For all of my adult life I have pursued a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. That has meant reading the Bible and considering its message as the basis for truth. Many in our day don’t believe truth exists, at least not absolute truth. The idea that absolute truth doesn’t exist is foolish, considering that the statement: There is no absolute truth is a claim of absolute truth! Of course absolute truth exists. The Law of Gravity, for example, always works. All truth claims are absolute. If I say my name is Chris Marshall either I am or I am not Chris Marshall. The statement is absolutely true or absolutely false. While we may debate about who I am, the absolute truth is I am someone, and I either am or I am not Chris Marshall.
Folks who claim no absolute truth exists say more about their desires than about truth. Jesus Christ made many claims that I wish were not true, because my life would be easier if He hadn’t made them or if they weren’t true. For example, He claimed to be “…the way, the truth and the life..” and that “…no one comes to the Father except through Me.” (See John 14:6 in the Bible.) While it would be far easier for me and for all of us, if “all paths lead to the top of the mountain,” that is it would be easier if whatever anyone believes when it comes to philosophy and religion were true. But either what Jesus said is true or false. We can’t simply say, because I don’t want something to be true no absolute truth exists. That’s not a statement of truth. It’s wishful thinking. What we must say is, “I don’t think ‘X’ is true, but I must investigate to determine whether it is or not.”
The age of reason, the Enlightenment of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, convinced us that truth would lead us to a better world, perhaps a perfect one. In the twentieth and now the twenty-first centuries we’ve realized that such a truth claim was not true. Reason has not won the victory over violence, disease, poverty and the like. Many have abandoned the quest for truth, because it didn’t lead where we were promised it would. The truth is we abandoned the quest for truth when we limited truth to the things that can be seen, heard, tasted, touched or smelled. Science is a wonderful endeavor when used within the limits of science, but as a religion science has failed miserably. Since science can’t investigate an uncaused cause for the creation of the universe, “science” tells us one does not exist. Since science cannot investigate the occurrence of miracles, which by definition are beyond the natural, “science” tells us miracles don’t exist. The truth is “science” doesn’t tell us anything. SCIENTISTS DO! Science is invaluable when used to investigate natural phenomena, but when we use it to investigate the origin of the universe, for example, or the causes of poverty or violence, science always falls short, because these are matters beyond the scope of science.
But not beyond the scope of truth. All truth is not relative. Absolute truth exists. As we investigate the cause of the universe, or the reasons for poverty and violence we go beyond the scope of science, but a cause exists for the creation of the universe, and causes exist for poverty and violence. These are absolute realities that have absolute causes. We must step into the realms of philosophy and faith when we seek to discover them, but discover them we can. I find it quite interesting that many of the modern atheists are so passionate about their faith. (Yes, atheism is a faith, because it’s basic premise: there is no God cannot be proven scientifically.) To claim there is no God, or no truth, because one doesn’t want there to be is quite a non-scientific approach. As one Christian apologist debating an ardent atheist has put it in summing up the atheist’s claims: There is no God and you hate Him. How does one “hate” a being who doesn’t exist? Reason tells us we cannot hate that which doesn’t exist.
My point is that as leaders, who are also Christians in the twenty-first century, you and I must hold the truth together with love as the Apostle Paul reminded us in Ephesians 4. When we speak the truth, we must speak it in love. People don’t want to hear us, because we believe in Jesus. They won’t hear us for sure when we yell or act belligerently as we offer the truth to people. In my experience as one who knows the truth, and who has been set free by it as Jesus promised I would be, when I speak the truth in love people listen. They may still scoff at my conclusions. They may discount my claims, but most will walk away with a different attitude about me than they do of many with whom they have argued, because they will have experienced the love of Jesus.
I don’t claim to speak the truth in love perfectly. None of us do. But we have the great opportunity as leaders who follow Jesus to show people that we are not “fools” simply because we believe the truth, or because we believe truth exists. The debate between Christians and those of other religions and no religion is going to increase in our culture, because of the commonly held belief that absolute truth doesn’t exist. We won’t win the debate through reason alone, but we must not abandon reason. We must not abandon good science. We must not rely on anger or derision to put down those with whom we disagree. That is the way of the world. I’m amazed at how often people who have weak points YELL. When we speak the truth, we don’t need to yell. In fact, speaking the truth in love, requires that we remain calm in our passion. That doesn’t mean we speak in monotones or in barely audible voices. It means that our passion exudes love, not anger. It means as we speak the truth, we let the assurance of the truth compel rather than the decibel level of our words.
While I wrote this post for all of you, I have written it as a reminder most of all to myself. It’s always easier to yell, especially for me. I was brought up that way. It’s always easier to speak the truth without love, or to love without considering the truth. We have neither of those luxuries in a world that’s moving farther and farther away from both truth and love in the name of “tolerance” and “acceptance”. (I put those words in quotes, because of the way our culture has refined them both over the past decade or so. Tolerance means acceptance in our culture, but tolerance is NOT acceptance, it is a willingness to put up with another’s viewpoint. It is speaking the truth in love, rather than dumbing down the truth, or reacting out of hate. Acceptance is not agreement, but rather demonstrating love and good will to those around us, even when we disagree.)
Leadership is sorely tested in this day in which everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes. When we cannot appeal to truth alone as a virtue on which to base our lives, because many around us disagree on whether truth exists, we must continue to learn and live the truth in love, because that marriage of truth and love is compelling. It will be even more so as people become more and more disagreeable and intolerant of those who contend that truth exists and exists absolutely. We will be challenged as we live the truth in love. Remember, the only one who ever did that perfectly–Jesus–was executed by those He came to save. Jesus reminded us that if the world rejected Him, it will reject us. Don’t surprised when you’re rejected, but be sure when it happens it is for speaking the truth in love. The Good News of Jesus has always been offensive to those living in darkness, living outside of the truth, but it’s the only hope of the world. We must continue to speak it and live it in love as He commanded. While it will become increasingly difficult to do so, it is the only solution to a world disconnected from God’s truth and love. As we live the truth in love we shine light, God’s light, on the darkness, and that IS our calling from Him.
Here’s to leading better by speaking the truth in love-today!