Article by Minister Glen Bowman, 3rd & Kilgore Church of Christ
Jesus was on trial before Pilate, and he questioned Jesus. Jesus responded at one point, “For this purpose I have been born, and for this I have come into the world: to testify to the truth.” Pilate seemed confused, asking, “What is truth?” and walked away(John 18:37, 38). However, if Jesus came to this world to testify to the truth, then we should also! But what IS the truth that He mentions here?
In John 14:6, Jesus said that He is the truth and in John 17:17, it says that God’s word is truth. That may seem a touch confusing, but John 1:14 says that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” Therefore, the Word of God dwelt on earth as a man, and we know Him as Jesus. So, both of Jesus’ statements are true. We then should testify to the whole word of God andspecifically talk about Jesus.
Why is this so important? After all, we live in a world where some people seem tired of hearing about the Bible and even hostile towards its message. John wrote that he was sharing this message “so that you also may believe” (John 19:35b). Peoplemust have faith to be pleasing to God (Hebrews 11:6) as well asserve Him (James 2:14-17) according to Scripture (Romans 10:2, 3), so testifying to the truth may be the most important thing that we can do for others.
While some may see the truth as hurtful or hateful, the good news of the gospel is just that: good news! Paul described this in Acts 26:22, 23 that he was “testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place, as to whether the Christ was to suffer, and whether, as first from the resurrection of the dead, He would proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”That doesn’t sound bad, does it? Of course, if we truly follow Jesus, we will have to imitate Him by declaring certain deeds as evil (John 7:7). However, we can speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) and know that we’ve done what God desires.
Something to note when testifying to the truth is that we follow Paul’s example of “declaring…the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27b). Sometimes people focus on just the positive or negative aspects of God’s word, but we need to declare everything. A verse that describes this well is Romans 11:22, which says, “Behold then the kindness and severity of God: to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; for otherwise you too will be cut off.” That may not always be a popular message, but it is a biblical one.
Finally, we also have a testimony if we have walked with Jesus ourselves (John 15:27). While this testimony is obviouslydifferent than the disciples’ who saw Him in the flesh, we should see God at work in our lives and testify to others about it. We shouldn’t worry if some don’t receive our testimony well, because we can still see lives changed when we share the Word. At one point, Jesus was gaining more and more followers and some of those who were opposing Him said, “Look, the world has gone after Him!” (John 12:19b). Let’s live our lives testifying to the truth, so that others may say the same thing and that God will fill heaven with faithful followers of His Son!
