Searching for truth

Our TBGL groups are studying the 10 Commandments and it’s refreshing to revisit them with a new lens and see how they should impact our lives today.  This week we have been looking at command number 9 -  “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour”, which basically is a reminder to be truth tellers in all and every circumstance.  The study has opened up conversations around the concept of absolute versus relative truth, and the times that we are exposed to the mantra that – “it may be your truth but it’s not mine”.

I was personally affected by this on the day of my baptism, being told that God may have expected me to surrender my sexuality, but he didn’t expect that of everyone.  In effect I was told that God’s word is not absolute truth, depending upon my circumstances it could be altered.  Thankfully my faith was, and is, strong enough to stand up to this kind of comment.  However as Christians we need to be aware of God’s absolute truth and be prepared to not bow to the pressures of the world to distort the truth.

The challenge we have is to be fully confident in the word of God, what it teaches and more importantly why we give the word of God authority in our lives.  This is not just a historic text, it’s a living, breathing message from the living God to us.  It’s the blueprint for our lives, if we were to simply follow it, how much better would life be for us all?

How best to communicate this to others?  We pondered this question and our conclusion was that we needed to be living testimonies of the difference God makes in our lives once we surrender our ideas around truth to him and pick up his truth.  The truth that reminds us that while we were still sinners, he died for us. The truth that reminds us that one day, regardless of what people think or say now, EVERY knee will bow and EVERY tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Pilate asked the question – “What is truth?” when truth personified stood in front of him (John 18:37-38).  Everyone we know is in fact searching for truth; the challenge is, do they really want to know the answer and are we living our lives in such a way as to point them directly to the answer?