How do we tell the difference between truth and lies? In this episode of The Tree Church Bible Study, Pastor Stacey Crawford is joined by Pastor Chris Reed and Mick, who is back on the podcast after some time away. Together they study 1 John 2:20-23 and talk about how the Holy Spirit helps us hold on to what is true.
The Funniest Lies We Told as Kids
Fittingly, the episode opens with a question about the funniest lie each of them told as a kid. Pastor Chris admits he was pretty good at it, which may be why he has such an aversion to lying now. He comes from a very Italian family, and he used to tell kids at school that his grandfather was in the mafia. No one could prove otherwise.Mick says he was quiet as a kid, so beyond the usual fish and hunting stories, he mostly embellished one thing. His dad worked for the highway patrol, but he was not a patrolman. Mick let the other kids assume his dad was a police officer because it sounded cooler.Pastor Stacey calls herself a rule follower, but one story came to mind right away. When she was four, she and her cousin broke a lamp in her aunt's basement and blamed it on her cousin's twin brothers, who were only about ten months old. Her aunt did not believe a word of it. Pastor Stacey still feels a little guilty, but her aunt has forgiven her and still loves her.
You Are Not Like That
Pastor Stacey recaps last week's conversation about antichrists and the end times. Pastor Chris notes that the new passage starts with a contrast, so it only makes sense in light of what came before. Then Pastor Stacey reads 1 John 2:20-23 from the NLT. "But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth. So I am writing to you not because you don't know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies. And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son doesn't have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also."Pastor Stacey reminds listeners how important it is to read what comes before and after a passage. John is still talking about the people who left the church because of what they believed about Jesus. Leaving a church does not make someone an antichrist. Their problem was that they did not hold the full picture of who Jesus is. John is telling the faithful that they are different, because they have the Holy Spirit working inside them.
The Anointing of the Spirit
Pastor Stacey points out that the ESV says believers have an anointing from the Holy One, and she loves that picture. Pastor Chris walks through how other translations handle it. Some use anointing, and the 1900 King James Version uses the fun word unction. The NLT is not wrong. It simply explains what anointing means. Translations that stay closer to the Greek help readers notice when a word shows up again, and anointing appears several times in this week's passage and the next. Pastor Chris says you do not need to know Greek to do this kind of study. Comparing good English translations can show a lot about what is happening in the text.Pastor Stacey shares that she was preparing a staff devotional that morning, and one translation spoke to exactly what she wanted to say. Pastor Chris adds that John uses something like a psychological trick here. He tells his readers they are not like the antichrists while also warning them not to become like them. For John, the proof that someone walks in the truth is that they have the Holy Spirit and remain faithful. As Pastor Chris puts it, the proof is in the pudding.
How the Holy Spirit Speaks Truth
Pastor Stacey asks how we know the Holy Spirit is speaking truth to us. Mick says that for him, "the way that I feel the Holy Spirit speak truth into me is conviction." When something he hears feels off, he takes it as a nudge to dig deeper. He believes people are usually led away from the truth in small ways. He also believes the Spirit gives supernatural understanding of Scripture. When a passage does not make sense, he reads another translation until it clicks, and he jokes that if there were a redneck Bible, he might understand that one best.Pastor Chris adds that the Spirit also speaks through spiritual authority and friends. Sometimes we need to step outside ourselves and let a pastor, mentor, or close friend who is seeking God speak into our lives. He shares that he struggles with overthinking, anxiety, and seeing himself negatively. When he explains those thoughts to friends, they often say they do not see that in him at all. They realign his heart to the truth of what Christ says about him. Pastor Chris also points to John 14, where we learn that the Spirit always points us back to Jesus. For John, that means never abandoning the truth that Jesus came from God and is both fully God and fully man.
When the Spirit Spoke Truth
Pastor Stacey then asks each of them to share a time they knew the Holy Spirit spoke truth they would not have known otherwise. Pastor Chris shares that the Tuesday before their last recording, he woke up grumpy and agitated by the smallest things. He kept having arguments in his head with the sweetest people about how he thought they saw him. Then the Spirit quietly told him that it was not true. He realized it was a spiritual attack, asked friends to pray for him, and those thoughts stopped almost right away. "I was buying into a lie. Spirit spoke truth and then I was able to get the help that I needed."Mick says leading mission trips is one of his main roles. Before and after a recent trip to Peru with a group of guys, he questioned whether his leadership and nightly devotional thoughts were effective. Each time, the Holy Spirit convicted him that it is not about him. Back home, the guys told him what the Holy Spirit had done in their lives, even through things he did not remember saying. It felt like God reassuring him that he would take care of the work.Pastor Stacey thinks of the times the Holy Spirit would not let her shake the sense that she needed to say something to someone. She often doubted it would mean anything, but she would send the message and immediately get a reply saying how timely her words were. She loves that the Holy Spirit anoints us in so many ways, both for ourselves and for others.
