Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. John 17:17

Truth sets us apart for holy service. Truth’s purpose is not to make us right or make us superior. It is not meant to equip us to be better arguers and put others “in their place”. Truth, God’s truth, is to set us apart. I get the feeling we allow truth to distance us from the very world we are to influence. Truth was not meant to remove us from the presence of sinners, but remove sin from us. Truth makes us holy to make us useful. Jesus had great faith in the truth; he had great faith in the Word of God being truth. He sends us out into a world that is enticing, hostile, powerful and corrupts knowing full well the truth of God’s Word is capable of guiding us, protecting us and keeping us holy and useful.

If I am reading this correctly, Jesus trusts the word of God to do a work in us, and we are then to do his work in the world. In a sense, the more we know God’s truth the deeper we delve into God’s work in the world. It seems to me we foul this up in two ways… either we become too friendly with the world and remain strangers with God’s word, risking the holiness component of sanctification. Or we become fearful of the world not trusting the protection and provision of God’s truth, His Word risking relevance and effectiveness components of sanctification.

If you are reading this, then it most likely means you are reading your Bible. You are fulfilling Jesus’ prayer. You are being set apart for his holy service by the truth of his holy word. Keep up the good work.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 28th, 2006 at 5:00 am and is filed under Daily Readings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.