Around the world, people say they want truth. Yet they all believe different things. The United States, for example, is riven by huge political divides. Most say they seek the truth—while violently disagreeing. Both sides of the disagreement cannot be right.

If so many are looking for the truth, why can’t they find it?

We see an answer in an interaction between Jesus Christ and Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who sentenced Him to death.

Jesus said, “Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice” (John 18:37).

From the beginning, human beings have groped in the dark, looking for truth. Here was the Son of God who became the Son of man and came into the world to bear witness unto the truth. How did this governor react to this extraordinary opportunity?

Verse 38: “Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?”

This question has puzzled mankind for thousands of years. It confuses us today perhaps more than ever. Pilate’s attitude represents all of mankind. People have a curiosity or even a great desire for the truth. But the truth ultimately must come from their Creator.

Notice that Jesus did not answer this question. Why? What lesson does He want us to learn from this? He knew Pilate desired to know the truth—but would not obey it. God recorded this for us because He wants us to know that He will not reveal truth to us unless we are willing to do something with it.

When the Son of God came to Earth and bore witness to the truth, how many people heard His voice, humbled themselves, and obeyed during His human lifetime? Only 120 people! (see Matthew 11:25; Acts 1:15).

Jesus would have answered Pilate had he been willing to act on the truth. Just hours before this, Jesus was talking about the truth in great depth (John 17). In fact, anyone in Jerusalem who had wanted to know the truth and do the truth could have done so, because the Son of God was right there teaching it openly. But as He told some of them, people who don’t submit to the truth are “of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will [to] do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).

There is absolutely zero truth in the devil, and the Bible reveals that he is the god of this world who deceives the whole world (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; Revelation 12:9). In fact, even the majority of those few who have truly known God have allowed themselves to stop acting on the truth and have followed the powerful god of this world and his “signs and lying wonders … because they received not the love of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10).

After asking, “What is truth?”, what did Pilate do? “And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all” (John 18:38). Yet what did he proceed to do? Pilate scourged Jesus! This brief statement means that the governor ordered soldiers to whip Jesus with a barbed whip that tore chunks of flesh from His body until His bones were visible! They brutalized and dishonored Him, jammed a crown of thorns on His head, pummeled Him, and pretended to hail “the king of the Jews.” Pilate then brought this bloodied man before the crowd and said, “Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him” (John 19:1-4).

When the leading Jews then demanded that Christ be crucified, Pilate answered, “Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him” (verse 6). This sounds like a madman talking! He found no fault with the Son of God—as he said three times in a short span—yet in nearly the same breath he assented to His death!

Pilate was guilty of subjecting Christ to the utmost dishonor, torture and death. So were the Jews, and so is every single human being who has ever lived because we have all sinned by breaking God’s law (1 John 3:4). Our sins scourged and crucified Him, just as surely as Pilate’s order did.

Do you also sin by asking, “What is truth?” and refusing to believe, obey and act on that truth? We cannot continue to sin, continue to crucify the Son of God, and expect that God, the only Source of truth, will reveal to us what is truth.

That is the lesson we must learn from Pilate.

The truth comes only from God. Isaiah 55:9 shows that His thoughts are as high above our thoughts as the heavens (which can mean the universe) are higher than the Earth! By comparison, the “truth” that men seek is utterly insignificant. Jesus taught that God’s word is truth (John 17:17) and that you will experience the blessings of knowing the truth only if you believe and “continue in my word” (John 8:31).

From the very first man and woman, human beings have refused to believe and obey God, to receive the truth and apply it. They have believed they can find it themselves. But as we can see more and more every day, truth comes only from God—and we must live by every word of God if we hope to know the answer to that burning question: What is truth?