“For I rejoiced very much when brothers came and bore witness to the truth you hold, just as you go on walking in the truth. No greater cause for thankfulness do I have than these things, that I should be hearing that my children go on walking in the truth…that we may become fellow workers in the truth”. 3 John 3,4 + 8A

ANDREA DEL SARTO
Baptism of the People
Courtesy Web Gallery of Art http://www.wga.hu/index1.html
 

cross ref to:

2 John 4: “I rejoice very much because I have found certain ones of your children walking in the truth, just as we received commandment from the Father”

cross ref to:

2 Cor 4:2-6: “but we have renounced the underhanded things of which to be ashamed, not walking with cunning, neither adulterating the word of God, but by making the truth manifest recommending ourselves to every human conscience in the sight of God. If, now, the good news we declare is in fact veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through. For we are preaching, not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves, for Jesus’ sake. For God is he who said: “Let the light shine out of darkness,” and he has shone on our hearts to illuminate them with the glorious knowledge of God by the face of Christ.”

Here Paul clarifies what ‘the truth’ is that is being made manifest by saying it is the ‘glorious good news about the Christ’. He emphasizes that they are preaching, not themselves, but Christ Jesus, and that it is by the face of Christ that the ‘glorious knowledge of God’ shines through.

2 John 1: “The older man to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I truly love, and not I alone, but all those also who have come to know the truth.”

This is interesting because later in 2 John, the apostle there states that those who push ahead and do not remain in the ‘teaching of the Christ’ (the truth) are those who do not confess Jesus as having come in the flesh.

cross ref to:

John 8:31 + 32: “If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth

will set you free.”

So remaining in Jesus ‘word’ and being a disciple of his is intimately linked with knowing ‘the truth’.

What does it mean to remain in Jesus ‘word’? “I am the true vine….every one bearing fruit he cleans, that is may bear more fruit….You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you….If you observe my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have observed the commandments of the Father and remain in his love” - John 15. So remaining in Jesus ‘word’ means to obey his words and observe his commandments, which come from the Father vicariously through the Son (see also John 17:17).

John 5:39, 40: “You are searching the Scriptures, because you think that by means of them you will have everlasting life; and these are the very ones that bear witness about me. And yet you do not want to come to me that you may have life”

Jehovah’s Witnesses do a lot of scripture searching and study, putting an inordinate amount of emphasis on gaining ‘accurate knowledge’, which to them is the key to gaining everlasting life. John 17: 3 is quoted extensively by the JW’s to support this notion. Notwithstanding the dubious translation of this verse in the New World Translation, what is the main point of the entire Hebrew Scriptures? Why, as Jesus himself declared, it is to bear witness to him, who is ‘the way, the truth, the life’. No amount of scriptural ‘accurate’ knowledge will ever give someone credit in God’s eyes unless they make Jesus and his teachings the main focus of their life & faith. Only in this way can one find ‘the way’ to the Father, not through study of scripture, an organization, or any ‘faithful and discreet slave’ class.

In 1 John 4, the apostle explains how we can discern what expressions are inspired and have come from God from those that have not. The test is: “Every inspired expression that confesses Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh originates with God’. (compare also John 5: 1: “Everyone believing that Jesus is the Christ has been born from God”).

1 Cor 2: 1&2: “And so I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come with an extravagance of speech or of wisdom declaring the sacred secret of God to you. For I decided not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him impaled.”

It is difficult to see how JW’s imitate the example of Paul here. In many ways they appear to do the opposite. They seem to downplay any emphasis on Jesus and instead prefer to focus mainly on study, gaining ‘accurate knowledge’, ‘wisdom’ and ‘speech’.

Eph 4: 13, 15. 20,21: “until we all attain to the oneness in the faith and in the accurate knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man, to the measure of stature that belongs to the fullness of the Christ; in order that we should no longer be babes, tossed about as by waves and carried hither and thither by every wind of teaching by means of the trickery of men, by means of cunning in contriving error. But speaking the truth, let us by love grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ….But you did not learn the Christ to be so, provided, indeed, that you heard him and were taught by means of him, just as truth is in Jesus.”

These words are very powerful in helping us to understand how nearly all JW’s, including the professed 8,000 or so amongst them that profess to be born again of the holy spirit, have fallen victim to the ‘contriving error’ of believing and teaching that Jesus Christ and the Kingdom started ruling in 1914. This has been perpetuated because they are not giving proper heed to Jesus Christ words, in whom is found truth, and in whom are “carefully concealed….all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge” (Col 2:3). 

