“Since the dawn of time, resistance to God has been the hallmark of the human race – the great problem plaguing every man and woman.” (OCPM 5/24/2017)
“Every human being struggles with immorality, because at our core is our heart’s rebellion against God.” (David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons)
“The rebellion of the world against God reveals several things…While union with Christ brings love, truth, and peace, it also brings persecution, because the world hates love and truth..." (Orthodox Study Bible, John 15:18-25)
“Why do the children of this world often scoff at that which is truth…” (St. John of Kronstadt)
“The saying ‘the truth hurts” is actually true. The reason it is true is because we are so infected with self-will. When we are faced with the truth, it usually is an affront to our self-will because the truth is demanding we do something counter to it. This stirs the rebellion within us and we lash out and fight back looking to preserve self over truth. Often we are not even conscious of this until the Holy Spirit pricks our conscience. Then comes ‘the moment of truth’ when we either humbly accept the truth and adjust our words and behavior, or harden our resolve and continue down the ruinous path of self-will.” (Sacramental Living Blog)
“I did not have to wrestle long with some of the postmodern relativism that captures my generation. To me, it was self-evident that truth exists. What’s the alternative? If truth doesn’t exist, then it would be true that truth doesn’t exist, and once again we arrive at truth. There is no alternative; truth must exist.” (Nabeel Qureshi)
“We are a people who live by facts (or imagine that we do). We think that a fact “just is,” and is neither one thing nor another – it just is. As such, we think that facts are neutral things. But this is secularism. Nothing in all of creation is “neutral.” Nothing “just is.” Everything exists only as it relates to God. Everything exists only as it exists in the truth. It’s “fact-ness” can be beside the point, and even contrary to the point.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“I’ve learned over time that all truth is God’s truth. There is no hierarchy or separation of truth into categories—spiritual and secular. If something is true, it comes from God—regardless of its context.” (Kevin Scherer)
“...throughout history most people have preferred to believe in delusions over God’s truth…If the Gospel is true, then it is true for everybody whether they choose to believe it or not.” (Life Application Study Bible, Psalm 4:2, Sacramental Living Blog)
“Seeing is believing,” runs a popular aphorism, but the actual truth is the other way around – believing is seeing.” (OCPM 6/8/2017)“
We live in a world where dishonesty is almost expected, and sadly, in some professions, required when we live in a society that doesn’t promote being truthful, it is easy to fall into the trap of lies and less than truths.” (Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianakis)
"It is very tempting for us to listen to pleasant lies, enjoy innocent sins, and accept a watered-down Christianity as the whole truth!...To understand Jesus’ message, people must listen and respond. Those who listen casually, for whatever reason, will miss the point.” (Dynamis 3/19/2014, Life Application Study Bible, Mark 4:25)
“False teaching has an intoxicating effect that dulls the mind to God’s truth.” (Foundation Study Bible, 2 Timothy 2:26)
“Resoluteness in truth helps put an end to quibbling over words and details. It enables us to stay close to God in all we say and do.” (OCPM 2/9/2016)
“We are able to perceive what is true by the ascetic life of participatory adherence to the things of God.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Truth is not a thought, not a word, not a relationship between things, not a law. Truth is a Person. It is a Being which exceeds all beings and gives life to all." (St. Nicholas of Serbia)
“Truth is always timely; it applies today and in the future. Because it is connected with God’s changeless character, it is also changeless….God reveals truth to people who will act on it and make it visible in their lives.” (Life Application Study, Proverbs 12:19, Mark 4:14-20)
“Truth is always a quarry hard to hunt, and therefore we must look everywhere for its tracks.” (St. Basil the Great)
“...he who does not know God does not know the truth and the nature of things in general..." (“St. Nectarios of Pentapolis)
“God’s truth is simple enough to be grasped by a child but also deep enough to challenge the most brilliant minds.” (Richard Stearns)
“To those who are honestly searching, the truth becomes clear.” (Life Application Study Bible, Matthew 13:2,3)
“Truth is the most powerful force on earth because it cannot be changed.” (Mike Murdock)
“For Christians, truth is a Person – Jesus Christ. He is the truth because He is the unique revelation God.” (Orthodox Study Bible, John 14:6)
“You are no longer faced with an argument which demands your assent, but with a Person who demands your confidence.” (C.S. Lewis)
“The nature of Truth is that it is true no matter what anyone says about it. In the face of Truth, there is no opinion.” (Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick)
