This Sunday we kicked off a brand-new teaching series. Before Jesus departed the scene physically, He left His disciples some final marching orders. They were to make disciples everywhere they went. They were to be His witnesses locally, regionally, and internationally. They were to proclaim and advance the Gospel. The Christian faith has always been a missionary faith. In recent years in this country, though, being on mission for God has become an increasingly difficult task as our culture continues down the road of becoming post-Christian. How are we supposed to share the Gospel in a post-Christian culture where faith is no longer assumed? For the next few weeks, we’ll be talking about that very thing. This week we are starting with a topic that has to be addressed first in this effort: truth. How do we stand on the reality of truth in a culture that rejects such notions? Let’s talk about it.

The Way that Seems Right

Have you ever found yourself wishing we could go back to a simpler time in the past? You know, one where neighbors talked and actually knew each other better. Where kids could be sent out to play all day without worrying about where they were or what they were doing. Where so many marriages didn’t end in divorce. Where men were expected and allowed to be men, and women were expected and allowed to be women. One where the country wasn’t so polarized by politics; where the political left and the political right at least both loved America, and the ideas the nation stands for. Where most people went to church and you could pray and talk about the Bible in schools and in public, and the people who didn’t already believe it responded with repentance rather than persecution. 

Of course, that idealized time from some imagined, Hollywood-brushed fantasy of our nation’s past never really existed in anything other than movies. Every season of our history has had its benefits and its challenges. Kids could play far and wide in the 1970s and 80s, but most of them were latchkey kids who are still working through the relational and emotional scars that left on them. If you go further back than that, life was good if you were white and male, but racism or sexism against everyone else was so common that we should hardly wish for those days to return. Much before that and life was generally so much harder without access to the full range of modern conveniences available to us that most of us wouldn’t make it. 

Yes, there have been seasons when most people went to church, but the last twenty years or so have revealed that a great many of the people who were going to church didn’t really believe any of it. They were only there for the social credits they were receiving. They forced their kids to go so their family could meet with cultural expectations, but never actually taught or modeled the goodness of the Gospel for them. This created a whole bunch of churches filled with members who weren’t actually followers of Jesus, and a whole generation of kids who turned their back on the church and the faith at the first chance they got—usually in college—in favor of just about anything else. 

Nevertheless, it is true that being a follower of Jesus today isn’t quite as smooth of a cultural experience as it once was. In most places—our own little community notwithstanding—you don’t gain any social benefits from church membership. In many places it will actually hurt your social standing. When it comes to sharing the Gospel, the basic biblical knowledge that could once be assumed, allowing us to start fairly far down the path of salvation with a person, is simply not there. Rather than starting with the gentle reminder that we are all sinners before God and that Jesus sacrificed His life for us so that we can live in Him, we have to start with much more philosophically foundational ideas like the existence of God in the first place or the reality of truth. 

While ours has never been a “Christian” nation as some would argue, and certainly not in any kind of an official capacity, we were nonetheless founded on ideas that only ever came from a single worldview source: Christianity. Our nation doesn’t make sense apart from Christianity. And because of this, even when genuine faithfulness was in fairly short supply, our culture was pretty thoroughly Christian in its basic worldview assumptions and beliefs. As I said, that made sharing the Gospel and living out our faith in public a whole lot easier than it ever was in most of the rest of the world, not to mention human history. Today, though, that’s simply not the case. We live in the midst of a culture that is post-Christian. It was Christian, but then moved to a kind of atheism for a while in the first decade of this century, yet that was quickly found to be wanting. Now it is moving back in the direction of theism, but it remains a very open question what kind of theism will be embraced. And there are no guarantees that historic, Christian theism is going to come out on top of the pile. 

Yet for all that may be the case, if you are a follower of Jesus, our call and command to share the Gospel remains unchanged. We still live with Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations. We still live with Peter’s call to always be prepared to give an answer for the reason for the hope that we have. Some of the built-in cultural assumptions that made this a fairly straightforward exercise in the past may not be there any longer, but that only means we are facing the same situation in terms of keeping our Lord’s commands that our brothers and sisters in the earliest church experienced and they changed the world. So then, how can we get this right? How can we be faithful to Jesus’ instructions when faith isn’t assumed? 

