Jesus said He is "the truth" (John 14:6). There is no possibility of misunderstanding His meaning, no grammatical quibble by which we can take Him to be speaking metaphorically. He claims to be, in His Own Person, Truth itself.
It's one of those statements that must deeply embarrass those who want to think of Jesus as a "great moral teacher." In ordinary human discourse, we would take such a statement as evidence of madness ("on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg," as C. S. Lewis wrote), and not of enlightened profundity. By such statements, Jesus leaves us no alternative way to take Him: He must be a lunatic, or Who He says He Is.
I don't take Jesus as a madman. And if He is the unique Being I take Him to be, no one's definition of Him can be as authoritative as His own. If I take Jesus' claim seriously, it's worth my most rigorous effort to understand His Self-identification.
The statement is not nonsensical. Even to our limited understanding, there are key ways in which truth is like Jesus. Truth is, for example, eternal. Truth is unchanging. Truth is no respecter of persons. And God desires that truth dwell in our innermost parts as fiercely as He desires that Jesus live in our hearts.
But there are more profound implications. If Jesus identifies Himself, absolutely and intimately, as Truth, Christians...we whose identity is rooted in Who Jesus Is...have an absolute and intimate relationship with Truth. His intent is not to present us a theoretical exercise, but the operative fact underlying every act of the life we have in Him.
If I love Jesus, I must love Truth. If I want my life to manifest Jesus' Lordship, I must obey Truth. If I follow Jesus, I have to follow Truth. If we believe Jesus when He says "I am...the truth," our belief is reflected in our every act.
In one unique passage of scripture, "truth" is indeed a verb, an action, in the original Greek. Usually translated "speaking the truth," the literal meaning would be somewhat clumsy in English, along the lines of "truthing it." The purpose for which we are commanded to so absolutely act truth is instructive: "...to grow up in all aspects unto Him Who is the Head, even Christ..." (Ephesians 4:15).
Church, grow up. If we believe, on Jesus' Own authority, that He Is Truth, we must be a people who love Truth. Love for Truth is manifested by our acting in Truth. By that measure, it doesn't seem the American Church loves Truth very much.
At least in the part of Christ's Body where I live, the American Church considers "culture war" its major priority. The Church eagerly carries the can for political partisans and their propaganda ("...winds of doctrine...trickery of men...craftiness in deceitful scheming...," as scripture puts it). Friends and relatives deem it Christian (!) service to daily forward "conservative" and "patriotic" e-mails, laced with "facts" that aren't true...and promise God's blessing to everyone who spreads the lies further !!
These "culture war" poisoners have no excuse, cannot plead that they were deceived. There are reliable websites that sort out the lies...for those who want to know the truth. Snopes.com is useful on e-mail propaganda, for example, and factcheck.org examines the "facts" in political speeches and ads. There are others. The Church should be deeply ashamed that secular society loves truth enough to create the tools to find it...and the Church doesn't love Truth enough to use them.
But the Church is guilty of a more shameful failure. Unlike secular society, Christians can avail themselves of the Spirit, Whom Jesus called "the Spirit of Truth." How can anyone following the Holy Spirit be deceived, even by the "trickery" and "deceitful scheming" of professional "culture war" spin-artists ? Jesus said the Spirit will lead us "into all truth:" the Church doesn't act as if that's where it wants to go.
The Church' problem is not inability to know Truth, or inability to sort out the lies. The "culture war" Church simply doesn't love Truth that much...not as much as it loves its "own way." We believe, and inform all our Christian friends, that a prominent Democrat quotes Karl Marx' approvingly: but not because we believe it's true. We don't actually care whether it's true or not: if we did, we would check the "fact." Our operative criteria is not truth at all, but what we want to believe. Truth or lie, if it suits our prejudices we pass it on, endorsing it to all our Christian friends.
We don't care about the truth of an e-mail that says the A.C.L.U. is campaigning to remove all cross-shaped headstones from military cemeteries. We want to believe that the A.C.L.U. is against everything decent people (ourselves, for example) stand for, against our faith, against patriotism. Our identity in Christ requires that we love and obey Truth: but we'd prefer to be a "cultural warrior" and (as this e-mail was signed) "A Proud American." On the authority of an anonymous e-mail, we are ready to believe and act on a lie...even to spread it throughout the Body of Christ...when it flatters the corrupt self-image which we prefer to being part of Jesus.
Church, REPENT ! You offend the One Who Is Truth. But He has promised to show mercy if we bitterly repent our wicked ways. Let us return wholeheartedly to our First Love, follow Him, and turn away from following lies.
