What is truth, anyway? When Pontius Pilate questioned Jesus just before sentencing him to death by crucifixion, Jesus answered him, saying, “You say that I am a King. In fact, the reason I was born and came into this world was to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me”. (John18:37) Pilate then cynically responds “What is truth?” Like most people today, Pilate thought “truth” was relative, and was what the majority of people agreed with, or what would advance his personal powers or political goals.

Today we are bombarded with ideas and information, much of it claiming to be “truth”. As Christians, we need to learn and remember that everything God says about himself, us, and this world in the Bible, and through the words of Jesus, is ultimately true, and anything else is just human opinion. And if it differs from what God says, it is NOT true! The Bible makes a pretty dramatic distinction between God’s wisdom, truth, and understanding as compared to ours:

⁸  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

⁹  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. – Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV)

–   ⁶  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. -John 14:6 (ESV)

The Bible also makes it clear that because we are all infected by sin from birth, our very thoughts are limited and tainted, and we live in perpetual “darkness” and can’t see and understand clearly what God has for us! The disciple John lays it out clearly for us:

¹⁶  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁹  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”- John 3:16-17, 19-21 (NIV)

The problem of humanity since the fall in the Garden of Eden is that we try to solve all our problems and tell each other how we are supposed to live (and attempt to control each other), without any help from God! The sin of idolatry is detestable to God, and it means putting your faith and trust in any person, thing, or idea other than God himself. And like all generations before us, we are drunk with the idolatry of our own lofty opinions, ideas, and arrogant pronouncements about morality that often purposely leave God completely out of the picture. We spend our time, money, and passions listening to every new voice that tickles our ears and pushes our favorite agenda. With “smart” phones, endless news cycles, and unlimited access to windbag politicians, pundits, bloggers, podcasters, professors, doctors, scientists, and even some un-biblical pastors, we are washed away in a sea of conflicting ideas and divided into teams and tribes based on which version of the “darkness” we choose to believe. And just as Satan, the “Prince of Darkness” desires, we turn on each other and are divided and filled with hate and mistrust, just the opposite of what Jesus came to save us from.

Jesus, being the Light of God, saw the darkness in human souls, and would not tolerate their foolishness:

–   ²³  Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. ²⁴  But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. ²⁵  He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.– John 2:23-25 (NIV)
–   ⁵  This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. ⁹  The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? ¹⁰  “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” – Jeremiah 17:5,9-10 (NIV)

Here’s our problem today, and it has been the same problem in every generation throughout history:

Since humanity always loves darkness and confusion rather than the truth and redemption of God, we are forced to choose between human opinions that are always less than God’s truth!

This is not to say that ALL human ideas are totally wrong or evil. Some people of all views and perspectives come with good intentions and ideas to make life better for humanity. The problem is that because we are all sinful and “living in darkness” (before we come to Jesus and begin to “see the Light”), even our best ideas are going to be less than what God has for us if we don’t follow God’s teachings and plan for our lives. It would be helpful is we were at least honest about our limitations and flaws:

– We are ALL biased! That includes politicians, teachers, professors, doctors, lawyers, pastors, scientists, judges, bankers, military leaders, and yes, you and me!

– Throughout history, there is always an “elite class” of rulers and experts who think they know more than the “common people” and seek to impose their version of partial darkness on the rest of us. History shows this never really works and often leads to more division and mistrust and often just makes things worse.

And of course today, in our culture that has exploded with unending information (variations of darkness and confusion) being forced on us through the Internet and our TV screens, we have those who pretend to nobly want to censor or control this “dis-information or mis-information” (for our own good, of course!) This has taken the form of social media “fact-checkers” who are woefully biased toward one viewpoint, or worse yet, government agencies filled with partisan hacks who really just want to limit any other viewpoint than their own. Sadly, in the past several years, we have seen politicians, government leaders, and “experts” on all sides continually exposed as lying and trying to deceive and manipulate us for their benefit and control. Why would we trust any of these people to be the “gatekeepers” of truth when they are constantly sharing at least partial darkness themselves?

SO, WHAT SHOULD BE OUR CHRISTIAN APPROACH TO FINDING TRUTH IN THIS CULTURE OF PARTIAL DARKNESS, MANIPULATION, AND INFORMATION OVERLOAD?

1) Even though all of us are broken by sin and thus often confused in our thinking, we can still value each person as made in God’s image and encourage respectful, open discussion of all ideas in the secular culture!

Jesus knows we are broken in our souls and thought processes, yet he offers to change us from the inside out and help us see things from his perspective. He also promises that when we trust in him, he will send his Holy Spirit to dwell in us. And he adds “when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John16:13) Why not let God’s Spirit help us to gently listen to others and also show us ways to inject God’s love and grace into our everyday conversations?

Also, one of the great advantages we have for sharing God’s truth with others in our country is the right to free speech! While that means many crazy and not so helpful ideas may be put forth, we also have the opportunity to share God’s truth and hope with a culture living in darkness and fear. In the secular realm of ideas, we should be advocates for the approach to discussion which used to be called classic liberalism, which sadly is a rare occurrence today. (For my conservative friends, this is NOT the same as liberal political thought or ideology!)  This simply means that we all come to a discussion with different perspectives and yet have total respect for each other. We vigorously debate all the different ideas, maybe come to some common agreement on some ideas, or just agree to disagree in some cases, and part as respectful friends wanting to grow and learn together in the future. This approach would be so refreshing in contrast to today’s approach which is often “I’m going to win and you will lose, and I will demean you, call you names, and try to cancel your ability to even speak so my side always wins” approach, which leads to more division, mistrust, and hatred in a never-ending cycle!

2) AS BELIEVERS, WE NEED TO LEARN TO TIE BOTH TRUTH AND LOVE TOGETHER AS A TOTAL WAY OF LIFE THAT WE LIVE EACH DAY!

The disciple John, in his later years, tied these ideas together as he reflected on Jesus’ life and example for us:

¹  The elder, To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth–and not I only, but also all who know the truth– ²  because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever: ³  Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love. ⁴  It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. – 2 John 1:1-4 (NIV)
 

Why must be tie both ideas together? – Because truth without love leads to cold orthodoxy, while love without truth is empty sentimentalism.

John commends his people for “walking in the truth”. This means we walk, or live  God’s truth every day, not just be our words, but by our actions and our attitudes of humility, kindness, and service to others. As John mentions above, every word from our mouth about God’s truth should reflect God’s grace, mercy, and peace, and if they don’t’, we need to go to God ourselves and repent and ask him to renew our heart and soul. Jesus warned us by saying “ ³⁴   For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. “Matthew 12:34b (ESV)

One of the simplest ways to discern if something is God’s truth or just human opinion is to look at the fruits, or results, of what it leads to. Much of today’s ideas just lead to more division, wars, death, mistrust, blame for the other side, hatred, desire to control and manipulate for one group’s benefit, and on and on with very little benefit for all people. It’s always “somebody wins while many others will have to lose”.

God’s truth through Jesus, on the other hand, leads to forgiveness, redemption, power to change for the better, and eventual restoration of what we lost in the Garden of Eden. The fruit of God’s Spirit in our lives leads to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control!

Which sounds better to you?

Jesus encouraged us by saying, “If you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.  John 8:32

I pray you will seek and learn the truth of God through the studying the Bible and the leading of his Holy Spirit, and that you will be set free by his grace, mercy, and peace.

And then I invite you to share that truth by your words, actions, and attitude with a world living in fear and darkness. Bring others the hope and truth of Jesus!