Does Truth Matter?

Is truth essential to the quality of life? People seem somewhat happy living in illusions and lies. Why disturb their tranquillity? If it helps them live a quality life, why not let them be? In the short term, it may seem helpful, but in the long term, it is disastrous. The Bible calls it living like a fool, living life as a pretence. Leave us happy pagans, to our own devices, they may say by their lifestyle.

“Like a starving man who dreams and thinks he is eating, but wakes to find himself empty, or a thirsty man who dreams and thinks he is drinking, but wakes up to find himself thirsty and dry, so shall the horde of the nation be that war against Mt Zion” (Isaiah 29:8, NEB) “Jeremiah described his generation as ‘pursuing empty phantoms and themselves become empty” (Jeremiah 2:5).[i]

‘Kierkegaard wrote, ‘But spiritually understood, man in his natural condition is sick, he is in error, in an illusion, and therefore desires most of all to be deceived, so that he may be permitted not only to remain in error but to find himself thoroughly comfortable in his self-deceit.”[ii] The Bible says it this way, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). Man suppresses the truth by his own pride, sin, illusion, and the belief in the lies of the evil one and in his own justification of himself and thus his own distortions.

“The philosopher Marar writes, ‘As our hearts can’t stop pumping blood, so our minds can’t stop pumping illusions.” “In that sense, all unbelieving worldviews are not only a shrine to those who hold them but a shelter from God and his truth.”[iii] “As Pascal wrote centuries ago, ‘Human society is founded on mutual deceit.”[iv] “Or consider D.H. Lawrence’s reflections on our human capacity for self-deception. Human knowledge, he argued, is broadly of two kinds—the things humans tell themselves and the things they find out. The trouble is that the things humans tell themselves are nearly always pleasant, but they are lies.”[v]

When Jesus was brought to the Roman representative, Pilate, they accused him with many lies and falsities and of one huge truth that he claimed to be God in the flesh. The Jewish religious leaders led the crowd in their desire to crucify him, but they represent all of mankind and how they often deal with the truth. The crowd was insistent, and Pilate was concerned about a riot, so he went against his own conscience. Even though he declared Jesus innocent, he washed his hands of the matter, blaming the crowd. Mankind sometimes sacrifices the truth to appease the crowd. Would a person go to hell just because he is afraid of what others would say or treat them if they became a Christian? (Matthew 27 and Luke 23) Sadly, but true sometimes. Truth is not primarily about politics.

What is the truth most people consider? How can you discern the truth when there are so many different proponents that contradict each other? However, consider that there has been no prophet like Jesus who stated that he was God in the flesh (John 1:1;14) and taught the most profound and perfectly balanced ethics and morality and lived it, and rose from the dead, and Jesus today converts people from the inside out. Also, the Holy Spirit convinces people of the truth. God has put in each soul a homing device called the Holy Spirit so that people can come to the truth. Of course, the Holy Spirit can be resisted or welcomed. There will be no excuse on judgment day for not coming to the truth and walking in it. A Christ-centred, gospel-centered church is a good place to learn of the truth. The Apostle Paul says, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (1 Timothy 4:2). Charles Spurgeon said, “You cannot love Christ if you don’t love truth.”

“Reinhold Niebuhr argued that the folly of the modern mind is to make the precision of scientific thinking the model for all human thinking, and so to forget the bias, self-interest and moral defect at the heart of all thinking—sometimes even in thinking about science. According to his analysis, which makes St. Paul’s diagnosis central, human thinking has caught itself in a triple bind. First of all, human thinking is sinful. As finite, fallen and sinful creatures, our thinking can never be other than self-interested to some degree. Second, all human thinking is idolatrous. As humans made in the image of God, we still have a spiritual and rational power that can inflate even our worst and most self-interested thinking beyond its natural range. And third, all human thinking is hypocritical. Rather than acknowledge the bias and self-interest in our thinking, we are able to hide our dishonesty by aligning our ideas with higher ideals and more general interest—so that we can appear noble and more generous than we really are.”[vi]

“Finally, Henrik Ibsen’s famous line in his play Wild Duck, ‘Take away the life-lie from the average man and you take away his happiness.’ But far more interesting is their own admission of their need to live as if the world had meaning. There is no meaning, they admit, but in fact, we need to live as if there is meaning even when we know there is not.”[vii]

Truth is a matter of life and death—real life and heaven to come. Illusions and lies are like balloons held under water, which soon pop up to full-blown emptiness. The early philosophers like Plato, Socrates and Aristotle thought truth was the essence of philosophy even though they fell short. The full search for truth will lead to Christ. In a sense their philosophy was a forerunner to Jesus. Where is truth centred in logic today? Has it now disappeared? If we want to live a full and truly happy life, it must be lived in the truth. Why live a lie and be a fool? It profits no one. Jesus said it was not he easy way, but the truth is more than worth it. Jesus said he was the truth and that the truth would set you free. (John 14:6; 8:32) Do you want to be free? Free from what? Free from emptiness, foolishness, bitterness and sin. You can be free indeed in Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Lord and by walking in his ways and living out the truth in a love relationship with him.

Yes, truth matters greatly. It matters here and makes a great and good difference in our lives now and into eternity. Choose life. Choose truth. Choose Jesus as your Saviour and Lord today.

[i] Os Guinness, Fools Talk, (Downers Grove, I: InterVarsity Press,2015), p.102.

[ii] Ibid, p.89.

[iii][iii] Ibid, p.89.

[iv] Ibid, p.91

[v] Ibid, p. 91.

[vi] Ibid, p. 92.

[vii] Ibid, p. 104.