«　WEEK 1　DAY 2　»

　　John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us,…full of grace and reality.

　　16:13 But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming.

　　17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

　　If we would understand the meaning of truth in the Bible, we need to go beyond the traditional and common understanding of what truth is. The traditional view concerning the truth in the Bible as correct doctrine is not accurate, and the common denotation of the word should not be applied to the word truth as found in the Bible.

　　The Greek word aletheia means truth or reality (versus vanity), verity, veracity, genuineness, sincerity. It is John’s highly individual terminology, and it is one of the profound words in the New Testament. This word denotes all the realities of the divine economy as the content of the divine revelation, contained, conveyed, and disclosed by the holy Word. (Life-study of 1 John, pp. 78-79)

　　According to the New Testament, truth is first God, who is light and love, incarnated to be the reality of the divine things—including the divine life, the divine nature, the divine power, the divine glory—for our possession, so that we may enjoy Him as grace, as revealed in John’s Gospel (John 1:1, 4, 14-17).

　　Second, truth… denotes Christ, who is God incarnated and in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col. 2:9), to be the reality of: a) God and man (John 1:18, 51; 1 Tim. 2:5); b) all the types, figures, and shadows of the Old Testament (Col. 2:16-17; John 4:23-24); and c) all the divine and spiritual things, such as the divine life and resurrection (John 11:25; 14:6), the divine light (John 8:12; 9:5), the divine way (John 14:6), wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). Hence, Christ is the reality (John 14:6; Eph. 4:21).

　　Third, truth is the Spirit, who is Christ transfigured (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17), the reality of Christ (John 14:16-17; 15:26) and of the divine revelation (John 16:13-15). Hence, the Spirit is the reality (1 John 5:6).

　　God is the truth, the reality, of the divine things for our possession. Therefore, we need to possess God as the reality and then enjoy Him as grace. Hence, the divine reality is actually God Himself. He is the reality of all the divine things. Reality is Christ as God incarnate…. In the Old Testament we have many types, figures, and shadows. Christ is the reality of them. In the Bible we also read of many divine and spiritual things, such as life, light, wisdom, and righteousness. Christ Himself is the reality of all these things. Therefore, when we read the word truth or reality in the New Testament, we need to realize that it refers first to God and also to Christ.

　　We have pointed out that truth is God, Christ, and the Spirit. Therefore, truth is the Divine Trinity. Actually the three of the Trinity are all one reality. Having seen that truth is the Triune God, we may go on to point out that truth is also the Word of God as the divine revelation, which not only reveals but also conveys the reality of God and Christ and of all the divine and spiritual things. Hence, the Word of God also is reality (John 17:17). The Word is the explanation of the Triune God. This means that the fourth aspect of what the truth is, the Word, is actually the explanation of the first three aspects of the truth, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Therefore, reality is God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and also the divine Word. (Life-study of 1 John, pp. 79-81)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 1 John, msgs. 5, 7, 9-11,17-18, 28,32,39-40; CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision,” chs. 1, 3, 6, 8-10, 12-13