Reframing God—Is God Obsessed with “Truth”?
When you look at the lives of many Christians, it would be easy to assume that God is obsessed with moral principles and right/wrong distinctions. Many Christians assume it’s their role to be the moral police of the world.
So is Truth absolute? Is it relative? What if it’s neither and both?
Jesus didn’t write a book
Isn’t it interesting that we don’t have a book written for us by Jesus?
We have the Quran from Mohammed, the Buddhist sacred texts, the Book of Mormon written by Joseph Smith, to name a few. But nothing written by Jesus.
It begs the question: If Jesus was so concerned with us knowing a set of principles, why didn’t he sit down and write them out so they could be preserved and passed on? Instead, we have the Scriptures written by approximately 40 authors over 1,500 years. As much as we don’t like to admit it, the Scriptures are full of contradictions and discrepancies. But contrary to what many believe, I think that adds to their credibility rather than detracts from it.
Especially in the Gospels.
There are many details throughout the Gospels that the authors do not seem to agree on. This speaks to me how they all experienced something, Someone, that radically reoriented their lives, and they had to write about it. But they didn’t sit down ahead of time to conspire about what they would say. They all remembered the details a little bit differently because they subjectively experienced this Person and couldn’t not share what that meant to them. If they were conjuring up stories don’t you think they would have convened a committee to align all of the details?
So back to the point about Jesus, himself, not writing a book. I’m not saying that Jesus wasn’t interested in conveying truth. I’m certain he was! But think about where Jesus chose to deposit his message, his teaching, his truth instead of the written page—he embedded it in a community. And not a community of people just like him. It was a community of men and women from all walks of life and social classes. For Jesus, truth wasn’t a set of principles to memorize, rather a relational, transformational reality to experience, embody, and express. It wasn't abstract and didactic. It was concrete and communal.
I was sitting with some friends at the beach a few years ago for a 4th of July celebration. One of my friends made a comment that “We all have our own truth.” Another friend disagreed, stating, “But there’s definitely absolute truth. It’s not just up to each of us to decide.” They debated for a few minutes before they both pulled me into the debate.
“Chris, tell her that truth is absolute.”
“No, Chris, tell her that truth is relative.”
It wasn't a heated debate. It was good-natured and respectful, but neither were budging. And both were partially right. And that’s exactly what I told them.
I said, “The way I see it, you’re both right and you’re both missing something. Truth is more than relative and absolute. It’s a Person and it’s relational.” Jesus himself said, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32, CEB). Many think he was talking about the Bible. Maybe he was including that, but that’s a messy one because the Bible can be used to forward many untruthful agendas. But Jesus told us exactly what he meant in John 14:6. He said, “I am the way (path), the truth, and the life.” Truth is not a set of principles--just ask scientists how many theories have been “proven” only to later be transcended or even overturned throughout the centuries. Truth is a person who is absolute love and relates to us precisely where we are on our journeys. Absolute and relative. Constant and relational.
That’s why the Apostle Paul says that the people of the church were living Epistles with truth “written on [their]hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:2). That’s why Ezekiel prophesied that God would take out their heart of stone (the tablets that the “principles” or law were written on) and give them a heart of flesh (see Ezekiel 36:26). And God’s words through Jeremiah were to “put my instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. They will no longer need to teach each other to say, ‘Know the Lord!’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest...”
(Jeremiah 31:33-34).
Jesus meets us, heals us, and relates to us as living truth, within our unfolding lives and on our journeys for which he is the path. He is the absolute, and his absolute is love.