For the next few weeks, that is exactly the question I want to tackle together in a new teaching series called, When Faith Isn’t Assumed. As we move forward through this series, we are going to talk about some of the things we need to know and some of the approaches we need to take if we are going to be faithful and effective in our efforts to share the Gospel in a world like ours. This morning as we get started, we are going to take a look at the centrality of truth to this whole effort. The reason for this is that our post-Christian culture is also a post-truth culture. It’s not simply that our culture rejects the idea of a God who is true and worthy of following; it rejects the very notion that truth is something we can actually know in the first place. If we don’t start there, we are putting the cart before the horse in a way that is only going to lead to frustration for both us and them. 

If we are going to talk about the nature and reality of truth with another person who does not believe in that concept, there are several places in the Scriptures we could turn. We could point to the very beginning where God is clearly established as the grounding and foundation of all reality. Nothing exists apart from Him, and so, obviously, all truth is objectively determined by Him. We could talk about Jesus’ bold claim to be the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one gets to God who doesn’t go through Him. But for someone who doesn’t believe in God in the first place, much less the reliability or authority of the Scriptures, those kinds of arguments aren’t going to carry much weight. We need to start with something entirely more basic than that. We need to start with something so obvious that no one could rationally deny its truthfulness. Well, when we are looking for ideas in the Scriptures that are generic and observationally obvious, there’s no better place to turn than Proverbs.

The collection of Proverbs in the Bible, most of which were composed by King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, offer one piercing description after another of how the world works, all things being equal. They are designed to be short, pithy, and memorable wise sayings, but also ideas that invite long, deep, and careful reflection. Wisdom comes by both channels. They don’t describe how things are going to work in every single situation we will ever face, but they are going to ultimately prove correct in most of them. In terms of engaging with someone with a post-Christian mindset, the collection of proverbs is a great place to start because so many of them are so generically true that even someone who rejects the very idea of God is going to have to concede that not everything in the Bible is untrustworthy, unreliable garbage. 

We could really pick just about anywhere in the Proverbs to start making that point, but if you have your copy of the Scriptures handy, turn with me to Proverbs 16, and let me show you a couple of examples. Look at Proverbs 16:2, for instance: “All a person’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs motives.” Now, a person may not believe in God at all, sure, but it’s nonetheless true that we almost always think what we want to do is the right thing to do. We can justify and sell ourselves on just about anything. When it comes to what you want to do, there is no better salesman than you. How about v. 8? “Better a little with righteousness than great income with injustice.” We know what’s true even if we don’t always want to admit it. How many times have you heard a story whether on the page or on the screen where the rich people are the bad guys who ultimately get brought down, while the poor people are the ones who are good? And v. 18: “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.” You might have heard that idea phrased like this: “Pride cometh before a fall,” but that’s not actually the wording in the Scriptures. That’s a condensed version of the King James wording. 

Those are just the kinds of things we find in the Proverbs. Let me direct your attention to one more here in chapter 16. Look down to v. 25: “There is a way that seems right to a person.” That echoes a bit the message in the first part of v. 2. There is a way we think is right. We look at it, evaluate it, and conclude it is a path we can safely walk down. Whether this is because we are merely justifying something to ourselves that no one else really thinks is right, or because we sincerely and genuinely believe it to be the right way to go doesn’t really matter here. We see this way and it seems to us to be right. You’ve been there before. I’ve been there before. We know this is the case. 

Let me see, though, if I can put this in slightly different terms that might ring with some familiarity to this idea of truth we are tackling this morning. There is a way that seems true to us. We feel like we can safely and successfully follow our hearts in order to wind up where we want to be. It is our truth, and we are going to live out our truth regardless of what anyone else thinks, because that is where our hearts are leading us. Could there be a more culturally resonant idea than that to be found anywhere in the Scriptures? This is the mantra of Disney in a nutshell “There is a way that seems right to a person.” Yes, there absolutely is. 

