Base Your Truth On Jesus & His Word, Not On Feelings Or Desires
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(3) For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (4) They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.’ (2 Timothy 4:3-4); ‘…<Paul’s> letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.’ (2 Peter 3:16)
In today’s secular society, as it was in the secular societies since man left the confines of Eden in sin and shame, the question many ask is, ‘what is truth?’ Often, we give the answer that truth is the establishment of facts, either set in historical precedent or newly discovered through trial and error. But the question ‘what is truth?’ is often one that is based on individualized historical evidence or discovery. In the secular sense, the ‘truth’ is often what ‘I say it is’ or ‘I want it to be’.
Pontius Pilate asked rhetorically to Jesus, ‘What is truth?’ (John 18:38) in response to Jesus’ answering Pilate’s question that He is King and “the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the Truth. Everyone on the side of Truth listens to Me.” (John 18:37). But Pilate’s response to Jesus is an age-old philosophical argument made by those who are not of Christ. Pilate knew of Jesus, but did not know Jesus; he was a Roman whose culture and truth was based on false deities and a near-fanatical desire to be pleasing to Caesar. The Truth of Christ was not known to him, only the ‘truth’ of his culture and experiences. So, his question is based on the conflicts between his version of ‘truth’ versus Jesus’ Truth of His Word.
Though it is easy to spot this error, many secularists don’t see it; if my ‘truth’ and your ‘truth’ don’t align, then there becomes the realization someone is wrong, or in many cases both sides are wrong. One of the sayings I picked up from my late father was, ‘there’s my side, your side, and somewhere in the middle is the truth.’ Our version of ‘truth’ can be from our prejudices and biases we grow up with or learn through our experiences. I would prefer to drive a car with a stick-shift and a clutch, as I think the truth is they are better in performance and less in wear and tear on a drivetrain and transmission than automatic transmissions. But ask anyone born after 1990 and they would probably panic in abject fear if they had to try to drive with a manual transmission.
My ‘truth’ on transmissions is based on learned experience (and tragically almost every new car is automatic), as is the ‘truth’ of millennials and the ‘Generation Next’ people whose learned experience is all about driving cars with automatic shifting. My ‘truth’, and my worldview, is based on my experiences, education, and the prejudices and biases developed through where I grew up and places I moved to or worked at, what I did, who taught me in school and employment, and more.
In a collective sense, in the US, the ‘truth’ we find in the various sub-cultures, Southern, Northern, Western, Black, White, Rich, Poor; all have variances between each other. But take individuals from those sub-cultures and place them as a group outside the US, in Europe or Africa for example, and we find the commonality that makes up the American culture; we’ll most likely crave a burger or a hot dog, want to watch an NFL game, and dream of coming back so we can drive a car on the right side of the road. So, we do have a loose foundation of a ‘societal truth’, or bond with each other that we find common ground on.
Why is it so important, though, to have everyone share a common, foundational truth? If we each have a common foundation of truth culturally, we can fall back on that foundation, to that point where we can agree is the actual 100% truth. The problem is many people don’t have that firm, solid foundation that only comes from our Creator, God. We have seen when a false religion becomes a foundation for a culture, it either becomes violent or becomes a cult, falling to the whims of a select few. A false religion also may have a foundation that flexes or moves to the whims of society; as society’s norms change, the foundation shifts, taking down many who built their lives on it when it moves.
For the Believer who follows Jesus and the unchanging Word, though, we see the foundation as firm, never cracking and always unchanging and immovable. The facts of the Bible and of God are the same today as they were yesterday and will be the same tomorrow. Our cultural truths may change with the times, but the Truth of God is consistent and can be relied upon to anchor us.
Unfortunately, there are some who wrongfully assume God will change with the whims of man. What they feel is ‘truth’, or what should be ‘truth’ to satisfy a desire, if they push hard enough or say it enough times, will make their ‘truth’ supersede the Truth and God will acquiesce. But know that God is Truth, His ways are immutable and immoveable.
Paul, in writing in beginning of 2 Timothy 4, warns us of those times when people will attempt to change the Truth with their ‘truth’, in order to assuage their feelings. In their feelings and desires, Peter explains in 2 Peter 3:16 for some the Truth is hard to hear and difficult to pursue, so they turn away and hang their hat on what the want the ‘truth’ to be; a fulfillment of sinful desires based on self and not on God’s Word. Progressivism feeds on these feelings and the sinful nature of man to pull people away using the ‘truth’ of the secular worldview, as Pilate had, from the Biblical Worldview which Jesus represented.
The Truth is hard to understand and live up to, but it is not for us to take shortcuts or try to cheat or manipulate it to make it more palatable or obtainable. We may feel we cannot achieve living in the Truth, but Faith in the Word of the Lord – Him telling us He provides for us the way to live in the Truth, and trusting that He will do so – should make it unnecessary to take those shortcuts and rely on Him, in His timing and methods to live in His Truth. Abraham tried to take a shortcut when God said He would have descendants, and laid with Hagar, and she bore Ishmael, a thorn in the side of Issac and his children (eventually the nation of Israel) the eventual provision God had all planned along through Abraham’s wife Sarah. ever since.
Our flawed feelings are why we pursue a selfish ‘truth’, a warped version of what we think God should provide. That always ends up hurting us and costing us in immeasurable ways. Be mindful and Faithful to pursue the only Truth, the Truth of Jesus and His Word, and though at times it may seem hopeless and defeating, God’s timing and purpose will always show it is better for us, a firm foundation that is unshakable.