“...most religions have traditionally claimed that their faith is true and that others are, by implication, at least somewhat false, then that means that some religious believers are fundamentally mistaken about their beliefs and practices. This means they’re not going to get the results they think they will. We can’t all be right, because we’re making different claims about the nature of reality." (Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick)
“A twisting of the truth is more difficult to spot than an outright lie.” (Life Application Study Bible, Galatians 1:7)
"...people have been about the business of denying Truth ever since they have been in the business of having power over one another.” (Bishop John Michael Botean)
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (Jesus Christ)
“...how illogical it is to say that there is no such thing as truth (If that were the case, there would be at least one truth, namely that there is no such thing as truth, right...the opposite of Truth is deception, which, especially in the case of self-deception, is not always deliberate.” (Bishop John Michael Botean)
"…some are fully attuned to divine truth, some partially so, and some barely. Our faith calls us to the struggle of knowing and embracing Truth Himself in worship and in all of life. However, the numbing effects of this world often seduce us into negligence and mindlessness…” (Dynamis 7/21/2013)
“As followers of Christ, we must be committed to the truth. This means both that our words should be honest and that our actions should reflect Christ’s integrity.” (Life Application Study Bible, Ephesians 4:14-16)
"What you say has to be what you know is true. Truth is not about making people feel good, it’s about what is true, and good and right. Being a Christian isn’t about being nice. It certainly doesn’t give us permission to be hurtful and spiteful to people. Sometimes the truth hurts, because the truth can accuse us or correct us. But we need to be people who speak honestly.” (Father John Zeyack)
"Speak the truth in love. This sounds simples but it seems so hard for us to do. Some of us are fairly good at speaking the truth, but we forget to be loving. Some of us are good at being loving, but we don’t have it in us to level with others if the truth is painful…Speak the truth but do it in a loving manner.” (Life Application Study Bible, Ephesians 4:15)
“Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Jesus Christ)
“Christians understand that man is really the end result of God's creative action. Regardless of the process by which mankind came into existence, the Scriptures teach that mankind's destiny and purpose is to become ‘perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect’ and that our ultimate goal and purpose as individuals and as a people is to be ‘the image and likeness of God’.” (Father Stanley Harakas)
"The Christian can indeed grow in the perfection of the Father, which is shown by imitating His love and mercy.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Matthew 5:48)
"Paul used [the word] perfection to mean mature or complete, not flawless in every detail. Those who are mature should press on in the Holy Spirit’s power, knowing that Christ will reveal and fill in any discrepancy between what we are and what we should be.” (Life Application Study Bible, Philippians 3:15-16)
“On the one hand, God’s demand for perfection need not discourage you in the least in your present attempts to be good, or even in your present failures. Each time you fall He will pick you up again. And He knows perfectly well that your own efforts are never going to bring you anywhere near perfection. On the other hand, you must realize from the outset that the goal towards which He is beginning to guide you is absolute perfection; and no power in the whole universe, except you yourself, can prevent Him from taking you to that goal. That is what you are in for. And it is very important to realize that. If we do not, then we are very likely to start pulling back and resisting Him after a certain point.” (C. S. Lewis)
“For Christians, truth is not an ideology, set of doctrines, scriptures, canon, rules, or commandments. These are all expressions or reflections of truth. For Christians, truth is a Person – Jesus Christ. He is the truth because He is the unique revelation God.” (Orthodox Study Bible, John 14:6)
"Jesus is the truth (John 14:6), and the Holy Spirit guides believers to Him (John 16:13).” (Life Application Study Bible, 1 John 2:20)
"Christ said, ‘I am the Truth"; He did not say ‘I am the custom’…In Jesus Christ, God reveals the complete, unveiled truth.” (St. Toribio, Dynamis 2/13/2015)
“Thus the truth, who is Christ Himself according to the Christian witness, is not trapped within the confines of history. The Truth has encountered history and made Himself manifest in that moment, but the same Truth, as the End of all things, is free and able to make Himself manifest at every moment and at all time.” (Fr Stephen Freeman)
“…to understand truth is to understand"You are no longer faced with an argument which demands your assent, but with a Person who demands your confidence.” (C.S. Lewis)
“Personal relationships are blessed for those who possess integrity (Proverbs 10:10-12). The upright are direct and without deceit: they enhance others as peacemakers and their speech is straightforward (Proverbs 10:13-21).” (Dynamis 3/12/2015)
