Some of you may have heard the idea that "you have your truth and I have mine", which can only imply that one worldview is just as valid as another, and we should therefore respect whatever "truth" each person has. Some simple questions that I have wanted to ask those who hold this idea are this: What about God's truth? Does God have any say in the matter? Or is it just up to us to make up our own "truth" as we go along? Is God wiser than we are? If He is, and if He does love us, then would He not want us to have the same views that he has for our own good??

If we truly believe that God is a personal being, then it should be no surprise to see what He said in the following passage: "If you abide in My word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31-32). Please notice that this verse does not say "you shall know a truth, and a truth shall make you free", but "you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free". So, could the statement that "you have your truth and I have mine" be an attempt to avoid the correction that God Himself wants to give to us for our own good (See 2 Timothy 3:16-17)? I will let God be the judge of that, but I still want people to think carefully about it. And I think it is a reasonable question since the Bible has warned of a time when people would not endure sound doctrine, but they would embrace doctrine that is according to their own desires (See 2 Timothy 4:3-4).

Since this verse makes a clear contrast between sound doctrine and doctrine that is according to our own desires, it is reasonable to conclude that everyone's alleged "truth" cannot be equally valid. And this should also lead us be careful that we do not judge something to be true based on feelings. Since Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that the human heart is deceitful, this would have to mean that something is not right just because it feels right to us. You don't know that you have been deceived until you have come out of that deception - and self deception is the worst kind. This is why the Bible tells us to "trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil" (Proverbs 3:5-7). When the Bible speaks of fearing the Lord, it simply means to have a reverence for Him. And Proverbs 9:10 tells us that this reverence for Him is the beginning of wisdom. It is for this reason I believe that the main reason for failing to discern the truth is lack of reverence for God. Many people may have a reverence for a "god" that has come out of their own mind or the mind of others, but "the only true God" (John 17:3) did not come out of the minds of man, and any alleged "truth" that we come up with cannot be just as valid as His truth!

One other reason for failing to discern the truth can be that we sometimes mistake intelligence for wisdom. Although intelligence is a good thing, it is not the same thing as wisdom. Here is one example of what I mean by that: Ted Bundy had to have been a very intelligent person in order to get away with so many murders for so long. But considering the vile acts that he committed, he was obviously not in the right state of mind, and he was therefore lacking in wisdom, in spite of the intelligence that he had. What we need is God's wisdom rather than "the wisdom of this world [which] is foolishness with God" (1 Corinthians 3:19). And it is through His wisdom that that our intelligence will be used for the right purposes - otherwise it will go to waste as the intelligence of Ted Bundy, James Holmes and many others has gone to waste. Everyone without God's wisdom does not become a killer, but my point is that we will be lead astray one way or another without the reverence for God that leads to His wisdom.

One other reason for failing to discern God's truth is because we sometimes judge something to be true simply because it is popular. However, that mindset should be done away with in a hurry when we discover that Jesus said that there are few who find the way of life (See Matthew 7:13-14). Furthermore, the Bible has also warned that many would be deceived by false teachers (See 2 Peter 2:1-2 and Matthew 24:11). I don't want to drag anyone down by pointing out how bad things are, but it is often necessary to understand what is wrong in order to understand what is right. It is hard for me not to be so concerned about much of the deception going on today since I have been deceived myself - and I may still have blind spots that I don't know about yet, which is why I need the Lord to continually search my heart as we all do. Much of the deception going on today should not be surprising when we consider the deceitful nature of the human heart, as described in Jeremiah 17:9. But the verse after that one says "I the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind" (Jeremiah 17:10). So it is not a hopeless situation. But it will do us no good to try to reform our human nature, because we need a new nature (See Ephesians 2:1-9 and 2 Corinthian 5:17). And if God reveals His truth to us through this new nature, than it is not a matter of "you have your truth and I have my truth", because "the truth" (John 8:32) comes from God alone, not us!