The Saying Is Trustworthy

The Saying Is Trustworthy.  The ads, mailers, radio spots, yard signs, and stump speeches during this next-to-last week before Election Day fill my head (and my trash can) with rubbish. I confess that I am slowly becoming a political agnostic, to coin a silly phrase, one who concludes that nothing can be fully known and therefore purely believed in the political arena since there has been so little access to primary source data that has not been pre-digested by the machinery of propagandists in every ideological corridor.

But contrary to man’s mudslinging and muckraking, God has spoken definitively and truly. The clear note of God’s truth rings out amid the noise of opinion, dividing the soul from spirit, bone from marrow, and thoughts from intentions (Heb. 4:12). As if we were asking God directly and urgently, “Please, just give us one firm something to believe that doesn’t change with the season or twist in the wind,” God gives us five firm somethings for good measure.

“The saying is trustworthy,” as a phrase, appears five times in the Bible—each in the writings of Paul. (1) “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15). (2) “The saying is trustworthy: if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task” (1 Tim. 3:1). (3) “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe” (1 Tim. 4:9-10). (4) “The saying is trustworthy, for: if we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself” (2 Tim. 2:11-13). (5) “The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people” (Titus 3:8). “We have something more sure … his word” (2 Pet. 1:20)!