Truth

Your word is truth (John 17:17).

I was doing a search on the Internet a while back, when I stumbled across a forum where college students were discussing morality. One person said that he believed that morals don’t come from religion, it is up to each person to decide for himself what is right and what is wrong.

I thought about that for a while, and frankly the idea puzzles me. How can a society exist if each individual decides for himself what is allowable and what is not? How could you convict anyone of a crime, when each person put on trial could say that he was simply acting according to his convictions? After all, there are people in this world who believe it is okay to kill other people; there are some individuals who have no problem with children working as prostitutes; there are many who believe you should be able to say whatever you want, without restriction or fear of consequences.

I suppose you could gather like-minded people together and enforce the rule of the majority; however, I don’t see how you could govern a large country in this way. Every community or geographical area could have laws very different from its neighbors, a sure recipe for conflict—just look at the history of Europe or the state of affairs in the Middle East. No, I just don’t see how you could guarantee peace and quality of life in a society where everyone decides for himself what is right and what is wrong.

When you were a child and had a question, you expected your parents and teachers to tell you the truth, not their personal opinion. You wanted information that you could be sure about; no one wants to make important decisions based on speculation. Human beings hunger for truth; we need it to feel secure. A world built on nothing but personal opinion is a place of ever-shifting uncertainty, a sure recipe for nagging stress and crippling depression.

Thankfully, right and wrong are not subject to human whim; God is the creator of the universe and every living thing—it is His divine right to set codes of conduct for we His creatures. He reveals His code of conduct through the Bible—the one source of absolute truth that you can depend on in a world of constantly shifting morals and public opinion.