September
1, 2003
YOUR
WORD IS TRUTH
"Sanctify
them by Your truth. Your word is truth" (John 17:17,
NKJV).
In the
prayer of Jesus recorded in John 17, He said, "I
have given them Your word... Sanctify them by Your truth,
Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also
have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify
Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth"
(John 17:14, 17-19).
The definition
of the word sanctify in the dictionary is "to make (a
person) holy; to make free from sin; to purify; to cause to
be respected; make sacred; to make productive of spiritual
blessing." Why is it important to be sanctified, to be
made free from sin? Well, according to Romans 6:23, "The
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord." The gift of God is to purify
us, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, "If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9);
and to set us free from sin, "and having been set free
from sin, you became slaves of [doing what is right]"
(Romans 6:18). Doing what is right is the opposite of doing
what is wrong and the difference has eternal consequences.
Nothing
can compare with doing it right! The best that we can do to
recover from doing it wrong is to learn from our mistakes,
to make restitution as best we can, and do it right the next
time around. If something is worth doing, it is worth doing
right. It saves so much time, trial and hardship. This is
true of everything we do in life.
Jesus
came to make it easy for us. We all make mistakes. By getting
to know Him, He teaches us how to live successfully, how to
overcome faults of character and behavior, and he sets us
on the path to doing things right. He helps us to overcome
the mistakes we have made and He, and God the Father, tell
us the truth. What they tell us we can depend on.
A lot
of what we hear in life, in the news, in the market place,
in the movies, even from friends, is like a lot of garbage,
it is far from the truth and leads to consequences that are
harmful to us and society. God has provided for our benefit
and blessing something to keep our feet from straying into
dangerous territory, He has given us Jesus to give us light
and understanding as we live out our days, "I
am the way, the truth and the life; He will guide you into
all truth; you shall know the truth and the truth shall make
you free; Follow Me" (John 14:6; 16:13; 8:32;
21:19).
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