Commentary on "The Fruit of the Spirit is Truth"

STEVE PITCHER

 

Day 3: Monday, March 15, 2010

 

Today’s lesson begins with a statement about the role of the Holy Spirit and of his leading us into all truth. This is followed by a quote from Ellen White, with a question about her emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit. Given the statement the lesson author provided yesterday, about the absolute reality of objective truth, it is surprising to find the following comment in today’s lesson:

What we see in the work of the Holy Spirit is both the objective and subjective aspect of Truth. The Spirit comes, and He testifies of Jesus and reproves “’ the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment’” (John 16:8). These are hard facts about the world, about God, about reality.

One simply need remember the commentary for the first lesson this week. There can be no subjective aspect of truth. The author seems to agree with this on one hand, yet has no problem stating several times this week that there is this subjective element. What the lesson author states at the end of today’s lesson (before the questions at the bottom of the page) may be what he has truly meant. If this is the case, we simply need to provide the proper phrasing for this “aspect of Truth.”

Perhaps what the author is referring to is not an “aspect” or “element” of truth at all, but one’s personal response to the truth of Jesus Christ. If this is the case, then it must be clarified that this is not an aspect or element of truth. If this is the author’s intention, then we can agree that it is truly important what one’s response to the truth might be. And at the same time, we must be careful to state that one’s response to truth in no way makes any aspect of that truth subjective, including the work of that truth (Jesus) in the life of an individual. This is not an element of truth, but the result of the work of truth in a person’s life. When a person has been filled with the Holy Spirit, he begins to walk by faith and not by sight.

Once we have clarified the issue of the nature of truth and how a personal response to that truth is not an element of the truth, we can turn to another issue from the Teacher’s Quarterly.

On page 141, in the Teacher’s Comments section of the Teacher’s Quarterly, we are presented with the following:

Few human beings have desired to live a life of truth more than Gandhi, the great twentieth-century catalyst of Indian liberation through the ethic of nonviolent civil action. Perhaps this is why he subtitled his autobiography ‘The Story of My Experiments With Truth’ and why he endured extreme trials and persecutions for the sake of truth. Yet, Gandhi understood that the pursuit of truth requires the help of a perfect seer, a knowing one. Gandhi never embraced Christianity or Jesus, but he sure captured the dilemma of pursuing truth minus a Helper.

From Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, we find the following paragraph on page 77:

I believe in the Hindu theory of Guru and his importance in spiritual realization. I think there is a great deal of truth in the doctrine that true knowledge is impossible without a Guru. An imperfect teacher may be tolerable in mundane matters, but not in spiritual matters. Only a perfect gnani [a knowing one, a seer] deserves to be enthroned as Guru. There must, therefore, be ceaseless striving after perfection. For one gets the Guru that one deserves. Infinite striving after perfection is one’s right. It is its own reward. The rest is in the hands of God.

The lesson author is treading on very thin ice, perhaps not aware of the deadly potential just beneath the surface of this superficial statement. Gandhi was a highly educated man who was familiar with the Christian message of the gospel. In light of the truth of Christ, he still chose to reject Christ and his teaching in favor of his own ability to reach a state of sinlessness. He believed in “ceaseless striving after perfection” which for a Hindu is a rejection of the perfection found only in Christ. (Note the similarity between the Hindu striving and perfectionism and legalism found in some Christian churches.)

When taught the Gospel, Gandhi rejected it. He wanted it to be understood that he did not just believe in the forgiveness of sins, but wanted to remove even the thought of sin from himself, by himself. From his autobiography, we also find the following:

Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'être of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran? As Christian friends were endeavouring to convert me, so were Muslim friends.

Mohandas Gandhi was not a Christian, nor should Christians read him for anything authoritative on spiritual matters. That the lesson author quotes from is not problematic, but identifying Gandhi as one of only a few who truly desired to “live a life of truth” – a man who rejected Truth himself – is definitely problematic for Christians.

Since we are told to test all things and hold fast to that which is good, we would do well to abide by this Christian commandment. First Thess. 5:19-21 tells us:

Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.

First, without rehashing previous materials, may we simply state: There is no subjective element to truth.

Second, Gandhi is not someone who has endured hardships and trials for truth. There definitely were some political and cultural wrongs that he dealt with in his lifetime, and his dealings with these issues brought justice, equality and the possibility of economic independence for India and Indians. But in the end, he rejected ultimate truth: Jesus.

Given this, we do not have to go far to “test everything” about Gandhi. We can “hold fast” those political issues that he dealt with in his lifetime and even agree with his methodology, but Christians cannot agree with him spiritually. It is precisely on those spiritual issues that Christians let go of Gandhi, because in him (Gandhi) there is no objective truth, or good.

The Christian has found Jesus to be ultimate truth. We don’t need to play around with worldly philosophies and great men of the world. We have Jesus who is the ultimate philosophy and the greatest man, the new Adam, of this world.

 

Summary

1. There is not a subjective element to truth. One’s response to truth is important, but that is not an element of truth.
2. The statement “Few human beings have desired to live a life of truth more than Gandhi” is false. It is false on the surface. And when one investigates the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi, one finds that he rejected ultimate truth – he did not desire to live a life of truth, he desired to live a life of struggle, as he himself said.
3. There are points of Gandhi’s life that are admirable. Those points are his political, class and financial struggles for the people of India, but not any kind of spiritual attainment he may have achieved.
4. Christians are commanded to test all things and hold fast to what is good.
5. Our standard is Jesus and his word. He is ultimate, objective truth and the ultimate philosophy of the world. Nothing else comes close.

 

GO TO DAY 4

 

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