Stewards of the Truth

   As Christians, we have a duty to be the bearers of God’s truth.  We are supposed to present it to the world boldly in both word and, more importantly, in deed.  Further, we are called to be wise stewards of everything God gives us.  Everything means everything, including the truth.  What does it mean to be to be a good steward of the truth?

   First, we must know the truth.  Imagine trying to manage a parcel of land you have never seen.  Trying to maximize your harvest is going to be a difficult game of trial and error.  So many potential issues can be understood and resolved by simply seeing the land in person.  Likewise, when it comes to matters of the truth, the better we know the truth, the better we will be at wisely presenting it.  

   Second, don’t overstate or understate the truth.  This is a huge temptation when speaking to others about our beliefs.  We want to make things sound better than they really are.  Jesus was never afraid to tell people the hard truths.  He would rightly tell people that his yoke was easy and his burden was light.  Meanwhile, he made it clear that the price of following him was nothing short of everything that we are.  What Jesus taught us is amazingly good news, and he doesn’t need us to spin it for him.

   Third, we must live the truth.  If I came proclaiming that eating vegetables was the only healthy way to live while eating a hamburger, would you not dismiss my word because of my actions?  In short, I am claiming the virtues of a lifestyle that I am not adhering to.  Ask yourself, “Does what I preach match my actions?”.  If you cannot say yes, then you need to change either your actions, your words, or both.

   The hard truth is that we are all hopelessly mired in sin, and our only hope comes from God’s saving grace provided through the sacrifice by his perfect, sinless son, Jesus.  The worst thing we can do as ambassadors of God’s truth is to betray the gospel by trying to project a false image of Christianity that isn’t real.

   

“In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.” -Titus 2:7-8

On the Heart of Every Man

   Eighty some odd years ago, 3 graduate students were up late at night discussing weighty concepts of philosophy and religion.  One of these men, an atheist, was left with a tough problem.  He spent many nights wrestling with that problem until he finally gave in.  He couldn’t find any other explaination for it other than God.  This is what ultimately brought him to his knees, and so he gave his life to Jesus.  The man’s name was Clive Staples Lewis, and he went on to be one of the most influential Christian philosophers and writers of the twentieth century.  One of the problems that he could not handle was the existence of universal morality.

   Why was universal morality such a problem for CS Lewis?  Well, first we must understand what universal morality is.  Simply put, it is a standard of right and wrong that applies to everyone regardless of race, color, or creed.  It doesn’t matter if you believe in it or not, it is the law you must all live by.

   Does such a thing exist?  Let’s examine a fairly simple concept, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Now that is a Jewish and Christian concept, but is it a universal one?  Bahá'í, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Humanism, Islam, Jainism, Mohism, Platonism, Scientology, Sikhism, Taoism, and Wicca all contain this rule in some form or another.  Almost every faith we know of contains some form of the so called Golden Rule as an absolute moral truth that should be followed.  If that is not a universal moral truth, then I have no idea what is.

   So, why is that important? Well, it points us toward two objective truths.  First, an absolute moral law exists, and it is very difficult to explain how a law like this exists without also admitting to the existence of an all powerful, all knowing, and all loving lawgiver. Second, that law is somehow being made known to everyone in the world.  The amazing awareness of the golden rule across all creeds and cultures speaks boldly to the idea that God’s moral law is literally written on the hearts of every man, woman, and child.

   As you can see, the scope of it is simply amazing.  God, the creator of the universe, has touched each and every one of us in a very personal way.  Now all we must do is ask ourselves, “What kind of God would make himself known to us in such a bold and intimate manner?”  Hopefully, like me, you will see that this is a God that is both sovereign and amazing, and yet gentle and loving.  This is a God who is exactly like Jesus describes his Father to be.

   “Jesus replied:  ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’” - Matthew 22:37-40

Objective Truth

   What does it mean to claim an objective truth?  It sounds complicated, but really, it isn’t.  If I make a statement like, “There is a table in the middle of my living room.”, I am making a claim to an objective truth.  My statement is either true for everyone, or it is false for everyone.  If my statement was subjective, then it could be true for some people and false for other people.  This leads to a situation where the one person could be standing on the table while someone else walks through the middle of the room as if there was no table.  So the idea that a claim to truth is not objective leads to all sorts of silly situations.

