This six week study walks a small group through the full Expanded teaching one section at a time. Each week pairs a short passage of the teaching with a handful of verses to read together and questions to talk through. By the end of the six weeks, the group will have walked through the whole teaching - or you're welcome to read the Teaching or Expanded version together instead, if your group prefers to go through it in one or two sittings.
Week One: A Standard We Did Not Set
God's truth is not something humanity discovered or invented together - it is something God set, the same way He set the sun and the boundaries of the sea. Because He does not change, His truth does not change, and that gives us solid ground instead of shifting sand.
Read together: Malachi 3:6 and Genesis 1:1.
Talk about: Where in your own life have you felt pressure to treat truth as negotiable? What difference does it make to know the standard was set by the Creator rather than by any human group?
Week Two: Sacred Truth, Loving Obedience
Jesus ties obedience directly to love - not obedience that earns love, but obedience that grows naturally out of love already present. Truth is not a fence meant to pen us in; it is the shape love takes once it has taken root.
Read together: John 14:15-26.
Talk about: How does it change the feel of "obeying commands" to see it as fruit of love rather than a rule to satisfy? What role does the Holy Spirit play in helping you remember what is true?
Week Three: What Happens When Lies Distort Truth
Confusion and heresy are not random accidents - they are the predictable result of truth being distorted a little at a time. A people without a fixed standard cannot move forward together, because they no longer agree which direction forward is.
Read together: 2 Timothy 4:3-4 and Ephesians 4:14.
Talk about: Can you think of an example of truth being "bent" gradually rather than denied outright? What keeps a person anchored when everyone around them is drifting?
Week Four: Bring Everything to Light
Lies depend on staying hidden and unexamined. Truth requires no such protection, because it was never afraid of being seen clearly. A claim that cannot survive being brought into the light was probably never true to begin with.
Read together: Ephesians 5:8-14.
Talk about: What does it look like practically to "bring something into the light" rather than letting it stay in the dark? Why is silence never a neutral option when we hold the truth?
Week Five: A City on a Hill Cannot Be Hidden
Jesus pictures truth's proclamation as a city on a hill - impossible to hide, meant to be seen from a distance. Truth left unspoken doesn't stay quietly true; it gets crowded out by whatever voice was willing to speak instead.
Read together: Matthew 5:13-16.
Talk about: Where has proclaiming truth plainly (rather than softening it) made a visible difference in your own life or community? What keeps us from letting our light shine as clearly as we could?
Week Six: Grounded, Not Adrift
The foundational truth of who God is and what He requires was set before we arrived, and it will still be standing after we are gone. Our understanding can keep growing and deepening even while the ground itself stays fixed.
Read together: Matthew 24:35 and Malachi 3:6 (revisited).
Talk about: Looking back over the six weeks, what is one truth you want to be more intentional about standing on, and proclaiming, going forward?
If your group wants to go deeper into any of these six weeks, the full Teaching and Expanded versions of "Truth Doesn't Change, Lies Can't Change It" walk through this same material with more depth, more scripture, and fuller explanation.
For Further Study
- Malachi 3:6 — I the Lord do not change
- Genesis 1:1 — In the beginning God created
- John 14:15-26 — Love, obedience, and the Spirit of truth
- 2 Timothy 4:3-4 — A time when people will not put up with sound doctrine
- Ephesians 4:14 — No longer infants tossed by every wind of teaching
- Ephesians 5:8-14 — Everything exposed by the light becomes visible
- Matthew 5:13-16 — A city on a hill cannot be hidden
- Matthew 24:35 — Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words never will