Reflect the Truth

God’s highest truths are the truths about Himself—His holiness, His love, His majesty. He authored truth itself. He is the highest reality upon which all other truths depend.

And those truths are worth pursuing. God’s truth multiplies and diffuses into many fields of knowledge, like science, philosophy, art, and literature. Many people in these fields—scientists, artists, philosophers—obscure or deny God’s truth, but they can still teach us a great deal about Creation. We can see God’s fingerprints everywhere.

The highest truths in Creation and culture will reflect the character and work of God—who He is, what He’s like, and what He’s done. Our guide to all this truth is the Holy Spirit, who uses Scripture to show us how God views Himself, how He views us, and how He views the world around us.

We won’t find every truth in the Bible. Scripture doesn’t tell you, for example, how to cure a disease or what’s the fastest way to get to school. But what you do find in Scripture is all entirely truth (Ps. 33:4; 2 Tim. 3:15–16; 2 Pet. 1:21; 1 Cor. 2:13). God’s truth in His Word, the Bible, is sufficient to grow our relationship with Him.

How then do we reflect God’s truth? Who should we be? What should we do?

Study the Truth

Dive into God’s Word and study His character and work.

Find out what God calls true and what He calls false.
Get to know the teachings and personality of Jesus.
Immerse yourself in the wisdom of the Bible.
Study how God dealt with people in the Old Testament, and then explore how Christ upended the system of law and judgment with a new covenant of grace.
Like the prophet Isaiah, stand in awe of God’s holiness, and just watch how He will change you (Isa. 6:1–8).

Study also what God says about you.

Recognize your helplessness before you trusted in Christ, and revel in your new status as a child and heir of God. Face the world with that confidence.
Know your worth as a bearer of God’s image, but understand also your complete dependence on Him to accomplish anything for His glory. We all need Him in everything, always.

Finally, study God’s truth in science and culture.

Ask Him for wisdom to discern what reflects His majesty and what perpetuates the corruption of sin.
Learn new skills, connect with new people, and look for God’s handiwork.
But as you do, reject whatever tears you away from God, and put away anything that poisons your relationship with fellow believers.

Live the Truth

Ask God to help you see from His eternal perspective—and align your thinking to match. Watch Him form you into the person He says you can be. Trust Him implicitly—even when He teaches you through your own weakness.

Keep close to God, and He will keep close to you (James 4:8). He will sanctify you through the truth of His Word. He has set you apart for a purpose, so He will show you things in your life that are sinful or unhelpful. He will never stop working in you until the day you see Christ (Phil. 1:6).

Share the Truth

God’s truth will do us a lot of good, but we also have a responsibility to share His Word with others. How we act, where we look, what we say—everything we do communicates truth or falsehood. We’re all teachers, whether we like it or not, and by God’s grace we should teach others about His love and truth.

That’s not to say we should spend our lives trying to convince others that we’re perfect Christians. We should be honest about what God does in us, and, when appropriate, we should be transparent about our own struggles. If we share only our victories, if we set ourselves on a pedestal, we isolate ourselves from good, helpful relationships.

God never intended us to live the Christian life alone. He gave us fellow believers to challenge and encourage us. So we shouldn’t share truth and then ignore what others share back.

As we study, live, and share God’s truth, we reflect Him to those around us.