  Objective truths form the core of what we believe as Christians.  We don’t believe that Jesus is the truth, the life, and the way for SOME people.  We believe that sin and the need for salvation is universal to everyone, and that Jesus is the only hope of salvation for all people.  Our beliefs are not just a set of comforting thoughts that help us cope with the harsh reality of life, they are a set of objective claims to be tested.

   This is not just my way of thinking, the apostles and their early disciples went around making all sorts of objective claims.  They claimed to follow the Messiah, the only son of God.  They claimed the tomb was empty.  They claimed that though he was executed in a public display, they saw him alive.  More importantly, they made all of these claims in front of the very people who could disprove them if they were false, and they persisted in these claims even in the face of certain death.  These men were willing to stake their very lives on objective claims about what they had witnessed.

    It is important to understand what the disciples were willing to die for, because we have let uncertainty and doubt erode our beliefs.  We live in an age that wants to believe that truth is subjective, and that religion is nothing more than a set of personal beliefs.  People want comforting words and thoughts that let them feel good about themselves without having to repent and change.  Anyone who claims that something is wrong or proclaims the beliefs of others to be false is being intolerant.

   Christ did not die so that we could have happy thoughts and lukewarm beliefs.  He came that we might have life in abundance and that we would be ambassadors of his truth.  We are called to be salt and light to a dark and tasteless world.  We do this by showing love to those in need.  If a man is trapped in the darkness of his own lies, we show him love by giving him the light of truth.  Always seek to deliver that truth with gentleness and respect, but never compromise  it.

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” - John 8:31-32

Boxes and Buckets

Imagine you are faced with a problem that seems so big that it is impossible for you to handle.  If you try to look at the whole thing, you mind just recoils from the size of it.  It is too big for you to handle, so what do you do?  You break it up.  You find some small piece of the problem that you can handle, and start there.  You work on small piece after small piece, and slowly you whittle impossibly big problem into smaller ones.  

   Now, this won’t work for every problem, but it is more of an illustration of how people deal with large and difficult problems without it overwhelming us.  Generally speaking, this is how we deal with understanding God as well.  We say that God is infinite, but really that is just another way of saying really, really big.  God is too vast for us to comprehend as a whole, so we break him up into pieces we can deal with.  Then, we take these pieces and put them into neat little categories or “boxes”.  Into this box goes the “All Just God”, into that box goes the “All Loving God”, over there we have the “Holy God” and so on.

   This is what we mean when we talk about putting God into a box.  The problem is that by putting God into a box, we lose sight of the whole of who God is.  Rather than pursuing God, we are taking little pieces of God and turning those pieces into idols.  More importantly, by putting God into little boxes in our lives we are, in a fashion, cutting ourselves off from the whole of who God is, and all that he has in store for us.  

   So, here we are in an impossible situation.  God is simply too great for us to comprehend, and trying to break the problem up into smaller problems will invariably fail.  What then is the solution?  Imagine you have a bucket, and your job is to gather rain.  You take your bucket and you move around trying to catch as much rain as possible.  You see a spot where it seems the rain is heavier, so you move there.  When you get there, you see another spot that looks heavier, so you move again.  You spend so much time and energy chasing the rain, but surely there is a better way.  Maybe you need a bigger bucket.

   The reality is that we are the buckets, and the rain is everything that God has for us.  We spend so much time and energy chasing the rain, but if we stop chasing the rain, then our water drains out, and we have nothing.  The solution is to become a bigger bucket, but think about that for a second.  The process of reshaping a bucket to make it larger is going to be downright painful for the bucket.  As you grow in your understanding of who God is, you will be able to catch more and more of the rain that he has for you.  You will see more and more of His love, patience, justice, and kindness at work in the world.  The process of growing in Christ is often uncomfortable and painful, but as long as we cling to our little “Boxes of God”, we will never be able to catch the full measure of all Jesus has for us.

   “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19