Pilate famously asked, "What is truth?" Poor guy. He didn't have the benefit of Webster's dictionary or the Internet. Today we can look it up. Truth is defined as that which conforms to reality. There. Any questions?
Of course, the problem becomes "What reality?" You see, for the most part, all truth statements are relative. Yes, it's true. Truth statements are true or false as they relate to the standard being applied. Here, let me illustrate. We have a wonderful basketball player here in Phoenix -- Steve Nash. Now, if you've ever seen him on the basketball court, he's pretty short (truth claim). According to WikiAnswers, the average basketball player is 6'6", and Steve Nash is only 6'3". See? Short! Of course, you only have to think about that for a moment to find out that I could equally have claimed that Steve Nash is pretty tall because according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the average height for males in America is 5'9" (or so), and Nash is much taller than that. You see? Relative. The veracity of the truth claim, then, is determined by the standard by which it is being measured. And that is not "relativism". Relativism claims, in essence, that there is no useful standard by which to measure the veracity of the claim. Either the standard doesn't exist, is not able to be known, or cannot be applied for some other reason (for instance, that the standard is variable with the times and culture). In the standard verification of a truth claim, we may disagree about whether or not something conforms to the standard at hand, and that would be disagreement, not relativism. But relativism goes a different direction by removing that standard.
In Matthew 16, the Pharisees and Sadducees asked Jesus for a sign. You remember this passage. Jesus affirms that they are thinking individuals -- "You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky" -- but tells them there is something wrong with their brains when it comes to interpreting the signs about Him. What was wrong? "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah." What was wrong with them? They were an "adulterous generation". Now, of course, Jesus wasn't saying that they were cheating on their wives. He was talking about their divine "husband", God. The Bible often speaks of Israel as "married" to God ... and cheating on Him. So what was wrong with the Pharisees and Sadducees? They had the capacity to examine the signs of the weather without a problem, but they lacked the capacity to examine with any accuracy the signs of Christ because they were cheaters. They had adulterous minds. They had the perfect "spouse" who provided all they could need and more, but their passions led them to other "mates". They sought pleasures elsewhere. Consider, for instance, the story from Matthew 21. Starting in verse 23, they asked Jesus by what authority He did His miracles. He responded by asking them by the origin of John's baptism -- heaven or men? Look at their deliberations (verses 25-26). They never once asked, "What is the truth?" They only asked, "What works? What will provide us with the result we would like?"
Of course, the Pharisees and Sadducees are quite like most of us. They're not unique. This is the common standard of measurement for what is true: "What works? What will provide me with the result I would like?" Most humans have suppressed the truth in favor of our passions. This is the relativism of the adulterous mind. We set aside that which conforms to reality (truth) in favor of that which produces what we want. We use the standard "What do I want?" and then suppress whatever truth violates that desire. People ruled by their passions.
It is a command. "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." It is a command. "Love the Lord your God with all ... your mind ..." The first thing that needs to move out of the way is the adulterous mind -- the one that wants other things than what God is. That is the first step to moving away from the debased mind that sin causes. It's the first step toward reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment