What is Truth?

Pilate saith unto [Jesus], “What is truth?” (John 18:38a).

Since we were not present when Pilate asked Jesus this question, we cannot know whether he asked in seriousness or in a sarcastic manner. Regardless, the question that Pilate asks is a question that many in our own time are asking: what is truth? What can we be sure is true, correct, and right? Why is it that so many people have so many different answers regarding what the truth is? Many today even question whether there is “a” truth– in their thoughts, there is no such thing as “absolute truth,” and what is true for one person may not be true for another. Maybe you wonder what truth is, or even if truth can be known.

While modern man may wonder about truth, the Bible warns us about such concerns. Paul advises the Colossians to watch themselves lest they be taken captive by the philosophies of men, according to human traditions, no longer holding fast to Christ (Colossians 2:8). The reason that we are to hold fast to Christ is that He is God: “for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

Jesus worked to demonstrate that truth exists while He was alive on the earth. Consider His statement to Pilate that led Pilate to ask, “What is truth?”:


Jesus’ life, then, involved bearing witness to “the truth.” In John 14:26, Jesus indicates that He is “the way, the truth, and the life.” John bears witness to Jesus that He was full of “truth” and that while the law was given through Moses, “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:14, John 1:17).

Jesus came so that people would know the truth. He declared that people “shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). The truth is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that all mankind has been enslaved to sin; and that Jesus died on the cross and rose on the third day to establish His rule and His Kingdom, so that all who would believe and obey Him would be cleansed of their sin and obtain eternal life (Matthew 16:18, John 3:16, 1 Corinthians 15:1-10, Romans 6:17-23).

What is truth? There is truth, but it is not fully found in the philosophies or religious traditions of men. The truth is found in Jesus Christ the Lord, and we should therefore obey Him and hold fast to Him and the truths revealed about Him in the Scriptures. We seek to know this truth so that we may be set free. We hope that you also want deliverance from sin and error. Please join us in our quest to obey God’s truth, and be saved today!


Leave a Reply