God bless you in the name of Jesus Christ who came into the world to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37).
When Jethro advised Moses regarding what to do in order to provide better service and oversight to God’s people, he required that Moses get help from, “able men, such as fear God, men of truth” (Exodus 18:21). Before Joshua departed, he charged God’s people to “fear the LORD, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth” (Joshua 24:14). After the people admitted sin in asking for a king, they asked Samuel to continue to pray for them. Samuel said he would continue to pray and teach them the right way on a condition: that they would “fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all their heart” (I Samuel 12:24). The condition upon which God promised David that his progeny would always sit upon the throne was that his children would, “take heed to their way, to walk before Him in truth with all their heart and with all their soul” (I Kings 2:4).
Truth is important to God. He calls Himself a God of truth (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalms 31:5; Isaiah 65:16). Indeed, He wants men and women of truth who walk in truth (I Kings. 2:4; 3:6; Psalms 26:3; 86:11; Isaiah 38:3; II John 4; III John. 3 & 4). Indeed, God desires truth in the inward parts (Psalms 51:6) for it is through the truth that believers are sanctified (John 17:17), and it is for refusing to receive the “love of the truth” that men perish (II Thessalonians 2.10).
Therefore, one would hope that all Christians would be valiant for the truth. Yet it seems that every age must lament the lack of mighty men who will “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). We are called to live the truth and wield the sword of the spirit, the Word of God, because “we wrestle not against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12, 17).
Being valiant for the truth does not mean to indulge in frivolous controversies about trifles. We are not to “strive not about words to no profit” (II Timothy 2:14) or to dote “about questions and strifes of words” (I Timothy 6:4). It does require that one “study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (II Timothy 2:15). Just as the rightly dividing of the scripture is not complete until it is lived out. So too, being valiant for the truth occurs in the crucible of our day-by-day existence. Being valiant for the truth also requires that “the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth” (II Timothy 2:24-25).
Of course, when we think about the truth, we must recognize that we find it in both the rightly-divided Word of God and in the person of His only begotten son, our lord and savior Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life. One cannot be valiant for one without being valiant for the other. Both knowing and continuing in the Word make one free (John 8:31-32). The freedom Jesus spoke of is real, for he promised to make us free indeed (John 8:36)!
Knowing the truth is an experiential reality obtained through effort. It is not simply a head-knowledge; rather it is an experiential understanding gained through doing what God’s Word says. As we live the truth, we prove it. Until we do, it is not a reality for us. God challenges us to prove all things and hold fast the good (I Thessalonians 5:21). People will never understand the law of giving and receiving until they take God’s challenge and prove Him with it (Malachi 3:10).
Because I have tried my very best to prove all things I was taught from God’s Word, I find that I have become very slow to change what I believe regarding it. Most of the time, I refine what I believe rather than reverse it. There have been times, however, when reversing what I believe has been necessary, and then I gladly do so.
We are valiant for the truth we know and extremely grateful to be able to continue to learn more of it. Our humility to God allows us to grow and serve as we yoke ourselves to him who identified himself as “meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). We know we do not have all the answers, and take great solace that we know Him Who does. It is because He has made Himself known unto us that we so vigorously declare Him to the world.