“It is easy to get opinions from people who will tell us only what they think will please us, but such advice is not helpful. Instead, we should look for those who will speak the truth, even when it hurts… Love is able to give tough advice; it doesn’t hedge on the truth.” (Life Application Study Bible, Proverbs 10:20, Mark 10:21)
“We live in a time when we personalize everything and put concern for feelings up front, even above the issue at hand or the truth.” (Father Thomas Loya)
"Adorn yourself with truth, try to speak truth in all things; and do not support a lie, no matter who asks you. If you speak the truth and someone gets mad at you, don't be upset, but take comfort in the words of the Lord: Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of truth, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 5:10).” (St. Gennadius of Constantinople)
“The ability to speak the truth wisely to someone lovingly and with benefit to that person is directly proportional to your relationship with Truth and Wisdom Himself, Christ, and your own humility as a result of that relationship.” (Sacramental Living II)
“For...Christianity, there is no truth—scientific or poetic, physical or metaphysical, literal or spiritual—that is contrary to Christian truth. In fact...there is no such thing as"Christian truth” as distinct from any other kind of truth. Truth is truth; it is the same for everyone. In this perspective, divine revelation is not only about God; it is about everything else as well. And created things also are all about the God who made them, and so, in that sense, are revelatory of God in His divine energies and operations in the world.” (Father Thomas Hopko)
"We must realize that many"truths” are promoted, even pressed upon us, for unthinking adoption. Bullied by a welter of competing ideas and demands, it is easy to lose our way. Be alert against indifference to divine truth, for our secular culture is actually resurgent paganism.” (Dynamis 7/21/2013)
"Truth is not a thought, not a word, not a relationship between things, not a law. Truth is a Person…God is truth, for He Himself says,"I am the way, the truth and the life." (John 14:6). (St. Nicholas of Serbia, St. Abba Dorotheos)
"While we may humbly disagree on the partial truth we know dimly about God, we in fact approach one another in our recognition that the absolute truth cannot be conceived, contained, or exhausted.” (Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew)
“The world, in general, tends to hate truth. How do we, as Christians, know this? When Pilate asked Christ what is truth, Christ was silent because Pilate was asking the wrong question. The question should have been who is truth? Truth was standing before him. Truth came to us in the flesh and what did we do to truth? We crucified Him. That tendency to crucify truth seems to still be alive and well.” (Sacramental Living II)
“The possibility of resisting the truth always exists.” (Dynamis 6/23/2015)
“Jesus’ parables compel listeners to discover truth, while at the same time concealing the truth from those too lazy or too stubborn to see it….When speaking in parables, Jesus was not hiding truth from sincere seekers, because those who were receptive to spiritual truth understood the illustrations. To others they were only stories without meaning.” (Life Application Study Bible, Matthew 13:2-3, 13:9-10)
“Every aspect of truth, whether touching on discipline, revelation, or worship, is ultimately known fully and completely only to God. We are merely the vessels through whom teachings come to fruition. Any single individual can embrace only part of the truth.” (Dynamis 5/16/2015)
"The truths of God can both comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." (Skip Heitzig)
“The truth about Jesus is no more popular in our time than in Paul’s, but it is still reaches receptive hearts.” (Life Application Study Bible, 2 Timothy 2:9)
“The Gospel of Christ does not move by popular waves…popularity is no guarantee of truth.” (E. M. Bounds, Life Application Study Bible, Luke 6:26)
"We imagine that popularity somehow equals success in our lives, yet Jesus calls His disciples to give up the popularity of the world for the praise of His Father.” (Bill Gothard)
"On the one hand, the heavy attention paid by our popular culture to these voguish works reflects the sad reality that our contemporary society is fast approaching a near total theological and historical illiteracy. On the other hand, despite the grave theological illiteracy of our era, very few would dispute that people in our present time are thirsty for the truth, for substantive knowledge, for an authentic relationship with God.” (Archbishop Demetrious)
"...contrary beliefs are possible, but contrary truths are not possible. We can believe everything is true, but we cannot make everything true." (Norman L. Geisler & Frank Turek)
"To say that the Christian life is about choosing truth is to say that it is about deciding for oneself what is true, to the best of one’s ability, and then to live a life based upon one’s conclusions. The significant aspect is the choosing. Our choosing does not alter reality; it alters us in our relationship to reality.” (Bishop John Michael Botean)