If as sheep they would only choose to listen more carefully to the words of their true shepherd they would be set free from the absurd notion that the kingdom has been reigning since 1914. Jesus and his words are the truth and the truth will set them free, if only they would listen more carefully to it. An honest and unbiased reading of Jesus own words about his return at Matthew 24 & 25, Luke 21, and Mark 13 should make it clear to any fair mind that his return and reign is still future (ironically, Christendom corrently teaches it is future).

Yet, sadly, the JW leaders long ago cunningly and contrivingly added layers of tricky interpretations and dubious chronological notions on top of Jesus simple words, resulting in the whole embarrassing error of the 1914 creed.

This is still being perpetuated and taught worldwide as ‘the truth’. What an example of the danger in putting faith in the cunning ‘inspired expressions’ of religious leaders without measuring them properly against the litmus test of Jesus’ words, in whom is found all wisdom, knowledge, and truth!

So what does it really mean to be ‘in the truth’. It means to believe on Jesus Christ and have full faith in him, and to remain in his word and teachings, as meek and obedient sheep. Of course one can expound on that, but this is the whole basic thrust of the Christian Greek Scriptures. This is different to the way Jehovah’s Witnesses use the expression ‘in the truth’, ie, as being synonymous with active membership in the JW religion (“I grew up in the truth”, “how long have you been in the truth”, “he is falling out of the truth”).

In conclusion, what does this all mean for Jehovah’s Witnesses, and all the many hundreds of millions of others in ‘Christendom’ who profess faith in Jesus Christ. It means that all Christians, JW or not, who are sincerely trying their best to have faith in him and follow the life and teachings of Jesus Christ are loved by him, and hence loved by the Father. “But what about all the error and false dogmas taught in Christendom”, a typical JW would respond.

The answer to that lies in 1 Corinthians 13. There the apostle Paul eloquently reminds us that it is not how much knowledge we may have that is the main issue.  What matters above all is  to have ‘faith, hope, and love’, with love by far being the most important. Those qualities must not only be inwardly held to, but outwardly and actively shown, being motivated by the love the Father and Christ showed first for us by the provision of the ransom. Paul goes on to show that ‘whether there is knowledge, it will be done away with’. Jehovah’s Witnesses, like all those in the rest of Babylon the Great, still teach error and their knowledge is incomplete.

They have had to shed false teachings and make way for the new, and they will again, if they will but listen more carefully to the words of their master. Yes, it is true that Jehovah’s Witnesses teach a greater measure of true doctrine than most other Christian religions. There is not doubt that they have succeeded in removing a greater portion of Babylonish pagan falsehood from their belief system than other organized religions.

But this is nothing to gloat over and give reason to imagine that they alone have some exclusive patent on ‘the truth’ and only they are ‘in the truth’, because they are not the only ones who follow Jesus and obey him, not by a long way. Unfortunately, as hard as it may be for them to admit, Jehovah’s Witnesses are ultimately just like all other professed Christians in that they are presently only seeing the truth in a ‘hazy outline by means of a metal mirror’.

They would do well to admit, as Paul humbly did, that ‘at present I know partially, but then I shall know accurately.” Yes, the ‘wheat and the weeds’ are still growing together; the angels have been commanded not to separate them until the conclusion of the system of things, which is obviously still future.

So when will the time come when all true Christians will ‘know accurately’? Daniel was told that during “the time of the end…many will rove about, and the true knowledge will become abundant”. Although it appears we are living in the ‘season’ for when we can generally expect Jesus to return, we are not yet living in the ‘time of the end’. That time, likely to be synonymous with the Great Tribulation, will be the time when pure, unadulterated, accurate knowledge of the truth will be revealed and taken up in pure worship.

Until then, all Christians, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, must patiently and steadfastly do their best to remain in the word and teaching of our Lord Jesus, having full faith in him, through which we can conquer the world. In that way, Christians can stay ‘in the truth’. Yes, let us keep pursuing the higher gifts of love, faith, and hope, not judging our fellow Christian brothers and sisters on points of scriptural interpretation, but prayerfully trying our best to ‘attain to the oneness in the faith and in the accurate knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man, to the measure of stature that belongs in the fullness of the Christ’ (Eph 4: 13).