The challenge here comes when we go to the other side of this proverb. “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.” That way may seem right, but it does not lead us anywhere good. In fact, it does the opposite. It leads us somewhere we very much do not want to go. It may seem true to us, but just because an idea seems true doesn’t mean that it is true. We are easily convinced otherwise, but reality’s walls tend to hold firm no matter how much we might want them to bend. 

And as much as we might want to think it doesn’t really matter all that much if someone buys into a false idea as long as no one else is hurt by it, this kind of thinking is wrong on two counts. The first is that ideas have consequences. All ideas have consequences. It matters whether or not you believe people were all uniquely, but equally created in the image of a God who loves them versus that they were created by random, blind, indifferent chance. In the one case all people have inherent value that must be honored. In the other case, any value they have is artificially created, a setup that tends to go very badly for the weakest, most vulnerable segment of a society. It is not only true that all ideas have consequences, but bad ideas have victims. Letting someone hold a bad idea without correction or at least an intentional, if gentle, challenge because you don’t want to be judgmental will leave that idea to victimize someone. Maybe it won’t be you, but it will be someone. And if you left the idea unchallenged, you will have played a role in the victimization of whoever does end up on its receiving end. 

The second reason this common cultural thinking is wrong is that Jesus called us to love everybody. It is not loving to leave someone convinced of an idea that is wrong and will ultimately lead to their death. That death may not be an immediate, physical one that is the direct result of their ideas, but the judgment of God and eternal death of Hell is nonetheless a very serious matter. That’s something everyone is under apart from Christ because of their willingness to accept bad, untrue ideas. 

Paul talks about this with the Roman believers. The problem with committing ourselves to a way that seems right and true to us, but which is not actually rooted in anything true is that this gradually begins to corrupt our thinking. The longer we remain intellectually and even emotionally committed to ideas that aren’t true, the harder time we have receiving and embracing what is true when we are presented with it. Listen to the warning Paul offered: “For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.” 

Lies are poisonous. They lead only to death. “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.” There are ideas that are true. There are ideas that are false. We generate many of the latter, but the former have their source in only one place, and that place is not us. All truth comes from the God whose character and command define reality. This source is external to us. Contrary to what our culture teaches and proclaims, truth does not come from within. If we are going to stand and faithfully share the Gospel in a post-Christian culture, we absolutely must understand this foundational idea: Truth does not come from within. The only way we will find it by looking in is if we are filled with the Spirit of the God who is the source of truth. Truth does not come from within. 

If this is the case, though, what are we supposed to do with this idea? Well, we start by making sure we are firm and clear on it ourselves. We need to make sure we are not buying into the lies our culture broadcasts about truth. Don’t ever tell someone to follow their heart. Don’t listen or contribute to talk about “my truth” or “your truth.” Always engage with the various media you take in with your worldview radar on. Listen carefully for ideas that are not true and consciously reject them. If you are watching something with your kids, take time to pause the show and explain to them that an idea just promoted is not true. Explain why it isn’t true. Invite them to think through with you what the consequences might be of accepting it as true. 

For instance, if “my truth” is that it is okay for me to punch people in the face when I disagree with them, I’m not going to have very many friends, and I’ll probably get myself arrested. If “your truth” is that children don’t matter and can be treated however you please, you are going to run into issues with rightly protective parents very quickly, and those interactions won’t go well for you. Those kinds of examples are called defeaters. They help to demonstrate that a particular idea can’t possibly be true. Ideas like that tend to come from us, and they are about as reliably true as the original idea that eating fruit from the tree God told us not to eat from wouldn’t really lead to our death. Truth doesn’t come from within. 

The other thing we are supposed to do with this idea is to share it. Okay, but how? I mean, isn’t the whole point of today that the world around us doesn’t accept that idea? What good is sharing it going to accomplish? The good it will accomplish is obvious. Telling people the truth is more loving than leaving them to believe a lie. Remember: “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.” Ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims. The goodness of doing this isn’t in question. The only thing that really matters is the how here, and this really matters a lot. 

