Is knowing the truth of the word of God just by itself sufficient to grant people freedom from their habitual sinful behaviors? Was the truth all by itself from a practical level intended to set sinners free by manifesting mental and physical freedom in their lives?
The answer to these questions will be found in this publication. You’ll also learn how to be led by the truth in every situation of your life.
We’ll take a look first at the knowledge of the truth.
Knowing the truth is important since it kickstarts the initial process of obedience to God, which is critical to walking with Him on the path of holiness and righteousness being the path of victory over sin.
The knowledge of the truth is the key component that leads us through the process of freedom to the glorious light of the Kingdom of God by exposing and repelling the darkness.
Since the truth demands obedience, the knowledge of the truth also comes with a sense of responsibility.
However, knowing the truth requires us to act in accordance with that truth.
Let’s dive into the topic of why so many are slave to habitual sin while knowing the truth.
1) The Truth By Itself Doesn’t Set People Free
While the truth of God’s Word in essence is sufficient just as much His grace is considering the power of God, but the knowledge of the truth that we acquire through our finite mind enabling us to know and understand the will of God from a mental level isn’t sufficient just alone to grant us freedom.
That statement might shock many of you up to the core since it sounds contrary to (John 8:32) where Jesus declares that, “Then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”
But the tragic reality is that there are so many in the Church who are being held captive in sin while knowing the truth.
Even worst, there are many who are teaching and preaching the Word of truth while they are slave to some habitual sinful behaviors.
In addition to that, there are many who are still being defeated by a particular sin they’ve been struggling with time after time while having a number of memorized Scripture verses at the forefront of their minds.
They intentionally memorized these verses in order to counteract temptations when they come, but they still failed anyway.
There’s something at work within them through their flesh they’ve allowed to overpower the knowledge of the truth they have.
I’m sure that you may be one them.
Sometimes, you come to the realization of these verses that you memorized after indulging in when being crushed by shame, guilt, regret, frustration, and depression.
2) Knowing The Truth Must Accompany Obedience
To get to the bottom of what Jesus meant in (John 8:32), it’s imperative that we back up His initial statement about knowing the truth with the complete passage of this verse along with another biblical passage.
Jesus stated that, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it” (Luke 11:28).
If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).
Thereby, just hearing or knowing the Word of God isn’t sufficient to grant us freedom over sin.
It simply means that we have to obey it so that we can allow the transformative power of the Word to change us.
The reason is that sin gets its enslaving power through disobedience being a form of obedience itself to something else outside the will of God (John 8:34).
It will take the right type of obedience to replace the latter.
As far as our response to temptation is concerned, something we have in mind in terms of intent we’ll always determine how we are going to act.
Our response is going to be the manifestation of what we choose to embrace as the right course of action in a given moment.
It could be the truth of the Word of God, or the lies of Satan flowing through our own human reasoning either eliciting or affirming the desires of our flesh.
Obedience to God is a matter of prioritizing the truth over the lies of the enemy through action.
True and lasting freedom in God is a combination of knowing the truth and obedience.
Therefore, we need something that transcends just us hearing or knowing the truth mentally to enable us to turn it into action in the most critical times that we’ve been failing so miserably to apply it.
That’s why we need to cultivate the art of turning the knowledge of the Word of God into action.
3) Many Are Slave To Sin By Embracing The Lies Of The Flesh
The reason is that the intensity of the desires of the flesh tends to ramp up to such a breathtaking level where it literally blurs the knowledge of the truth they have.
And the very sinful desires moving wildly through their flesh also have the ability to stamp out the memories of the truth they know when getting caught in the heat of an intense temptation.
When that happens, the truth has turned into something that they no longer want to apply.
They come to perceive it as being impracticable in such situation. That’s when the truth becomes a liability.
That’s one of the main reasons why people know the truth, they know exactly what to do in a given situation, but they often choose not to apply it at the most critical times because it’s inexpedient.
There’s something else which they’ve allowed to transcend the knowledge of the truth that they have to the extent that they willingly choose to go against it.
The lie of the flesh is framed on the idea that the only way it can be appeased is for them to give it what it wants. It will not settle down for something else other than what it wants.
This lie has been widely embraced by so many.
4) How To Walk On The Path Of Obedience
Obedience to God is nothing more than a system containing these following elements: the knowledge of the truth, reverence toward God, and a willingness to live by that truth.
The key substance that’s going to make the entire system work is the power of God.
You and I need the power of the Holy Spirit to empower us to turn the truth into a behavior and ultimately a lifestyle.
We need the Holy Spirit to keep us in the will of God by subduing the seduction of sin in light of the knowledge of the truth.
The knowledge of the truth has to transcend the seductive realm of sin in which we tend to get caught up to.
5) The Flesh Won’t Make Things Easy
As you can clearly see, you cannot effectively apply the truth in every day situation just by knowing it alone.
Because there is something at work within you that will fight against the truth that you know every step of the way since the truth stands as a barrier to its own carnal desires.
The purpose of the truth is to guide you and I toward the path of holiness and righteousness by means of mortifying the flesh.
But the flesh is an active and living mechanism constantly craving for the things that corresponds to its nature it has been templated with, thus an ongoing battle will be launched when you want to stop feeding it.
The flesh will never adjust itself permanently to the truth you know in order to make things easy for you.
It will not submit itself to the knowledge of the truth in order to make it less difficult for you to obey God.
That’s not going to happen under any circumstance.
Thus, you’ll need a better approach to confront the flesh.
The Bottom Line
We have to let the Spirit of God carry out His work.
The Word was revealed by the Spirit of God to humanity (2 Peter 1:21). He operates through the Word. He leads to all truth through the Word (John 16:13).
He is the Entity by whom God has put everything that we need at our disposal to overcome sin.
He is the One capable of empowering us to receive the victory found within the Word on the basis of Jesus Christ’s shedding blood on the cross.
The reason we need His empowerment is because there will always be obstacles hindering us which we won’t be able to overcome on our own such as: Satan, the flesh, and the world.
We need the Spirit of God Himself to pave the way leading to obedience for us in the midst of the challenges surrounding our lives.
I want you to see that ongoing battle you are in from that perspective.
Disobedience is an act of defiance against God. It’s an act of war against God’s will.
Disobedience is the manifestation of the will of Satan. It’s the enemy himself influencing you by means of what your flesh desires through the channel of this wicked world system to trample the truth of God’s Word for his own deceptive glory (referring to Satan).
On the other hand, your obedience to God isn’t just willful submission to His will. It’s an act of war of against Satan, the flesh, and the world.
In this case, you need the power of the Holy Spirit to equip you in that ongoing battle.
Your victory is a matter of first knowing the truth of God’s Word that Jesus is representative of, and being willing to allow the Spirit of God to empower you to apply it by leading the fight against the very obstacles that have been hindering you from being obedient to God.
Allow the Holy Spirit to battle against anything standing as opposition to obedience to God in your life.
Helpful resources: