Course Content
Many years ago, when I was starting a career in journalism and publishing, I received some advice that has stuck with me for decades.
“You have to love the truth,” my boss (an elder in the Church) told me.
He spoke those words in the context of writing articles for publications, but it applies in so many areas of life: You have to love the truth. It’s good advice for our lives as Christians. In fact, it’s a requirement.
The apostle Paul wrote of the importance of loving the truth in 2 Thessalonians 2:10. Describing a great end-time deception that will engulf most of humanity, Paul wrote of “those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”
In the end-time, loving the truth will be a matter of life and death—life for those who love the truth and death for those who don’t. The reality is that loving truth right now in every aspect of our lives is a matter of eternal life and death!
We live in a world of lies. Our enemy is so persuasive that he “deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). That’s a staggering and sobering testimony to his persuasive power.
A sad reality I’ve repeatedly seen over the years is that Satan doesn’t need to deceive people about everything, he just needs to deceive us about one thing. Because that one thing may be all it takes to lead us completely astray. It starts small, but over time leads us further and further astray.
It’s easy to be swayed into wrong teachings. Sadly, we’ve seen that again and again over the years. Satan uses what works. But he also uses wrong values—beliefs, ideas and perspectives that aren’t grounded in God’s truth and are contrary to that truth.
This is also an important part of loving the truth. God wants children whose thoughts, actions and lives reflect His godly mind and thoughts. Not just our biblical beliefs, but every aspect of our thinking and beliefs should reflect His mind—not the false values and fake “truth” of this world. God’s Church is “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).
Truth must be a part of our character, our very being.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” said Jesus Christ (John 14:6). God’s way, God’s truth and His offer to us of eternal life are all interconnected and inseparable.
God’s truth is part of the Christian’s armor that protects and preserves us from Satan’s deceits and the false values of this world that can spiritually destroy us. “Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth,” wrote Paul in Ephesian 6:14.
The truth—which comes from closeness to God and diligently studying His Word to learn His values and thinking—protects and saves us.
We must love the truth!
I can’t think of any better closing than the apostle John’s words in 3 John 4: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth!”
Scott Ashley is managing editor of Beyond Today magazine, United Church of God booklets and its printed Bible Study Course. He and his wife, Connie, live near Denver, Colorado.
Mr. Ashley attended Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, graduating in 1976 with a theology major and minors in journalism and speech. It was there that he first became interested in publishing, an industry in which he has worked for more than 40 years.
During his career, he has worked for several publishing companies in various capacities. He has been employed by the United Church of God since 1995, overseeing the planning, writing, editing, reviewing and production of Beyond Today magazine, several dozen booklets/study guides and a Bible study course covering major biblical teachings. His special interests are the Bible, archaeology, biblical culture, history and the Middle East.
