservoir of information that indeed may be true, but to control and rightly use what we already have while continuing to seek yet more. We acknowledge truth only when we use it in our lives, something these ladies were not doing. Considering the flood of information we have at our fingertips in this computer age, it is vital for us to understand that God judges us according to how well we use what we have.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Eating: How Good It Is! (Part Six)


 




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