Who Is Right?

When those who believe in Jesus are divided up into so many different denominations, this question arises quite naturally: “Who is right?” Or as Pilate once asked: “What is truth?”

For the upright everything is simple and straightforward, but everything becomes difficult and complicated for the double-minded. Being double-minded, in this connection, is when one wants to have as much as possible of this world and then go to heaven in the end. However, most people understand that you have to give up something to be a Christian, and this is the point at which denominations arise. They argue about what you have to give up to become a Christian and what is sin.

Being upright and simple means to have only one mind, the mind to follow Christ. That means everything to you. Then everything becomes uncomplicated. Jesus says, “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:33.

It is that simple. There is no need to argue about it. The upright will quickly agree. Those who have forsaken everything have come to the truth and have laid hold of what is right.

Sickness and death—separation from God—entered in through sin. All the misery in the world is a result of sin, and Jesus came because of sin. Rom. 8:3. Jesus was manifested to take away our sins. 1 John 3:5-8; Heb. 9:26.

“He who commits sin is of the devil . . . .” “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8. The person who has experienced this has come to the truth and has laid hold of what is right.

In Galatians 5:19-21 we read that the works of the flesh are evident. These verses do not speak about unconscious sin. Many of these sins are listed; for example: wrath, contentions, selfish ambitions, heresies, and such like. Most people do not take these things very seriously. They reckon that the grace in Christ Jesus shall cover it all. However, Paul says something totally different: “Of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

In other words, those who commit such things have not found what is right; they have not come to the truth. But those who have come to victory over sin, not transgressing the law, have come to what is right. 1 John 3:4. They have found the truth. This is easy to understand for someone who is upright.

Paul gives us the exhortation to follow him. 1 Cor. 4:16; Phil. 3:17. You have come to what is right when you have come to the truth, even before you have gained the victory. The evidence of having come to the truth is that you are being set free from sin. John 8:32-36. These are Jesus’ own words.

If we have come to those who can say, “Follow me, as I follow Christ,” we have come to true servants of the Lord. Then we also know that we have come to what is right, even though we have not yet come to the right life, because we know that if we follow them things will be righted in our life. This is why Paul gives Timothy the following exhortation: “But as for you, continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them . . . .” 2 Tim. 3:14.

We have to be careful as to who instructs us, whether they have come to victory over sin or not. They are not giving us the truth if they—those who instruct us—have not come to a life of victory over sin. Heb. 13:9.

Those who follow Jesus and have been set free from sin by the truth are fulfilling Jesus’ prayer in their lives: “That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” John 17:21.

Those who have become one in this manner have come to the truth and have what is right. Therefore: let no one deceive you by means of doctrines that have not set them free from sin and have not led them to oneness. Believe in Jesus’ work and forsake everything in the world. Then you will experience that the Son is setting you free, and you will be free indeed. Then you will no longer ask, “What is truth? Who is right?” At that point you will have come to it yourself.