The Bible Study Podcast, episode 51. This is the 10th and final episode in a series on what the church is and what it's called to be. This episode will focus on truth.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. For those of you who've been listening to the show for a while, certainly truth is something that it has come up for in this podcast, I think specifically of the series that I did on the armor of God and the belt of truth. But let's look a bit at what it means to be truthful. If you take your

concordance and you look up truth in the Bible, you'll see a lot of different references.

And usually it's Jesus saying, I tell you the truth, and then telling us something or other.

Or it's Jesus being called the truth, the way the truth and the life. So there's certainly a

big T truth that the church is truth and the life. So there's certainly a big T truth that the church

is supposed to be about. But then there are some practical places where I think truth needs to play

out in the church. And that's really what I want to focus on today. The first one obviously is

true about our situation. And I think of the verses in 1 John, 1 John 1, 1, John 1, walking in the light. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you. God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in darkness, we do not live by the truth.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,

and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin,

we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins,

he is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar, and his word has no place in

our lives. These words may sound familiar to you. I know in the particular church that I go to in the Lutheran tradition, we use these words.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,

often in a confession of sins which takes place at the beginning of a service.

As we start every worship service, it's a common part of, in our tradition,

to deal with the fact that we are sinful and imperfect people, and to start right up front with

that request for forgiveness. Somehow this week we have probably, and most of us who are honest

with ourselves, know specifically in what ways

we have screwed up. We have fallen short of the mark, which is what sin means to miss the mark.

...