Every person is called to sincerity and truthfulness in acting and speaking. Everyone has the duty to seek the truth, to adhere to it and to order one’s whole life in accordance with its demands. In Jesus Christ the whole of God’s truth has been made manifest. He is “the truth”. Those who follow him live in the Spirit of truth and guard against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.
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2464. The eighth commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others. This moral prescription flows from the vocation of the holy people to bear witness to their God who is the truth and wills the truth. Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of the covenant.
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2465. The Old Testament attests that God is the source of all truth. His Word is truth. His Law is truth. His "faithfulness endures to all generations."254 Since God is "true," the members of his people are called to live in the truth.255
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2466. In Jesus Christ, the whole of God's truth has been made manifest. "Full of grace and truth," he came as the "light of the world," he is the Truth.256 "Whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness."257 The disciple of Jesus continues in his word so as to know "the truth [that] will make you free" and that sanctifies.258 To follow Jesus is to live in "the Spirit of truth," whom the Father sends in his name and who leads "into all the truth."259 To his disciples Jesus teaches the unconditional love of truth: "Let what you say be simply 'Yes or No.'"260
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2467. Man tends by nature toward the truth. He is obliged to honor and bear witness to it: "It is in accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons . . . are both impelled by their nature and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct their whole lives in accordance with the demands of truth."261
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2468. Truth as uprightness in human action and speech is called truthfulness, sincerity, or candor. Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words, and in guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.
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2469. "Men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another."262 The virtue of truth gives another his just due. Truthfulness keeps to the just mean between what ought to be expressed and what ought to be kept secret: it entails honesty and discretion. In justice, "as a matter of honor, one man owes it to another to manifest the truth."263
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2470. The disciple of Christ consents to "live in the truth," that is, in the simplicity of a life in conformity with the Lord's example, abiding in his truth. "If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth."264
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2504. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" (Ex 20:16). Christ's disciples have "put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Eph 4:24).
Acesse nossos estudos biblicos:
What does the Bible say about the need to forgive, according to Colossians 3:13?
What is the relationship between truth and joy mentioned in 2 John 1:4?
What can we learn about the growth of the early church in Jerusalem from Acts 2:41-47?
What is the role of the law in the Old Testament, according to Galatians 3:10-14?
What is the story behind the miracle of Elisha’s resurrection of the Shunammite’s son in 2 Kings 4?
What is the importance of caring for the weak according to James 1:27?
What does it mean to love God and neighbor and what is the importance of this teaching in the Bible?
