Bible Study › Lesson 1 of 4
Can We Know the Truth?
This lesson answers one question: has God actually told us what He wants, in a way we can read and understand for ourselves?
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.”
What does Jesus say a person must do in order to know the truth?
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Continue in His word. Jesus ties knowing the truth directly to staying in what He has said... not to a feeling, and not to what anyone else tells us.
17Sanctify them by Your truth; Your word is truth.
When Jesus prays for His disciples, what does He say the truth is?
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God's word. Jesus does not say truth is something we each decide for ourselves. He says plainly, "Your word is truth."
16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.
Where does Scripture come from, and what does Paul say it makes a person?
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It is God-breathed... it comes from God Himself. And it makes the man of God complete, fully equipped for every good work. If Scripture equips us for every good work, nothing needed is missing from it.
3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
How much of what we need for life and godliness has God already given us?
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Everything. Not some of it, with the rest to be filled in by men later... everything we need, given through the knowledge of Him.
3Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints.
How many times was the faith delivered to the saints?
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Once for all. The faith was delivered one time, completely. It is not still being revealed, added to, or revised.
11Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true.
What did the Bereans do when Paul taught them, and how does the Bible describe them for doing it?
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They examined the Scriptures every day to see whether what Paul taught was true... and the Bible calls them noble-minded for it. Checking a teacher against the Scriptures is not disrespect. It is exactly what God wants us to do... and Paul was an apostle. We would certainly want to verify what any preacher or teacher of the current day is teaching us.
In short
God has spoken, and what He said is written down. Jesus said His word is truth, Paul said it came from God and leaves nothing out, Peter said it gives us everything we need, and Jude said it was delivered once for all. That is the whole foundation for everything that follows in these lessons.
It also means something practical. The truth is not what a preacher says, what a church teaches, or what we were raised to believe. It is what the Bible says. The Bereans checked an apostle against the Scriptures and were praised for it... so we can certainly check anyone else, including me. Please do. Every lesson here will put the passage in front of you first and let it answer.