God: Pillar and Ground of Truth

¹⁵ but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:15, New King James Version)

Early this year (or late last year) I spent a lot of time meditating on this passage. The reading of I that I was hearing all around is that the church is the "pillar and ground of the truth".

That seemed so strange to me. Jesus defines Himself as the Truth (John 14:6). I find it almost blasphemous to imagine that Jesus stands on our feeble, mercurial shoulders. Yes, we are charged by Him to stand for truth and to declare it. But that's not the same as calling us the pillar of truth. That means that what we say goes.

The history of God's dealing with man has shown that the church can fail at remaining faithful to truth. We can faith; God cannot. We are founded on Jesus (1 Cor 3:11; Eph 2:20); not the other way around.

Granted, I'm no scholar or great teacher, but I submit another possible way to understand Paul's words here: "The church of the living God who is the pillar and ground of the truth."

We are to conduct ourselves differently because God is the source, definition and foundation of all truth; and if we stand on Him, we stand on truth.

Help us stand on Your truth, Lord.

Amen.

~Ken