Truth

What is truth? (John 18:38)

Truth results in conflict. Does that thought startle you? It shouldn’t. Truth has always resulted in conflict; that is why many people today want you to believe that there is no such thing as truth. Without the existence of a universal truth, they reason, there is no reason for conflict.

Leaders in education suggest that what is true for me may not be true for you, but that’s okay—each of us must define for ourselves what is right and true; only in this way can each of us find his or her own personal happiness. However, this kind of individualized morality results in conflicts. These days, people who believe that the war in Iraq is wrong are reviled by others as not being supportive of our troops. People who raise animals for food are publicly castigated by animal rights groups. Gun owners and gun control activists are constantly at each other’s throats. Clearly, the idea that each person is entitled to his own truth has not put an end to conflict among us.

We who hold to God’s unchangeable truth, which He shares in the Bible, are not free from conflict either. But this is to be expected. Jesus was sent to the cross by people who did not like the truths that He spoke. Jesus said that we are all sinners, we all do things that anger God and must be forgiven and abandoned. But no one likes to be told that they are wrong. A man who has decided to build his life around his gay impulses does not want to be told that homosexual activity is sinful. A woman who has an unwanted pregnancy does not want to be told that abortion is not an option, because God views that choice as murder. And an unbeliever does not want to hear a Christian publicly confessing her sins and rejoicing in Jesus’ forgiveness, because it implies that God does not approve of his behavior. Because of our sinfulness, God’s truth is sometimes hard to take--and when we don’t love and trust in Him, His truth can provoke an angry response from us.

Our individualized truths, or God’s truth? No matter which we believe, conflict will be the result. So why embrace God’s truth? Because all man-made truths are at best distortions and at worst outright lies; only God’s truth reflects reality. Only God’s truth reveals the full extent of the evil within each of us and our desperate need for a Savior to rescue us from moral confusion, and the foolish choices that come from living under a delusion.