What a great day we live in. Imagine what it was like just a few decades ago when you had to wait for the daily newspaper to read about all the fake news and falsehoods in the world. In these unprecedented times we have unprecedented opportunity to hear about unprecedented fraud. Who isn’t lying? Pilate asked, “What is truth?” We don’t deny that there is such a thing, we’re just wondering where is it?
Remember, the dragon has been a liar from the beginning. He is the father of lies. There were Old Testament liars, there were liars in Jesus’ day (who lied so successfully they had Him put to death), there have been liars around (and even in) the church ever since. There is certainly fraud all over the place, including the fraud of yelling at us that there’s never been this much fraud.
What should encourage you is that you know Jesus, and He is the truth. This is true now, and you will not only know Him better, more truly, you will be made like Him in truth (1 John 3:2).
The apostle John piles on some encouraging reminders.
“I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him (the Holy One) abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie–just as it has taught you, abide in him. (1 John 2:26-27)
You have Jesus in you. You are united to Him, and He to you. So “abide,” as in remember and rely on Him.
Don’t be surprised at all the lies, and how that makes us outliers. “The reason why the world does know us is that it did not know him” (1 John 3:1).
So, “little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming” (1 John 2:28). Even as we eat the bread of His body and drink the cup of His blood we abide in Him. “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 5:20).