November 10, 2016 Bible Study — Glorifying God and Knowing the Truth

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on John 17-18.

    There are two themes in this passage which I want to write about today, glorifying God and truth. We glorify God by completing the work which He gives us to do. Going along with that we need to choose our actions so that any glory we receive goes to God, not to ourselves. I think that this actually gives us a basis for choosing our actions. If others praise us for what we have done, will that praise reflect well upon the God whom we worship? If people like what we have done, will it cause them to praise God?

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    Then on the theme of truth Jesus tells us that God’s word is truth. God will teach us His word and make us holy by that word. Later in the passage when Jesus is on trial before Pilate He tells Pilate that He came into the world to testify to the truth and that those who love the truth recognize that what He says is truth. To which Pilate replies, “What is truth?” These two statements reflect the contrast between the attitude of the world and the attitude of those who love the Lord. Those who love the Lord love truth and recognize that Jesus’ teachings are true. Those of the world do not even know what truth is, let alone being able to recognize it when they hear or see it. Pilate believed that truth was something malleable, something which could be changed to suit his purposes. Those of us who love the Lord know that truth is an absolute thing which does not change. We may not always know the truth in any given situation, but we know that there is a truth to be known.