Mensa Otabil - Practicing the Truth (10/02/2025)
First John chapter 1, verse 6: If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. The early Christians had similar problems as we do; they had a problem called nominalism. Nominalism is when people accept something, profess it, but do not practice it. There are many Christians who are Christians in name. They’ve gone through a church ritual, probably been baptized, or they go to church and are members of the church, but they do not live the Christian life.
That was what John was addressing in the early church and is still addressing now because when we invite Jesus Christ to come into our lives, we receive God’s light. That is the first step in the Christian life: receiving the light of God into our beings, into our spirits. After doing that, we must walk in the light; we must live in the light. The light doesn’t just live in us; we must live in it. The Christian life must be lived out, and so John is saying that if we don’t do that, then we are deceiving ourselves. We are lying; our Christian life becomes a lie. I trust that none of us want to reach a point where we are living a lie. So what happens when we receive Christ but are not living for Him? That’s what we want to address today: how do we practice the truth?
In order to practice the truth that we have received, first, we must know the truth. The truth is not just information; the truth is a person. His name is Jesus. We know Jesus through the Word of God, by encountering the Word, and we know Jesus through the Holy Spirit. For us to know the truth, that is Christ Jesus Himself from the Word of God, we must go beyond memorizing Scripture, quoting Scripture, and knowing verses of the Bible. We must rightly divide the Word of truth; that means we must be able to properly interpret Scripture—not just know verses, but interpret it well. One basic way to interpret Scripture well is to read all of the Bible in the light of Jesus Christ. So when you read something in the Old Testament, you have to see how it aligns with Jesus Christ, because He is the center of the Christian faith.
We must know God’s truth. Secondly, we must receive God’s truth. After knowing it, we must receive it. The Christian life is different from all other lives. Jesus Christ says that it’s a life on the narrow road, while the rest of the world is on the broad road. Often, what Jesus tells us to do is very opposite from what our culture tells us and what society tells us to do, as well as what we want to do. When we discover the truth of God, we must receive it; we must allow it to form our foundation for life.
Thirdly, after we have known the truth and received the truth, we must apply the truth. That’s where it gets hard—how to really apply it to our day-to-day life, in the way we speak, in the way we make friends, in the places we go, and in the way we think. All of it must be shaped by the truth we have come to know. It’s not always achievable every day, but that is the endeavor of the Christian; that is what we strive to do. We must work towards knowing the truth, receiving the truth, and applying the truth. Until we do that, our lives will be a lie. We will claim something and not live it, and that is called hypocrisy. God help us not to be hypocritical Christians. We must know His truth, receive His truth, and apply His truth.
Let’s share a word of prayer together. Say with me: Heavenly Father, help me to be true to You. I desire to live the life You have given to me to Your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen and Amen. Well, I’ll be with you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.