Written by Kenna Rose
What is truth? Pilate said those words to Jesus some 2,000 years ago as Christ was headed to the cross, and it’s a question that the world continues to ask today.
The answer the culture has arrived at has turned out to be less than satisfactory.
If you engage with any ideology the world has to offer, you’ll notice that truth is defined as, “whatever you’re experiencing at the moment.” It’s what allows people to rationalize abortion (the baby isn’t actually human) and what makes it easy for some people to identify as trans (male and female are merely “social constructs”).
This definition of truth is ever-changing, unsteady, and tossed to and fro by the differing requirements of each new philosophy.
This definition of truth is informed by postmodernism, an ideology predicated on the idea that there is no objective truth. As such, postmodernism believes that each person can have their own interpretation of reality – including right and wrong.
The fruit of this is evident in language such as “felt truth” or “perceived inequality,” and movements such as the self-love or LGBTQ movement.
The rise in crime is also a result of postmodernism because this philosophy disconnects morality from any sort of Biblical backbone and lets the person define right and wrong however he or she wants.
This is why our culture’s shift from at least a cultural understanding of Christianity is such a big deal. Biblically, truth doesn’t shift. It’s objective.
God created the world to work a certain way, and truth, including our understanding of right and wrong, aligns with that reality. John 17:17 calls God’s Word truth, and in John 14:6, Christ calls Himself the Truth.
When a culture rejects Christ, it rejects the truth.
The fruit of a biblical understanding of truth shows up in things such as the abolition movements of the 19th century and in scientists like Sir Isaac Newton, who studied the earth because of his belief that God created it to work in a certain ordered way.
It’s evident in people like Amy Carmichael and George Muller who worked incredibly hard to rescue children from lives of intense slavery or poverty and give them a future, and it’s evident every time we choose to deny ourselves to put the needs of others ahead of our own.
Each of these heroes of history acted with the certainty that God had created the world to work a certain way. A modern definition of truth always leads to selfish love, self-loathing, emptiness, and pain.
A biblical understanding of love always leads to sacrificial love, contentment, joy, and improvement.
When we choose not to walk in truth, choosing instead to walk in our own definition of truth, we never grow. We become stuck in a strange anti-reality, like Prince Rilian under the spell of the Witch.
It very often destroys us, and in the end, it will lead to eternal suffering. When we walk in truth, we grow up. We’re able to live a life of fulfillment that honors God, loves others, and brings joy. It’s a life that people can look at and say, “There is something different about that person.”
The difference between a culture walking according to the way God created the world to work and a culture striving against it is incredibly, tragically obvious.
Let’s ensure we’re walking in the Truth – and encourage others to walk so, too.
