How can we recognize the truth?
Something just hit me a few minutes ago, completely out of nowhere. I wasn’t even going to make an entry tonight. 
But a question just popped up: “How can you spot a counterfeit if you don’t know what the truth is?”
For some reason, that just really hit something in me. It reminds me of so many people I know or see who are well-intentioned but just don’t seem to “get” it. It’s like they subscribe to some other version of Christianity, or they call themselves Christians yet, by their life — what they talk about, what they think about, what they do — it’s obvious that they’re not living with Jesus in their heart, that they’re not “born again.”
Just hearing myself ask that question, it makes things so clear. There are lots of people who are genuinely trying to “do good” in their lives or who consider themselves a Christian, but if they haven’t personally familiarized themselves with the truth, how in the world will they be able to detect a lie? It’s scary to think how dangerous that is, because there are people who are honestly trying to do good, yet it’s very easy to be fooled.
I’m surprised that I find myself writing about this, because I had no intention to do this; in fact, this hasn’t even been on my mind for more than, say, a half-hour or 45 minutes. But it’s like I just realized that this is precisely why so many people might consider themselves to be Christians or moral citizens, but they aren’t taking the time to get a personal knowledge of the unchanging truth. And the simple fact is if you don’t know what the truth is, you are going to get duped.
We can have the best of intentions, but if we don’t take care to study the truth and become well-acquainted with it, we are inevitably going to fall for the imitation. As Christians, we have got to become so familiar with the truth, with God’s promises, His commandments, where we can recognize something in disguise.
So let’s make sure we get the truth from God, from the Bible. The Holy Spirit living in us can do a great job of sniffing out a counterfeit, if only we let it. But in all we do, let’s just make sure that we don’t fall for a half-truth or something that has elements of truth in it. The best way to do this is to draw near to God, to get close to His heart.