I mentioned earlier Peter’s call for us to always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks for the reason for the hope that we have. If you are a follower of Jesus, that’s a command you are expected to follow. But as important as that part of the command is, the second part matters exceedingly more for our purposes this morning. We are to do that with gentleness and respect. No one was ever browbeat or coerced or otherwise forced into the kingdom of God. The truth is not a cudgel to be used for bashing our enemies over the heads. Peter makes clear that our kindness to our enemies can be the equivalent of dumping a load of hot coals over their heads, but that’s about as offensive as we can afford to get. God doesn’t ever force. He woos. If we aren’t gentle and respectful with others as we present the truth about the truth to them, we’ll never make any progress. Honey catches many more flies than vinegar. 

We can lead them gently to the truth by asking clarifying questions and pointing to unavoidable truths. Why do you think that truth could be different for one person than another? Are there any truths that are truly universal, or are they all relative? How do you evaluate truth claims to determine whether they are relative or absolute? Could following your heart ever get you into trouble? If following your heart leads you astray, who should you listen to then? Could it be the case that we don’t actually believe truth is relative, we simply don’t want to be wrong ourselves? Is there anyone whose ideas on some matter you really do think are wrong whereas you remain steadfastly convinced that yours are correct? We generally believe there are scientific truths. Could there also be psychological truths or philosophical truths or even religious truths? These kinds of questions and others like them can be very helpful in our efforts to help another person see that truth isn’t just something we believe or can create for ourselves. It is something external to us that we adjust our lives to or don’t and live with the consequences. Truth doesn’t come from within. 

If those kinds of questions don’t get you very far, you could always use a parable. Jesus loved those. There’s a story about a group of blind men who encounter an elephant. Each man comes into contact with a different part of the animal, and all of them insist the nature of the beast is one way while all the other ways are incorrect—that is, untrue. The original purpose of that parable was to make the point that none of the men are entirely wrong, but none of them are entirely right either. They are all engaging with only a portion of the truth. That’s all any of us ever experiences. What we need, then, is the humility to see that we can only ever see an incomplete picture so that we will give up insisting that only one thing could be true. 

A bit of thought, though, reveals something interesting and entirely more consistent with the understanding of truth we find in the Scriptures. You see, while all of the blind men were both correct and incorrect, there was something absolutely true about the elephant and its nature. And, while none of the blind men had access to that truth, the person telling the story does. The storyteller in this case assumes on an ability to know what the blind men do not. And in this, he is confident that he is correct whereas all of the blind men are only partially correct at best. In other words, he really does think there is a truth that is absolute, he just doesn’t think you know it. He does. But how does he know that he isn’t one of the blind men himself? To insist that all truth is relative is to make an absolute truth claim. Can it be absolutely true that all truths are relative? No, because that is a self-defeating proposition. The truth is that truth doesn’t come from within. 

One more thing here. Knowing the truth—especially given that it doesn’t come from within us, but by revelation from God—doesn’t make us better than anyone else. At all. Knowing that we are bearers of the truth should make us extraordinarily humble. Humility is fundamentally about honesty and truthfulness, after all. If truth doesn’t come from within, but from a God who loves us, then knowing what’s true should make us profoundly grateful because we didn’t come by that ourselves. It was given to us. And if it was given to us, then it can be given to others. It can be given by God—the same God who gave it to us. But He does a great deal of that giving through us as we follow His pattern of lovingly, gently, compassionately revealing what’s true to those around us, helping them to see what we have been helped to see, namely that truth doesn’t come from within. By this, we can help to free them from the burden of creating and sustaining truth for their lives and in the lives of the people around them. We can help to redirect them away from the way that merely seems right to them, but whose end is the way to death. We can help them walk with humble boldness with us on the road that leads to life. 

If we are going to share the Gospel in a post-Christian culture that doesn’t assume any kind of faith, this is where we have to start. It may be harder in some ways than what we used to be able to do, but that just makes the satisfaction of experiencing Gospel success with the Spirit’s help all the sweeter. Truth doesn’t come from within. It comes from the God who loves us. Let’s live and proclaim this great truth.