“What is truth?” Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the people and told them, “He is not guilty of any crime.” John 18:38 NLT
Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but truth isn’t.
What is truth? Is there truth? Where can I find it? Is truth for me truth for everyone? Does it change? All questions people wrangle with and reach different conclusions. Relativism makes truth relative, or changeable. Individual relativism allows the individual to set the parameters. Cultural relativism lets each culture define truth. Imagine the missionary’s surprise when, after telling a native tribe about Judas betraying Jesus, he noticed they praised Judas instead of seeing his error. In their culture, betrayal was an honorable trait.
As Jesus stood before Pilate, he proclaimed to represent truth. Pilate contemplated his statement and asked his infamous question, “What is truth?” Jesus said he was and is the way, the truth, and the life. Not all agree.
Truth is not relative…either to individuals or cultures. What I think is the truth matters not; nor does what others think. Truth for me cannot not be truth for you. But individual relativism promotes this concept. You do what you want, and I’ll do the same. Stay out of my business, and I’ll stay out of yours. Cultural relativism manufactures the same mistake. What is true in one culture is true in another. Just because culture may accept rape as legal doesn’t make it so in God’s eyes.
Individuals and cultures don’t erect the rules for determining truth. There are moral absolutes that transcend individuals and cultures, and God establishes them. They are viewed most clearly in God’s Ten Commandments and in the two commands Jesus said were the most important: love him with all one’s heart and our neighbors as we do ourselves.
God established moral absolutes…truth…in the very beginning and recorded them in his Word. Jesus represented truth when he resided on earth. What I think should be or is truth is immaterial. It only matters what God proclaims.
Make sure you have discovered the only truth. Then ask God for the courage to live by it.
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