Skip to content

Know the Truth

On the morning Jesus was condemned, the Roman governor asked Him a question and did not wait for the answer: "What is truth?" (John 18:38, ESV). Jesus had just told him, "For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world — to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice" (18:37, ESV). Pilate walked back outside with the answer still standing in the room.

In one sentence: Truth in Scripture is God's own firmness — He cannot lie, His word is truth, and in His Son Jesus truth took flesh — so it is there to be known; you come to know it by abiding in Jesus' word, and it sets you free from sin and from the devil, the father of lies, whose first move was to make God's word doubtful.

Key Takeaways

(This section follows the Key Takeaways format — see that page for what each part is for.)

Lessons about Jesus

  • Jesus is the truth in person. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6, ESV). He came "full of grace and truth" (1:14, ESV).
  • Jesus is the Amen. Isaiah calls the LORD "the God of truth," literally the God of amen (Isaiah 65:16). Revelation most likely draws on that verse when it calls Jesus "the Amen, the faithful and true witness" (Revelation 3:14, ESV).
  • Jesus sets you free. "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36, ESV).

Memory verses

✝️ John 8:31-32 (ESV)

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

✝️ John 17:17 (ESV)

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

Be Transformed

  • Think. Truth is real, it is outside you, and it can be known: God's word is truth (John 17:17), and Jesus is the truth (14:6). Your feelings and your culture do not set it.
  • Attitude. Stay. Knowing comes to those who abide in Jesus' word (8:31-32), the way roots come to a tree that stays planted.
  • Do. When a thought makes God's word sound doubtful — "Did God actually say?" (Genesis 3:1) — open the Bible to what He did say, read it aloud, and answer the thought with it this week.

Prayer

Father, you are the God of truth, and you cannot lie. Thank you for sending your Son Jesus, full of grace and truth, to tell us what He heard from you. Keep us in His word until we know the truth, and set us free from sin and from every lie of the enemy. Guide us by your Spirit of truth.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Study outline

What the Bible means by truth

Emet: what is firm

The Old Testament word is אֱמֶת (emet, H571; "EH-met"). It comes from the root אָמַן (aman, H539), and the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament files it under that root with the gloss "firmness" (TWOT 116k). Emet occurs 127 times. What is emet is what holds when you put your weight on it.

So the word describes God before it describes a sentence. When the LORD proclaims His own name to Moses, He ends with it: "a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6, ESV). "Faithfulness" there is emet, paired with חֶסֶד (chesed, H2617, steadfast love). David calls Him אֵל אֱמֶת (El emet), "faithful God," in the psalm that says "Into your hand I commit my spirit" (Psalm 31:5, ESV) — the words Jesus prayed as He died (Luke 23:46). And His word carries the same quality: "The sum of your word is truth" (Psalm 119:160, ESV). The Names of God reads the whole proclamation of Exodus 34:6-7.

The same root gives the word you say at the end of a prayer. Isaiah foresees a day when "he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth" (Isaiah 65:16, ESV). "Truth" there is אָמֵן (amen): the God of Amen. The Septuagint renders that amen as ἀληθινός (alēthinos, G228), "true," both times. Revelation 3:14 most likely draws on the verse, because it calls Jesus both at once: "the Amen, the faithful and true (ἀληθινός) witness" (ESV).

Alētheia: what is real

The New Testament word is ἀλήθεια (alētheia, G225; "ah-LAY-thay-ah"). It occurs 109 times, and 25 of them are in John's Gospel, with 9 more in 1 John. John also uses the adjective ἀληθινός (alēthinos), "true," and Revelation 3:14's "true witness" is that adjective.

John opens his Gospel by joining the two words' worlds. The Word "became flesh and dwelt among us ... full of grace and truth" (John 1:14, ESV), and "grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (1:17, ESV). The ESV Study Bible says the pairing "most likely recalls" Exodus 34:6's chesed and emet (note on 1:16-17). John does not quote the verse, so hold it as a likely echo. Either way, the faithfulness God proclaimed of Himself walked among us in His Son Jesus.

Where truth comes from

God. "It is impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18, ESV).

His word. Jesus prays for His disciples, "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17, ESV). The word is truth because the One who speaks it is true.

His Son. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6, ESV). The Way works through that verse.

His Spirit. "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13, ESV).

This shows that God is truth, and He speaks and sends it. Truth stands outside you, in God's word and in a Person.

Truth can be known

Abide, then know

✝️ John 8:31-32 (ESV)

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths (7:2), teaching in the temple (8:20), and some of His hearers have "believed him" (8:31). He sets out an order. First, abide in His word. Then you are "truly" His disciples — ἀληθῶς (alēthōs, G230), the adverb formed from the truth word. Then you will know the truth. Then the truth will set you free.

