That Is Truth?

Sermon: Truth and Trust – Borden

Introduction

There are times when reading the Bible out loud that you have to take a wild guess at the proper inflection, and today is one of those. I don’t know how to correctly read the question: “what is truth?”

This passage comes from the Easter story. Jesus had been arrested by the Jewish religious authorities who wanted to get rid of Him – they didn’t like that Jesus challenged their authority, embarrassed them in debates, and that he had a large following. But those religious leaders couldn’t lawfully execute Jesus. For that, they needed the Roman government, represented there by Governor Pontius Pilate.

This put Pilate in predicament. He had no love for the Jewish rulings priests and didn’t want to do their dirty work. But he also didn’t want to make a decision that would lead to riots and instability – it was his job to prevent those kinds of things. So when Jesus was brought to Pilate, Pilate had one main question: “Are you the king of the Jews?”

All four Gospels include this question because Jesus’ answer is so important for understanding what a Christian is. Pilate is wondering if Jesus is a political leader. Is He going to cause an uprising? Pilate didn’t care how much Jesus had offended the ruling priests or the religious details, he cared about stopping rebellions.

Jesus expressed to Pilate that He had His own very different kingdom from the one Pilate ruled. Jesus had come to rescue people, bringing them from Satan’s kingdom of sin and death into God’s kingdom of love and life. Jesus had no interest in inciting violence against the earthly interests of Rome.

But what Pilate heard was “I have a kingdom” which meant Jesus must consider himself a king! And Jesus’s answer to that will be something we spend some time with shortly: “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Then comes the question I’m not sure how to say correctly.

Is it “what is truth?” – in a thoughtful, pondering kind of way, like Pilate is interested in the question philosophically?

Is it “what is truth?” – in a frustrated, confused kind of way, like Pilate is grappling with the difficulty of ever knowing what is true?

Is it “what is truth? – in the dismissive tone of a politician how knows how to make the truth be whatever he says it is?

I suspect Pilate didn’t mean it the first way – as an honest inquiry. But that’s how I’d like us to mean it today, because this is a question that deserves some of our attention.

“What is truth?” is a question that is getting harder to answer. I look around and what I see is that truth is slipping through our collective grasp.

As God’s people I believe we are called to prize truth, respect truth, speak truth, and try, in any way we can, to help truth flourish in our world. Jesus’ side is the side of truth.

So, for the month of June we are going to explore truth and trust. Today I’ll start with the loss of truth and trust we’re experiencing before we look at the Biblical call to truth and some practical ways we that we can be part of helping truth and trust make a comeback.

Falling On Hard Times

So, starting with the state of truth: I think we’ve been on the road leading away from valuing truth for a while. I remember way back in 2005 when comedian Stephen Colbert coined the word “truthiness”, which meant “truth that comes from the gut” rather than books or data or evidence. “Truthiness” was recognized as Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2006.

As time has gone on all kinds of polls and surveys have found that people in Canada and the United States are becoming less and less convinced about the truth of what they are being told, and have declining trust in the government, media, and just about every other major institution, including the Church.

As with many issues, the pandemic accelerated this problem. It varied a lot from place to place, but the choices that governments made about the degree and length of some public health rules and the sometimes inconsistent messages that came out of the medical and scientific establishment did not inspire confidence overall.

I don’t know what it was like to live in any jurisdiction other than this one, or how fair some of these criticisms are given the very difficult circumstances, but the results are what they are.

Based on very recent polls from what I think are reputable sources only a third of Canadians still believe that they live in a society where competent and effective people are in charge, when almost half thought this three years ago.

A majority of Canadians a few years back said they trusted their government to do what is right. Now that number is 43%.

At this time last year 44% of Canadians agreed with the statement “much of the information we receive from news organizations is false” and 52% agreed that “official government accounts of events can’t be trusted.”

And not only do we not trust our institutions, we don’t trust each other. Only one third of Canadians now believe that most people can be trusted.

This is a serious thing. What happens when those numbers get so low that when everybody’s phones start screeching to say that a wildfire is on its way, people refuse to evacuate because they decide it’s just “fake news?”

Or, at a different level, how can people thrive in life if they don’t feel like they can be confident in knowing anything or trusting anyone? That’s a recipe for dysfunction and despair.

I get it, though. How do you feel good about trusting people when you go through a week of terrible wildfires and hear that each day dozens people are still being caught having campfires and burning leaves?

And I get why people are more skeptical about what they are being told. Almost two years ago the city of Halifax bungled an attempt to remove a number of homeless people and shelters from a downtown park on a day that ended with chaos and tear gas. And I had this surreal experience where I watched video and read reports from local journalists on the ground, then I watched the official statements by the mayor and police chief. And those officials seemed to be describing some completely different event on some other planet, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Now I subscribe to local journalism to help make sure that we have people to tell us more than the official story.

