The truth will set you free is a semi-common phrase used especially in religious circles, but often misunderstood and terribly distorted. The immediate context of its usage reveals what it means.
The Truth Will Set You Free Passage
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:31-36)
Observations:
- The truth Jesus spoke about that will set us free comes from holding to his teaching as his disciple. Since Jesus has the words of eternal life then his teaching will be spiritual truth. That excludes all secular knowledge, as would be learned in a public school or university, as being the source of the truth that will set us free. Jesus placed the focus on his own teachings, the teachings of Christ and we should too.
- The freedom that Jesus spoke of and uniquely offers is freedom from the slavery of sin, including alcohol addiction and pornography addiction. That freedom from slavery to sin comes instantly at the point of salvation, but the same can afterwards be entangled again (2 Pet. 2:20-22). Furthermore, Jesus identified himself as the truth in John 14:6. So, “the truth will set you free” is Jesus himself and his words of eternal life setting one free from their slavery to sin when they are accepted. The truth is not intellectual knowledge because that won’t set us free from sin’s additions. Only Jesus can do that with his precious blood at the point of salvation, when one is born again. There is no other way to be set free from your sin addictions.
The Truth Will Set You Free Supplemented
Paul states additional information about the truth will set you free in his epistle to the Romans. Christians have been set free from their slavery to sin, just like the Lord Jesus referred to in John 8:31-36:
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Rom 6:17,18)
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Rom 6:22)
The truth will set you free is directly related to Jesus’ words of eternal life. Do you know Jesus?
