TRUTH AND COVENANT
What is more important the truth or the covenant? This was a question recently put to me. I answered, “That is a difficult question. First, by asking “what’s more important?” I asked, “More important to what, to whom, to where…etc.?” But, my thoughts went something like this: A covenant is an agreement between two parties. It can be man to man or man to God/God to man. The point is, it takes two to make covenant. It takes one to keep covenant regardless of the other’s actions, thoughts or behaviors. However, the covenant is broken though one keeps it and the other does not. The covenant cannot remain in place if one or the other breaks their portion of that covenant. Or, if it remains in place, it is invalid by its broken nature.
Truth is a much more difficult concept than covenant. Truth is basically, in a most general term, an ability to analyze things from extended expressions and applied applications to give truth its definition. Both Greek and Hebrew have a more single and simplistic definition than does English, because it uses much broader terminology to define Truth. As believers in Jesus Christ, we take truth to mean the Word of God, both spoken and written, also called Logos and Rhema. The scriptures then become “Truth” but only in the sense that as a body of material it is truth. The way it is interrupted…is another matter…truth or not truth. Even so, the scriptures are truth. I would also add that the elements of unchanging Nature are truth, in that the Law of Nature is truth and the Law of Nature is also the Law of God. The two Laws never conflict.
So, for me Truth “is more important” because it does not rely on two parties, or a covenant situation. I can agree to the amount of truth that I know whether any one else is in agreement or is involved in any way. By saying this, I am not saying that covenants are not important, but to me they are not as important as truth. Another way of saying this would be: I can only have a covenant that is defined by the amount of truth that is in the covenant, or why would I choose the covenant? Unless we are bound in ways that are not by choice, it would only be truth that could bind us willingly. (From a letter to a friend)
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” Jesus