I also get why major institutions are under scrutiny. I was doing a book study recently with some other pastors about transgender issues and I wanted to find more information and studies about what’s going on with the massive increase in young people identifying as trans. I’d like to think that I have above-average research skills, but I found it was incredibly difficult to find good information – I couldn’t easily judge whether a scientific finding or government report was factual and accurate or the product or a particular ideology or agenda.

It's hard to know what is true and who to trust. And it’s going to get harder. On top of social media and its powerful abilities to spread misinformation we now have artificial intelligence technologies that give anyone the ability to create very convincing fake images or video or audio with ease.

We could respond to this by throwing up our hands because the problem is too big, or becoming fearful about the future, but I don’t think that’s ever the posture that Jesus calls His Church to adopt.

Jesus said that, as His followers, we should be salt and light. A little bit of salt can preserve a lot of something that would have gone rotten. A little bit of light can overcome a lot of darkness. So let’s get our bearings about truth and trust from the Bible before I suggest a few practical things we can do to be on the side of truth and trust when we live as Jesus-followers.

Biblical Truth

So, back to Pilate’s question, “what is truth?” Today I’m going to use the definition that truth is what corresponds to reality. Truth is what is really going on. It’s not necessarily what most people think is going on – opinion and popularity has nothing to do with it. Truth is absolute – any actual truth is as true for me as it is for you.

That, of course, doesn’t mean that you and I perceive everything the same way. We might be in the same room and I feel hot and you feel cold. Some of you live with somebody who has a very different view of where the thermostat should be set than you do and you might have some major philosophical debates about whether it is true that it is much too cold in the house, or if it is true that you should just put on a sweater! But in that case it is still true that one person feels hot and true that the other person feels cold, there’s just no universal absolute truth about what the correct temperature of the house oughtto be.

I think it might actually surprise a lot of people to learn how important the concept of truth is to Christianity. I can imagine non-religious people assuming that Christians can’t be committed to truth that corresponds with reality if we believe in a supernatural all-powerful being, or miracles, or a human body that died and then returned to life three days later. Their worldview of materialism or naturalism rules those things out as possibilities that can be true.

But Christianity actually cares about a truth a great deal. It’s why we have a whole field of Christian thought called “apologetics” which is all about exploring questions brought about by history, science, Biblical studies, philosophy, and theology and making the case that Christian belief does correspond with reality, and that it actually does a better job of this than any other worldview.

It’s one thing to criticize Christianity, but it’s another thing to hold up against it a different worldview that better explains where we came from, what it means to be human, how to address our human flaws and weaknesses, how to live well in this world, and where we should look for a sense of purpose. The Christian tradition has a great deal of truth it can rely on to make its claims.

No Christian who takes the Bible seriously can miss the value placed on knowing and speaking truth.

You see this in the Old Testament Law. Commandment Number 9 of the 10 Commandments is thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbour. False words can do a great deal of damage, and many other verses repeat this command.

This is also all over the book of Proverbs, including Proverbs 12:

Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.

Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil, but those who promote peace have joy.

The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.

And in the New Testament we see many other examples, including Jesus’ teaching not to swear oaths, which is expanded on in the book of James where we read: “Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.”

Christians should be committed to truth at all times, and never swear some special oath that we are for sure telling the truth thistime. We are called to live and speak in such a way that a simple “yes” or “no” is all that somebody else ever needs to hear from us to trust that it is the truth. And yes, if you were wondering, it is weird that the tradition of swearing on a Bible in a courtroom ever took root in some places given that the words in the Bible don’t seem to support doing that!

So, the Bible prizes personal honesty. And, when it comes to the New Testament in particular, the Biblical authors, in my view, clearly chose to present their accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as true – as something real, historical, and accurate. They include many little details about people and places and events that would have served as evidence to early readers and are still helpful today in showing their authenticity.

The book of Luke, for example, begins this way:

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

The Gospels aren’t history or biography in exactly the same way that we would write in those genres today, but the point I’m driving at is I don’t read the New Testament and think that I’m being presented with something that somebody thought was “spiritually” true but not “actually” true. It’s offered to us with the claim that it is, in every way that matters, the truth. And that claim has altered the course of human history more than any other single thing.

Living The Truth

Now, this would be enough of a foundation to build on if the Christian idea of truth was limited to knowledge and trying to judge which truth claims are the most factually accurate or historically reliable. Those things matter, but when we bring it back to Jesus we see that He goes a step farther than that.

In John’s Gospel, where truth is a foundational idea, we read of Jesus makes statements like “I am the way, the truth, and the life” and “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” And then, in today’s passage: “I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

I am the way, the truth, and the life. If you hold to my teaching you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.

These teachings tell me that truth, to Jesus, goes beyond knowledge and belief – truth is something you live. That’s why God did not simply send information into the world – He sent a person who claimed to embody the truth. Jesus taught things that were true, but, maybe more importantly, he showed us how to live while walking in truth.

I find science and history and philosophy and scripture interesting and try to learn more wherever I can, but you can never learn enough of even one of these disciplines. You can never be sure you have the truth by just accumulating enough knowledge. To have any confidence that you know what is true, you have live accordingly and put it to the test.

