Objective and Subjective

What is "objective" and "subjective"? In our language, "subjective" generally refers to opinion and "objective" refers to verifiable fact. Okay, fine, but how? Well, it's in the terms. We have a subject and an object. In a sentence like "Bob is eating a banana", Bob is the subject and the banana is the object. A subject does something and an object is something. This is how we arrive at "objective truth" versus "subjective truth." "Subjective truth" refers to truth that is mine, from me, my opinion. I am the subject. "Objective truth" is truth that is not affected by the subject. It is an object on its own. It stands out there for the subject to discover, but not create, because it is an object on its own. So we debate "Is truth subjective or objective?" Is there truth that is true regardless of our opinion or is all truth a matter of opinion? (Note: If you believe the latter, I'd rather you not design any of the airplanes I might fly in.)

The two are part of other debates we have. An ever-popular argument is whether or not morality is subjective or objective. Is morality simply a product of the opinion of the individual or, perhaps, the group, or is there objective morality -- that which is good or bad all on its own regardless of the opinion of the group or individual? The Bible argues in both cases that truth and morality is objective, that there is an ultimate, unchanging truth and an ultimate, unchanging right and wrong and your opinions don't matter on these issues. Sure, there is subjective truth. "I love pizza" is true for me as long as I haven't eaten a bad one, for instance, and then it becomes false. There is subjective morality such as "It's wrong for me to drink alcohol because I tend toward alcoholism." The problem is not that subjective morality and truth exist; the problem is that too many believe that all morality and truth is subjective. They aren't.

There are easy ways to demonstrate that both truth and morality exist as objective. I'm not going there right now. But in thinking through this stuff recently, I came across a subjective/objective concept I hadn't considered before. Is love subjective or objective? Now, before we answer, we'll all agree that there is love that is "a matter of opinion" -- subjective love. My pizza example above is such a love. But what about objective love? I would argue that the world's current version of "love" is purely subjective. It is based only on "how I feel about it." It is only about my feelings. And I would argue that biblically we are commanded to love objectively, where the one who is loved is the object of love and not a matter of how we feel about them. If I love my wife, for instance, objectively, then how I feel about her isn't relevant. She exists and, therefore, is loved. She is, therefore she is loved. I would argue that if we -- Christians -- loved like that, where our love is resting on the object rather than our own feelings, we would love much better than we do now. Just a thought.