"Abide" is μένω (menō, G3306), to stay, remain, continue. The ESV Study Bible says 8:32 "is frequently quoted out of context," and the context is this condition: the truth Jesus promises is known by continuing to believe and obey His word (note on 8:32). The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible adds that ancient schools and Jewish movements took the same view: joining without persevering in the teaching was pointless (note on 8:31).

"You will know" is γνώσεσθε (gnōsesthe, G1097), the future of γινώσκω (ginōskō, G1097). Jesus promises knowledge as a certain result. Luke and John say the same. Luke wrote his Gospel "that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught" (Luke 1:4, ESV). John wrote to his churches "not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it" (1 John 2:21, ESV). "The Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true" (1 John 5:20, ESV).

This shows that God wants to be known. He puts truth in a word you can stay in and a Son you can follow.

Those who would not hear

The same crowd shows how knowing fails. By 8:59 they are picking up stones. Jesus names the cause: "Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word" (8:43, ESV). "Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God" (8:47, ESV). The state of their own hearts decided how they responded (ESV Study Bible, note on 8:37).

What the truth sets you free from

From slavery to sin

The crowd bristles at "free": "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone" (8:33, ESV). The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible notes that "slave" was an insult to free men, and that Jewish tradition counted Israel as having served Babylon, Persia, Greece and now Rome (note on 8:33). Jesus answers with the slavery He means:

✝️ John 8:34-36 (ESV)

34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

The freedom Jesus means is freedom from sin. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible puts it in four words: "From sin, not ignorance" (note on 8:32). The slave has no lasting place in the house; the Son remains forever, and He is the one who sets you free (8:35-36). To everyone who receives Him, He gives "the right to become children of God" (John 1:12, ESV).

This shows that God frees you through His Son. The verb is the same in 8:32 and 8:36, ἐλευθερόω (eleutheroō, G1659): "the truth will set you free," "if the Son sets you free." The truth that sets you free is Jesus Himself, and the freedom is the one only He can give: forgiveness for what you have done and power over what you were doing (ESV Study Bible, note on 8:36).

From being tossed about

Paul describes believers who have not grown: "tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (Ephesians 4:14, ESV). Paul gives the cure: "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ" (4:15, ESV). Truth gives you somewhere to stand when the wind changes.

The father of lies

John 8:44

✝️ John 8:44 (ESV)

44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

"The father of lies" is ψεύστης ... καὶ ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ (pseustēs ... kai ho patēr autou), "a liar and the father of it"; the ESV takes "it" as the lie. "Out of his own character" is ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων (ek tōn idiōn), literally "from his own things," as the CSB footnote renders it.

Who Jesus was speaking to

Jesus said this to one crowd, in one argument: people who had "believed him" (8:31), who were seeking to kill Him (8:37), and who by the end picked up stones (8:59). The ESV Study Bible reads them as the same people, whose "belief" is shown to be false in the course of the story (note on 8:31). He named what they were doing — "you do what you have heard from your father" (8:38, ESV). Jesus, His disciples and the man who wrote this Gospel were Jews, and 8:44 is a verdict on that crowd's deeds. It gives no licence to turn it on the Jewish people. Paul, an Israelite himself, asks the question: "has God rejected his people? By no means!" (Romans 11:1, ESV). "The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (11:29, ESV). Israel and the Church sets out what is still ahead for Israel. The warning of John 8:44 reaches anyone, of any nation, who hears the truth and will not have it.

The first lie was about God's word

The ESV Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible both trace "father of lies" to Eden (notes on 8:44). The serpent opened with a question: "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1, ESV). Then a flat denial: "You will not surely die" (3:4, ESV). First doubt what God said, then deny it.

The New Testament names the serpent and keeps him at the same work. He is "that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world" (Revelation 12:9, ESV). Paul fears for a church "that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3, ESV). He warns that "even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light" (11:14, ESV). And he says what the deceiver does to unbelievers: "the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" (4:4, ESV).

What deception feeds on

Paul describes people who "exchanged the truth about God for a lie" (Romans 1:25, ESV). He describes the final deception, at the coming of the lawless one, falling on "those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false" (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11, ESV). That passage belongs to the end of this age. The lawless one is revealed once "he who now restrains it" is "out of the way" (2:7, ESV). This site reads the restrainer as the Holy Spirit dwelling in the church, the body of believers: when the church is caught up, His restraining presence in her comes to be out of the midst (see The Rapture of the Church). So the strong delusion falls after the church is gone. The principle in it holds now. Truth refused leaves room for a lie. Truth loved closes the door.

This shows that God's word is your defence. Your first answer to the devil is to know what God actually said.

Holding fast

Scripture gives the believer four ways to keep hold of the truth.

