The Land of the Kingdom

When some folks read the Word, not a single syllable is read that does not go through a filtering process.  For them the Word cannot really be trusted to say what it says.  It must really be saying something other than the obvious and so the search begins.  An example is found in that Word the Apostle Paul wrote to young Timothy.  In the 15th verse of the 3rd chapter of I Timothy, we encounter words like, "...the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth."  Reading that simple Word makes a Pilate out of many who immediately ask, "What is truth?"  (John 18:38)

 

Most folks are not asking the question expecting to get an answer, but as a way of declaring that knowing truth is not a simple thing and that it must be filtered through their experience and intellect in order to pass the litmus test of real truth.  It matters not that Jesus said of Himself, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."  (John 14:6)  Neither does it matter that Jesus later said about the coming Holy Spirit, "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth...(John 15:26)  Those with the question of Pilate on their lips cannot accept the simplicity of what the Word of God is saying.

 

An old country and western song used to sing about looking for love in all the wrong places and so do some look in all the wrong places for the truth.  They look to what the majority declares to be truth.  They look to what they have already decided to be truth.  The look to a world view that does not embrace the Christian lifestyle or values.  They look to what their ego will allow them to accept.  They look in all the wrong places and whatever truth is declared belongs to a land far from the land of the Kingdom.