What is Truth?

Passage: 2 John

“What about that passage,” she asked, “that says ‘you all are gods’?”  I was an intern at a Christian counseling agency.  I had begun working with a client who, incidental to a crisis in a romantic relationship, was exploring the Christian faith.  She was a self-taught, “spiritual-but-not-religious” person who had spent a lot of time reading best-sellers from the new age, self-help section at Barnes & Noble.  She had ascribed to the popular – but pagan – notion that human beings are divine.  The Bible passage to which she referred is Psalm 82.  In Psalm 82, God confronts despotic human leaders.  Using hyperbole and satire, the psalm writer calls these rulers ‘gods’ – individuals who have set themselves up as gods on earth.  The writer goes on to contrast them with ‘The Most High’, the true God, noting in particular their mortality and corruption.  In truth, Psalm 82 communicates the opposite of what my client thought it did: that in fact, though we think of ourselves as gods, even the greatest among us is just a human being.  I explained this, and she responded, “Well, that’s just your interpretation.”

How do you move past that point in a conversation about the Bible?  How do you decide what truths are fundamental and non-negotiable?

This is what John addresses in his letters to the church.  In his second letter, John says,

It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world.

For John and the other disciples of Jesus, the fundamental measuring stick is this: that Jesus Christ came in the flesh.  Imbedded in this one statement is John’s longer discourse of John1:1-14: that the man Jesus is actually the one true God, who became fully human.  The truth of Jesus’ full humanity and full divinity is at the center of the Christian faith.  Every important distinctive of Christian theology and Christian practice derives from this: Jesus is God in the flesh.  “If,” says John, “any person propagates a religious idea that is inconsistent with this truth, then that person is not a Christian.”

Now John goes on to say, “Don’t associate with that person.  Don’t even let that person into your house.”  This has led many Christians to refuse entry to or conversation with  Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and proponents of other religions that don’t acknowledge Jesus as the one true God.  I’m not convinced this is the right application of the passage. It’s important to note that at the time of John’s writing, most official church gatherings were held in homes.  As such, anyone seen in a Christian home would be perceived to be a representative of the Christian faith.  At that time there was real danger in being identified too closely with someone who taught non-Christian religious views.  The caution for us today is this: be upfront and articulate about the beliefs that distinguish Christianity from other religions (especially ones that hold some beliefs in common with Christianity).  As Christian communities, be vigilant about the beliefs your church’s representatives, leaders and teachers express; be sure they’re consistent with the fundamentals of your faith.  And insofar as non-believers or new believers enter your fellowship, be unapologetic about letting them know what your church believes.  There are foundational truths, without which a faith ceases to be the Christian faith.