In John 16, Jesus tells His disciples about the Holy Spirit who will come after His ascension. One of the primary characteristics of this Helper is that He will lead them into all truth (John 16:13).

We all have difficulties these days with knowing whether something we are seeing or hearing is actually the truth. AI has enabled deep fakes which can make anyone seem like they are saying or doing anything. So how do you know if someone is speaking the truth?

Jesus says that the reason the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth is that “He will not speak from Himself but what he hears he will speak” (ibid.). In other words there is no self interest in what He is saying.

Jesus said the same thing about His own actions earlier in the same gospel: “Truly, truly, I say to you, that the son is not able to do anything of Himself, unless it is something he sees the Father doing.” (John 5:19).

Part of my work over the years has been as an expert witness. The value of an expert witness is impartiality. This is how one contract I signed put it:

“At all times, we expect that you will provide an objective evaluation of any materials provided to you, without regard to the impact that evaluation may have upon any pending litigation or matter. We further expect that you will exercise your best independent and professional judgment with respect to all aspects of this Engagement, and that you will provide complete, accurate, and honest opinions that are not subjective or biased in any way. We want and expect you to be entirely independent.”

In a court of law an expert witness is only of value if s/he presents facts without self interest. If the judge or jury thought that the expert witness stood to gain anything by presenting the facts they would then wonder about the accuracy or bias of those facts. Perhaps the witness would leave something out or dazzle the court with science so they would believe something contrary to the truth. I have put the phone down when a barrister once asked me to do exactly that. Produce smoke and mirrors is how he put it.

So when Jesus says he is doing nothing from his own initiative and also states the Holy Spirit will say nothing from himself, then he is stating a principle about a reliable truth teller: they have no skin in the game so to speak.

The next time you hear someone stating something as fact perhaps it would be good to ask yourself what self interest might drive them to say what they are saying.