Jesus came, in the flesh, to be a witness to most life-altering truths a person can know: that God is real, that God loves this world, that God cares about each person, that there is life to be had beyond this life, and that people must turn away from their rebellion against God and submit their lives to Him or they will remain lost and enslaved to sin.

But Jesus didn’t say we simply need to accept these things as being true. He said “if you hold to my teachings you will know the truth” and “everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” Living in the way of Jesus, obeying the commands of scripture, and listening for God’s voice – these are the actions that put Jesus’ truth to the test.

The book of 1st John has some similar things to say:

“Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.”

Professing faith in Jesus isn’t the same as having the truth – we need to do what Jesus says!

And one more: “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth.”

The truth Jesus talks about must be integrated with life so that what we say we believe matches how we actually behave. These things are brought together by learning to listen to and obey the voice of God.

A lot of people miss this. They think Christianity is entirely about what you believe, and fail to understand that if what you believe isn’t expressed by how you live than you don’t really believe it. It’s why the author G.K. Chesterton once said that “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”

Living Truthfully

So, let’s say that this all true for the moment – that truth is not simply something you know but is something to be lived out with God’s help. How can you and I live for truth in a world that is letting truth slip away? I’ll follow the three sections of the Bible I used earlier and give an answer from the Law, the Proverbs, and from Jesus.

1) Practice radical honesty. No bearing false witness. Christians should be people who go above and beyond when it comes to speaking the truth and being careful not to mislead anyone. This certainly means no overt lying or deception. But it also means being careful when it comes to things we just don’t know much about. Christians are tricked into repeating lies and falsehoods they hear online or from other people all the time – they come across something that sounds right or seems to prove their point so they simply believe it. If you’re not sure – if you haven’t checked – don’t spread it around.

If you have people you care about and you would like them to encounter Jesus don’t undermine the truth of the Gospel by repeating or sharing things that turn out to be made up, myths, or conspiracy theories. Here’s one piece of good advice I’ve seen about things you read or watch online – pretend that every day is April 1st. On April fool’s day lots of websites and companies put out pretend stories or fake the launch of made-up products to try to be funny, and most people know that they shouldn’t believe anything they read or watch that day. That’s a good default setting – pretend every day is April 1st!

2) Seek knowledge.

Here’s a selection from Proverbs 18:

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.

To answer before listening— that is folly and shame.

The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.

Many Christians do not read or study the Bible on a regular basis. They claim to strongly believe what the Bible says, but they don’t know very much about what it says. That’s a strange and embarrassing contradiction.

I would think that people who value truth would be humble, curious, and eager to learn about all kinds of things, but especially about the writings we believe God has given us to help us know Him. There are endless ways to grow our knowledge in our modern era – what do you use to grow your knowledge outside of the occasional church service?

And let me add a little addendum to this: Christians should be hard to insult or offend. We’re in a weird place right now in our world where the political right is back to banning books and the political left is trying to label all sorts of disagreements as offensive hate speech. Truth gets lost if we prevent people from speaking or refuse to ever listen because we’re so easily offended. I think Christians should care very much about freedom of speech and expression and not be wimps who want to shut down anyone who disagrees with us or makes us uncomfortable.

3) Listen for God’s Voice. Jesus said “everybody on the side of truth listens to me.” It’s not enough to be knowledgeable. Truth is meant to be lived, and lived with God’s guidance. People need more than facts and information – we need connection to God and to live accordingly. Jesus showed us what that looked like – he was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. He lived truth. And what did that do for Him? It made Jesus as joyful and alive as any person has ever been. It gave Him the courage to stand up to anyone who tried to harm others or misled them about God’s love for them. It gave Him passion and purpose.

These are the things we should seek, and that we should expect to see more and more when we live the truth. So we must listen for God’s voice. In quiet moments where we pause. In quiet prayer for a few minutes here or a half hour there. In small groups with people we try to walk with in life and faith. In the advice of mature people we trust. Listen for God’s voice.

Conclusion

What is truth? Pontius Pilate asked the question and then didn’t bother to listen for an answer from Jesus. He went right back to the business of doing whatever served his personal interest. That’s pretty much how things are going today, too. May it not be so for follows of Jesus, who said that everyone on the side of truth listens to Him.

We have more to explore in this series, including the role of “the Father of lies” in trying to deceive us and how to try to live at peace in a world where people don’t just have different opinions of things but wildly different facts.

But I hope that you can carry a couple of thoughts with you from here. One is the tremendous value placed on truth in the Bible and by the historic Christian community. That’s a legacy we should want to add to, even if it’s at odds with how things are going in our world.

And the other thing is that truth is more than knowledge or information or belief – it’s something we live, God helping us. To have confidence and grow in your faith it must be lived. And to help nudge our world in the right direction it must be lived.

May we live out the truth of Jesus Christ by doing what He taught us and listening to His voice.