  • Stay in the word. "If you abide in my word" (John 8:31) is the condition of knowing.
  • Put it on. "Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth" (Ephesians 6:14, ESV). The belt comes first in Paul's list.
  • Test what you hear. "By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error" (1 John 4:6, ESV). "Us" is the apostles; the ESV Study Bible says those who are not true believers "resist sound doctrine" (note on 4:6).
  • Stay with the church. Paul calls the church "a pillar and buttress of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15, ESV). Truth is held together.

Paul describes people "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7, ESV). Jesus promised arrival — "you will know the truth" — to those who stay.

Discussion Questions

  1. The language. The "faithfulness" the LORD proclaims of Himself in Exodus 34:6 is אֱמֶת (emet), what is firm, and amen comes from the same root. What changes when you hear "truth" as something that holds your weight?
  2. The text in its context. In John 8:31-32 knowing comes after abiding. Why do you think Jesus puts it in that order?
  3. Freedom. The crowd in John 8 said they had "never been enslaved to anyone" (John 8:33). Where do people today deny the slavery Jesus names in John 8:34?
  4. Christ. Jesus calls Himself the truth (John 14:6) and Revelation calls Him "the Amen" (Revelation 3:14). How does knowing a Person differ from knowing facts about Him?
  5. The hard part. John says these hearers "had believed him" (John 8:31), yet Jesus tells them "you seek to kill me" (John 8:37) and names the devil as their father (John 8:44). What kind of believing can stand alongside that?
  6. Be transformed. Which of the four ways of holding fast — staying in the word (John 8:31), the "belt of truth" (Ephesians 6:14), testing the spirits (1 John 4:6), the church (1 Timothy 3:15) — is weakest in your life right now?
Group study sheet for a 40-minute group: two A4 sheets, or one with the guided path

The point, the passage, the questions and the response, from this study. Print on both sides of two A4 sheets, flipping on the long edge. While this block is open, printing the page prints the sheet; close it to print the study.

Group study · 40 minutes

Know the Truth

John 8:31-47

The point Truth in Scripture is God's own firmness — He cannot lie, His word is truth, and in His Son Jesus truth took flesh — so it is there to be known; you come to know it by abiding in Jesus' word, and it sets you free from sin and from the devil, the father of lies, whose first move was to make God's word doubtful.

0–5min

Ask: what comes to mind when you hear Know the Truth? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

5–12minRead it aloud BSB

John 8:31-47 31So He said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33“We are Abraham’s descendants,” they answered. “We have never been slaves to anyone. How can You say we will be set free?” 34Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35A slave does not remain in the house forever, but a son remains forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37I know you are Abraham’s descendants, but you are trying to kill Me because My word has no place within you. 38I speak of what I have seen in the presence of the Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” 39“Abraham is our father,” they replied. “If you were children of Abraham,” said Jesus, “you would do the works of Abraham. 40But now you are trying to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham never did such a thing. 41You are doing the works of your father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they declared. “Our only Father is God Himself.” 42Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on My own, but He sent Me. 43Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable to accept My message. 44You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies. 45But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me! 46Which of you can prove Me guilty of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe Me? 47Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

12–25minLook closer
What does it say?
What did it mean to them?
What does it mean for us?
Page 1 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Know the Truth

The study in brief
  1. What the Bible means by truth. The Hebrew emet and the Greek alētheia.
  2. Where truth comes from. God who cannot lie, His word, His Son and His Spirit.
  3. Truth can be known. John 8:31-32: abide, then know.
  4. What the truth sets you free from. Slavery to sin, and being tossed by every wind.
  5. The father of lies. John 8:44, who it was said to, and the serpent's first question.
  6. Holding fast. How a believer keeps hold of the truth.
Notes
Page 2 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Know the Truth

12–21minStep 1 · What the Bible means by truth

1The language. The "faithfulness" the LORD proclaims of Himself in Exodus 34:6 is אֱמֶת (emet), what is firm, and amen comes from the same root. What changes when you hear "truth" as something that holds your weight?

2Christ. Jesus calls Himself the truth (John 14:6) and Revelation calls Him "the Amen" (Revelation 3:14). How does knowing a Person differ from knowing facts about Him?

Step 2 · Where truth comes from
21–26minStep 3 · Truth can be known

3The text in its context. In John 8:31-32 knowing comes after abiding. Why do you think Jesus puts it in that order?

26–30minStep 4 · What the truth sets you free from

4Freedom. The crowd in John 8 said they had "never been enslaved to anyone" (John 8:33). Where do people today deny the slavery Jesus names in John 8:34?

30–35minStep 5 · The father of lies

5The hard part. John says these hearers "had believed him" (John 8:31), yet Jesus tells them "you seek to kill me" (John 8:37) and names the devil as their father (John 8:44). What kind of believing can stand alongside that?