Truth Versus Lies
Pastor Stacey notes that John moves from encouragement to calling people liars, which she finds a little comical since he has done it several times in this letter. But he is serious because he wants them to believe that Jesus is fully God, fully human, and the one sent to set us free.Pastor Chris explains that John sees things in black and white. You are either walking in the truth or you are a liar. The heart of it is believing that Jesus is the Christ. Christ is the Greek word for anointed one, the New Testament version of the Hebrew word Messiah. It describes someone set apart for a special work. To deny that Jesus is that one, and that he is with the Father, is to step away from the truth.
Lies Are Usually Subtle
Pastor Chris notes that John warns so seriously because false teaching is usually subtle. The heresies that gained a following in history were rarely outright denials of truth. They were slight steps off of it. Some taught that the divine Christ came down on Jesus at his baptism, keeping the divine separate from the man Jesus. It referenced something true while denying something else that was true.Pastor Chris believes Satan works the same way in our lives. The lies we believe are usually wrapped in insecurities and things we have learned from real experience. We may have done a poor job before or given in to sin that still haunts us. But that is no longer who we are. Christ has forgiven those sins and grown us since then. Satan wants to keep us believing what once was but is no longer true. That is why we need to stay closely tied to the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Stacey's Battle With Lies
Pastor Stacey asks the group to be vulnerable about why lies are sometimes easier to believe. She shares that every time God calls her to a new role at the church, she feels attacked with doubt. When she recently moved from hospitality to care director, she spent most of the summer believing she was not good enough, not caring enough, and not as capable as the person before her. She had to be purposeful about getting into God's Word and asking people to pray for her. Her encouragement is that even pastors believe lies, which is why we have to know God's Word so well that we can answer those lies with his truth.
Three Truths and a Lie
Mick shares a game he likes to play when building a team called three truths and a lie. The best lies are nuanced and close to what people already know about you. An obvious lie, like claiming to have dunked a basketball in fifth grade, never works. He believes Satan uses the same tactic. He takes something subtle, often words spoken over us in childhood or high school, and builds on it until we accept it as truth.Mick remembers college as the first time he was surrounded by believers from many different backgrounds. The people who stayed solid took their questions to Scripture, to friends, and to professors they trusted. A close friend of his did not, and he slowly deconstructed his faith as he rationalized what he wanted to do. Mick admits he was often at a loss for words. Even in ministry, he has battled lies about finances, his ability to speak, and whether his past disqualifies him, even though Scripture is full of unqualified people God called and provided for. Recently a youth who just graduated texted him with similar questions, and Mick was encouraged to see that he was already seeking Scripture, godly counsel, and prayer.
Questions, Doubt, and Community
Pastor Chris believes some doubt and questioning is healthy. It helps us move from taking things at face value to truly owning our faith. Everyone has questions. What matters is the community around us as we work through them. John wanted his readers to stay connected to the church while they wrestled. Pastor Chris has tried to make his home a safe place for his kids to ask hard questions from an early age.He shares that one summer he worked at a camp that introduced newer ways of thinking about faith that stepped away from some core truths about Christ. Because he was in that environment, he was more open to those ideas and did not have the context to navigate them. Later, at Malone, he found a place where it was safe to ask questions while truth stayed rooted in historic, orthodox Christianity. That shaped what he believes.Pastor Chris encourages listeners not to shy away from hard questions. But he warns that walking away from the core beliefs the church has held through history is stepping into waters John would call dangerous. He recommends finding a community that is open to questions while still pointing back to how the apostles handed down the faith, that Jesus is fully God and fully man, and that the Spirit testifies to that truth.
Closing Prayer
Pastor Chris closes in prayer. He asks God to combat the lies we tell ourselves and the lies life has spoken over us, and to fill us with his Spirit, his Word, and the reality of who Jesus is. He prays that God would help us build our lives on his truth, guide us, and keep us faithful. Pastor Stacey thanks everyone for listening and encourages them to like, subscribe, share the episode, and check out the show notes.
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