“...fair-mindedness (uprightness, honesty, integrity) is difficult to find. Society rationalizes sin, and even believers sometimes compromise Christian principles in order to do what they want. It is easy to convince ourselves that we deserve a few breaks, especially when"everyone else” is doing it. But the standards for honesty come from God, not society. We are to be honest because God is truth, and we are to be like Him.” (Life Application Study Bible, Micah 7:1-4)
“Lying to each other disrupts unity by creating conflicts and destroying trust. It tears down relationships and leads to open warfare in a church.” (Life Application Study Bible, Ephesians 4:25)
“Truth is not achieved through our intellect only. Much of what we must do as Christians may seem ridiculous and it is hard at first. Like exercise, when you first start off it is hard, but gradually, as you get in better shape, it becomes easier and then becomes natural to us, almost like breathing in that it is done unconsciously. And it is through assimilation if you will, when we do things unconsciously that draw us closer to God that ironically, breed a greater conscious understanding of Him and truth.” (Sacramental Living)
" And the truth is, when someone is pursuing, investigating, and attempting to understand the Son of God, he or she is pursuing truth personified, and that person will find Him.” (Jefferson Bethke)
“The truth refers both to the virtue of truth and, more importantly, to Christ Himself... The truth into which the Holy Spirit guides us is the truth about Christ. The Spirit also helps us through patient practice to discern right from wrong.” (Orthodox Study Bible, John 8:32, Life Application Study Bible, John 16:13)
"We love the truth when it enlightens but hate it when it accuses. Because we do not want to be deceived and do want to deceive, we love truth when it reveals itself and hate it when it reveals us.” (Saint Augustine)
“The fact that there are moral truths that are true everywhere points to a transcendent morality that we did not invent and from which we cannot escape.” (C.S. Lewis)
“There must be an absolute if there are to be morals, and there must be an absolute if there are to be real values. If there is no absolute beyond man’s ideas, then there is no final appeal to judge between individuals and groups whose moral judgments conflict." (Francis A. Schaeffer)
“We live in a culture with so many voices competing for our attention that it is easy to rest in beliefs that are pragmatic, commercial, sentimental, and agnostic toward any claims of ultimate truth with a capital T.” (Rev. Christopher H. Martin)
“Without honesty, a relationship with God is impossible. If we lie to others, we will begin to deceive ourselves. God cannot hear us or speak to us if we are building a wall of self-deception.” (Life Application Study Bible, Psalms 24:4)
“Nothing is hidden from God. He sees everything and knows the truth about each of us. One of mankind’s great self-deceptions is to say,"Who sees us?” (Is 29:15) and think there is no judgment.” (Orthodox Study Bible,"The Basis of God's Judgment)
"In order to become mature we must cultivate the skill of speaking honestly about ourselves without illusion or evasion. Because we were made in the image of God and yet reveal to the world something far less, the truth about ourselves is some ugliness layered over great beauty.” (Rev. Christopher H. Martin)
“Dishonest people soon begin to believe the lies they construct around themselves. Then they lose the ability to tell the difference between truth and lies. By believing your own lies, you deceive yourself, you will alienate yourself from God, and you will lose credibility in all your relationships.” (Life Application Study Bible, 1 Samuel 15:13-14)
“...we humans have a fatal tendency to try to adjust the truth to fit our desires rather than adjusting our desires to fit the truth.” (Norman L. Geisler & Frank Turek)
“The light of Jesus’ truth is revealed to us, not hidden. But we may not be able to see or to use all of that truth right now. Only as we put God’s teachings into practice will we understand and see more of the truth. The truth is clear, but our ability to understand is imperfect.” (Life Application Study Bible, Mark 4:24-25)
"As...Christians we embrace and defend God’s revelation of Himself...Our efforts may not always hit the mark, but nonetheless we affirm our intention to uphold the whole truth of the faith. We struggle to live and express that truth as fully as we are able. Our ability to carry out this purpose does not depend on our having a series of answers prepared in neat, correct phrases. Rather [it] is to exercise an inner listening with an attentive heart, nurturing a spirit that seeks illumination and wisdom from God. It requires deep humility concerning our personal capacities, for we resolve to place our trust in what the Church has always taught." (Dynamis 4/13/2014)
“The condition of the heart is crucial, for the Lord states plainly that not every heart is ready to receive His seed – His truth. The word of the kingdom will grow only in the ready heart.” (Dynamis 7/14/2014)
"All spiritual renewal begins and ends with God. He reveals truth to us, live within us, and enables us to respond to that truth.” (Life Application Study Bible, John 6:63, 65)
“Seeing is believing,” runs a popular aphorism, but the actual truth is the other way around – believing is seeing…” Dynamis 6/12/2014)
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