Step 6 · Holding fast
Page 3 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Know the Truth

35–40minBe transformed

6Be transformed. Which of the four ways of holding fast — staying in the word (John 8:31), the "belt of truth" (Ephesians 6:14), testing the spirits (1 John 4:6), the church (1 Timothy 3:15) — is weakest in your life right now?

  • Think. Truth is real, it is outside you, and it can be known: God's word is truth (John 17:17), and Jesus is the truth (14:6). Your feelings and your culture do not set it.
  • Attitude. Stay. Knowing comes to those who abide in Jesus' word (8:31-32), the way roots come to a tree that stays planted.
  • Do. When a thought makes God's word sound doubtful — "Did God actually say?" (Genesis 3:1) — open the Bible to what He did say, read it aloud, and answer the thought with it this week.
Memory verse

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

John 8:31-32 (ESV)
Pray together

Father, you are the God of truth, and you cannot lie. Thank you for sending your Son Jesus, full of grace and truth, to tell us what He heard from you. Keep us in His word until we know the truth, and set us free from sin and from every lie of the enemy. Guide us by your Spirit of truth.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Notes
The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/christian-life/know-the-truth/
Page 4 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission
Group study · step by step

Know the Truth

John 8:31-47

Open Ask: what comes to mind when you hear Know the Truth? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

Read it aloud John 8:31-47

Step 1What the Bible means by truth — The Hebrew emet and the Greek alētheia.

1The language. The "faithfulness" the LORD proclaims of Himself in Exodus 34:6 is אֱמֶת (emet), what is firm, and amen comes from the same root. What changes when you hear "truth" as something that holds your weight?

2Christ. Jesus calls Himself the truth (John 14:6) and Revelation calls Him "the Amen" (Revelation 3:14). How does knowing a Person differ from knowing facts about Him?

Step 2Where truth comes from — God who cannot lie, His word, His Son and His Spirit.
Step 3Truth can be known — John 8:31-32: abide, then know.

3The text in its context. In John 8:31-32 knowing comes after abiding. Why do you think Jesus puts it in that order?

Step 4What the truth sets you free from — Slavery to sin, and being tossed by every wind.Key verses: John 8:34-36

4Freedom. The crowd in John 8 said they had "never been enslaved to anyone" (John 8:33). Where do people today deny the slavery Jesus names in John 8:34?

Step 5The father of lies — John 8:44, who it was said to, and the serpent's first question.

5The hard part. John says these hearers "had believed him" (John 8:31), yet Jesus tells them "you seek to kill me" (John 8:37) and names the devil as their father (John 8:44). What kind of believing can stand alongside that?

Step 6Holding fast — How a believer keeps hold of the truth.
Be transformed

6Be transformed. Which of the four ways of holding fast — staying in the word (John 8:31), the "belt of truth" (Ephesians 6:14), testing the spirits (1 John 4:6), the church (1 Timothy 3:15) — is weakest in your life right now?

  • Think. Truth is real, it is outside you, and it can be known: God's word is truth (John 17:17), and Jesus is the truth (14:6). Your feelings and your culture do not set it.
  • Attitude. Stay. Knowing comes to those who abide in Jesus' word (8:31-32), the way roots come to a tree that stays planted.
  • Do. When a thought makes God's word sound doubtful — "Did God actually say?" (Genesis 3:1) — open the Bible to what He did say, read it aloud, and answer the thought with it this week.
Page 1 of 2 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Know the Truth

The point Truth in Scripture is God's own firmness — He cannot lie, His word is truth, and in His Son Jesus truth took flesh — so it is there to be known; you come to know it by abiding in Jesus' word, and it sets you free from sin and from the devil, the father of lies, whose first move was to make God's word doubtful.

The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/christian-life/know-the-truth/
Page 2 of 2 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission
  • ESV Study Bible (Crossway) — introduction to John; notes on John 8:31, 8:32, 8:36, 8:37, 8:44 and 18:38. ESV verse text throughout. Quoted briefly with attribution.
  • NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (Zondervan) — notes on John 8:32 and 8:44.
  • NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan) — notes on John 8:31 and 8:33.
  • CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible (Holman) — footnote on John 8:44.
  • Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament — root 116 (aman) and 116k (emet), from this project's TWOT root map.
  • Original-language data from this project's bible-text.db — MACULA Hebrew (WLC) and Greek (SBLGNT) for אֱמֶת (emet, H571), אָמֵן (amen, H543) and ἀλήθεια (alētheia, G225), with the occurrence counts given above; unfoldingWord interlinear for Exodus 34:6, Psalm 31:5, Isaiah 65:16, John 8:32, John 8:44 and Revelation 3:14.

On this site