The Pillar and Ground of the Truth

...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)

The phrase we are interested in from this instruction of Paul to Timothy is "the pillar and ground of the truth". Before we deal with that however, let us take a few moments to be clear about what Paul is saying here. He is using the term house of God here not in terms of a physical building, but rather as Peter used it in his letter (1 Peter 2:5) to indicate the building made up of living stones, which are those people who have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. This group of people is what he calls by three different phrases in this one verse. He calls us variously, the house of God, the church of the living God, and the pillar and ground of the truth.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the origin of the word from which we get church, it comes from a compound Greek word that means called out. It indicates a group of people who are called out from among a larger group of people to become a people in their own right. They govern and take care of themselves so the group is seen to be different than the larger group from which it came. It is unfortunate that in today's society it is difficult to tell the Christians from the non-Christians Monday through Saturday. The sexual mores of society are fairly commonly accepted by those who call themselves Christians. The divorce rate among Christian couples is within a percentage point or two of their non-Christian counterparts when last we heard. Modern society has made serious inroads into the pulling down of Biblical morality amongst church attendees. The main reason behind these unfortunate statistics is that the church is not always careful to be the house of God, The Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

When I was studying social science in college those many years ago, there were endless discussions as to whether truth is relative or absolute. Those of us who have been born of the Spirit know that truth comes from God alone. Therefore, truth is absolute. One person's truth is by definition every other person's truth or it is not truth at all. There are no more exceptions to this than there are to any of the various scientific laws. God put all those laws into effect and they are not going to change.

Scripture tells us that The Church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Pillars hold things up. Things rest on the ground. What Paul is saying here is that The Church holds up the truth. The truth rests on and is resident in The Church. Incidentally, the word translated ground in this verse is translated foundation in other Bible translations. The reason for his discussion is that since The Church holds up and upholds the truth, it is the purview and responsibility of The Church to stand for the truth. Herein lies the problem, we cannot even decide amongst ourselves what is truth. Each individual church group thinks they have the truth. The truth is that none of them does. It is The Church, get it, The WHOLE Church that is the pillar and ground of the truth. It is everyone who has made Jesus Christ Lord of his or her life that comprises The Church. This truth is denied in practice by all churches everywhere. (Did I say that out loud?) Yes, all churches everywhere deny the truth that they are nothing more than a part of the whole by their very practices.


Suppose Jesus were to walk into a church service where you attend on any given Sunday morning or whenever your main service is. Now wait, that's not fair because He probably is not going to do that. He could, but that is not His usual modus operandi. So then let us suppose the Holy Spirit sends someone into that church during a service. We are talking about a legitimate God sent minister. God sent him. Perhaps he is a prophet or just has a prophetic word. Perhaps he has been sent with something the church needs. It could be anything. Most churches would not receive that person and allow him to speak publicly or approach the platform. Of course we know that could be dangerous in so very many ways. Besides, God is a God of order and does not operate that way. Surely he would call the pastor to let him know he is sending someone. Wouldn't He? What real excuse could we possibly have for not receiving a prophet? Jesus said if we receive a prophet because he is a prophet or a righteous man because he is a righteous man, we will share in his reward. (Matthew 10:41)


The problem with bottling up truth in any particular church or denomination, other than the fact that it cannot be done anyway, is that it excludes everyone else. Besides all the other churches, there are so many disenfranchised Christians around nowadays. Many of them have been unwelcomed (That is artistic license for someone who was once welcomed and is no longer.) by the churches they were a part of for any number of supposed wrongs. Need I say, this is simply another working of the religious spirit? I am being charitable when I say that. The only other option is that these people have been unwelcomed because they challenged or otherwise irritated the pastor and he was unable to walk in love toward them so he told them they were no longer welcome. Oh gee that hurts! We could give you a list of people who have been victims of that exact situation. We have talked to some of them who have said they probably will never attend a church, any church, again.


The essence of this message simply put is, The Church is the sum of all its parts. Many, perhaps most, of those parts attend local gatherings on something of a regular basis. However, there are lots of other parts in onesies and twosies out there who are disenfranchised and therefore never get to be part of the truth dialogue. They have something to say, but more than that, when they are not heard we all miss out on what it is God has given them to contribute.