In the first message of our new series in the letters of John, Andrew Schey sets up the context for the letters and explores the importance of truth, how truth is disregarded today, and how the historical veracity of the claims of the Bible are important to for us 2,000 years later. The goal of John's opponents was to spiritualize everything and thus allow them to do whatever they wanted, much like today when facts are fluid and the truth seems unknowable. Rather than an isolated, mystical experience, however, John reminds us that Jesus is real - what is recorded in the gospels actually happened - and that reality comes with a responsibility to purify ourselves of OUR truth in order to grasp and live out THE truth.