Managing Your Life—PART 4

By Reverend William R. Cunningham
October 24, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

We said that valid information is a crucial component to effective life management in the last lesson.  However, what information should you believe?  In dealing with managing your life, as well as many other things, truth is of primary importance.  If you manage your life based on truth then you do well, if not then you have been deceived.  Therefore, knowing the truth is necessary to govern our lives according to the Christian faith, that is, God's WAY.

We are going to discuss truth in this lesson.  We will define truth and discuss how to obtain and use truth.  The Christian's life (and probably all people to one extent or another) is filled with the pursuit for truth.  We will find that the Christian has the advantage in that we have the truth, as we will see later in this study.

What is truth?  Truth can be defined simply as the way "it" is.  The "it" could be anything.  The truth is that which is what it is.  For example, it is the truth that the earth revolves around the sun and that the earth is spherical in shape.  Regardless of what you decide to believe or not to believe, you cannot change the truth concerning the sun and the Earth.  It is the way it is and that's it.  We see that if we are going to manage our lives based on the way things really are then we will have to govern our lives based on truth.  I have over-simplified the concept of truth in this section only to avoid getting into an in-depth discussion about it, which is well beyond the scope of this lesson.  See my study on "Pursuing Truth" for more details on this topic.

Let's discuss this verse in some detail.  There are three key words that will help us to understand what Jesus is revealing in this scripture.  Those words are way, truth, and life.  Let's look at them in detail now.

The word way used in this scripture comes from the Greek word hodos (hod-os'), which means a road.  By implication it means a progress of that road (an act or distance).  It figuratively means a mode or means.  The way indicates the route that we take in our daily activities.  It is the general path of life that we are on.  The particular path that we take will either lead us to life or to death.  Consider the following scriptures.

The straight gate is Christ, who leads us on the narrow (God's) WAY.  Again we see the importance of Christ in our daily Christian lives.

Again we see the concept of "way" used in this scripture. The "way" in this scripture is referring to the individual paths that we take pertaining to the many things that we do in our lives. For example, we may have one way to progress on the job and another way to raise the kids, etc. This scripture teach us to acknowledge God (be actively aware of him) in all the things that we do. Note that it is God who will direct us in our ways.

Note the word path in this scripture. The writer says that the word of God is a lamp (the actual device) to his feet and that light that the word produces is a light to his path or way. We see again the importance of God’s word and managing our lives via the many things that we do and the overall way that we conduct ourselves.

Jesus Christ says that he is the way. Jesus is the way to what? We said that a way is a path or route that we take. Jesus is the way to the Father. To know Christ is to know God. To hear what Christ says is the same as hearing what God says (see John 14:9-10).

We have already said in previous lessons that the life management process has to be according to God’s WAY. We can discern God’s way by understanding and implementing what Jesus taught.

We have already defined truth. Jesus said that he is the truth. He is the "I AM." Jesus is the standard of the Christian faith. The word "truth" means conformity to fact or actuality. A statement proven to be or accepted as true. Sincerity; integrity. Fidelity to an original or a standard. Note that Jesus said that He is the truth. He is the standard (of the Christian faith).

The word "life" comes from the Greek word zoa and it refers to the perpetual life that comes from God and through Jesus Christ. This life transcends our physical existence and more describes our relation or status with God. See John 1:4. True life is therefore found in Christ.

Jesus said that his disciples (those who continue in His word) will know the truth and that truth will liberate them. Knowing the truth is to know Christ.

Facts are windows to the truth. We tend to believe things because we accept what we think are facts or the truth. We are certain of something and we therefore believe it. This opens the door to deception because if something can be presented to us in such a way that we become certain of its validity then we may believe it, though it may be untrue.

Even what we consider to be fact must be scrutinized to determine if they are indeed facts or statements disguised as fact.

Governing what we should or should not do requires knowledge of the Christian standard, namely the word of God. Also required is a renewed mind so that we operate in a realm that is consistent with the word of God. Once we know the truth of God’s word, we can govern our lives effectively. The more of the truth we know the more we can govern our lives according to the way of God. The more we govern our lives the way God wants us to, the more we accomplish his will for us.

The foundation of your WAY must be the word of God if you desire to have an effective life. See Matthew 7:24-27.

The statement "live by the Spirit of God" rightly expresses the culmination of managing our life according to God’s way. Consider the following.

Walking in the Spirit means that our mode of operation or the "path" of our life is consistent with the Spirit of God (His attributes or characteristics). An example follows.

In both of the above scriptures we see that Noah and Enoch respectively lived a life that was in the WAY of God. Their "walk" was consistent with God’s way.

We must know the Spirit of God in order to walk after Him. This means that we must actively spend time praying to God and reading and studying our Bibles.

Guidance from God usually comes in the form of revelation or realization of his word. The early Christian church fathers believed that for the most part there were no new revelations from God. What God has for humans has been stated in the scriptures. There may however be personal guidance that may come as revelation. For example, you may believe that God spoke to you to inform you to do a particular task. Even this will not violate His word in any way but is only a specific instruction for your life.

We also have the wisdom of God, understanding, and awareness of God’s word as instruments of guidance. The Holy Spirit works through all of these to lead us to truth. See John 16:13. Consider the following example. A mechanic, say his name is Joe, knows how a car operate and let’s say that Joe is an expert with Ford automobiles. Joe simply uses all of his experience, knowledge, and the wisdom obtained from wisdom and practice to diagnose and fix your car. He doesn’t go to a book that gives him step-by-step instruction. He uses the available tools to diagnose and repair the problem with your car. Now, Joe being a Christian may pray to God to reveal to him the problem with a car that he can’t quite figure out the problem. Here the Holy Spirit may reveal something to him but it is usually in the form of a revelation (a light bulb goes off in his head). It comes to him to try something or the other and he figures out the problem.

One thing to keep in mind is that God is not a puppet master. He doesn’t control our every action from above. We make our own decisions. We decide what we will do and what we won’t do. It is our responsibility to do things God’s way though. Consider the following scripture.

The word fear in this scripture refers to respect or reverence and not fear in the sense of being afraid of God. God did not give us a spirit of fear (2 Tim. 1:7). Our duty, if you will, is to do things God’s way—to live after God’s standards. In short, we should obey God, not in the form of following a series of rules and regulations, rather by following the lifestyle or WAY that He requires of us. This can be accomplished by being born again (John 3:3) and governing our lives to be consistent with the word of God (that we know from reading and study).