John 18:33-38 ESV – So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?”

35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”

36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

John 8:31, 32 ESV – So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The Appeal of “It all Depends”

  • The Promise of Tolerance

John 18:36, In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

There is only one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.

The danger they have been taught to fear from absolutism is not error but intolerance.

Relativism is necessary to openness; and this is the virtue, the only virtue, which all primary education for more than fifty years has dedicated itself to inculcating.

Openness — and the relativism that makes it the only plausible stance in the face of various claims to truth and various ways of life and kinds of human beings — is the great insight of our times…

The study of history and of culture teaches that all the world was mad in the past; men always thought they were right, and that led to wars, persecutions, slavery, xenophobia, racism, and chauvinism. The point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to think you are right at all.

– Alan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind

  • The Feeling of Humility

John 8:31-32 ESV – “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 14:6 ESV – “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

“An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or of Practical Reason is idiocy. – C.S. Lewis

Romans 1:19-22 ESV – For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

  • The Desire for Personal Autonomy

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. – Aldous Huxley

Judges 17:6 ESV – Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

“Absolutophobia”

Why Truth Matters

(The Dangers of “It All Depends”)

  • God Matters– Trust in God is built on Truth

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.(John 14:6)

Everyone on the side of Truth listens to Me. (John 18:37)

Psalms 86:11 ESV –

Teach me your way, O Lord,
that I may walk in your truth

John 17:17 ESV – Jesus said,Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

  • Our Relationships Matter– Relationships are built on Truth

Proverbs 20:23 NIV – The LORD detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him.

  • Freedom Matters—Freedom is built on Truth

John 8:31-32 ESV – Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 18:37 ESV – Jesus says, Everyone on the side of Truth listens to Me.

Deuteronomy 30:11,15 ESV – For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.

Luke 4:18 ESV – to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

Galatians 5:1 ESV – For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

John Paul II wrote, “Once the truth is denied to human beings, it is pure illusion to try to set them free.  Truth and freedom either go together hand in hand or together they perish in misery”(Fides et Ratio 90).

2 Peter 2:19 ESV – They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

2 Thessalonians 2:10 says that people perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

Step 4: Make a searching and fearless written moral inventory of yourself.

2 Corinthians 3:17 ESV – Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom

Now What?

How Then Shall We Live?

  • Don’t Become Legalistic! Be Biblical.
  • Be Ready to Answer Questions

1 Peter 3:15 ESV – Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

1) “There are no absolute truths!”

Response: Is your statement always true?

2) “Who are you to judge others?”

Response: I agree that judgmental attitudes are harmful.

However, could you help me understand what you mean by “judging” others?

3) “Didn’t Jesus say, ‘judge not’“?

Response: Yes. It’s a great point He’s making!

Later, he explicitly says “make proper judgments”(cf. John 7:24)

4) “Christians are intolerant of others and their sincere viewpoints!”

Response: What do you mean by “intolerant”?

…any thought can be thought, any argument can be argued; there are some thoughts that can be argued but not lived. – Os Guinness

5) “Well, that is true for you—your truth, but it’s not true for me.”

Response: Are you saying that it never matter what one believes as long as it works or is popular or seems good for the individual?

  • Live the Truth

Jesus said, The reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Personal Transformation

Romans 12:1-2 ESV – I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” – C.S. Lewis

Make disciples by how we live the Truth

Most people aren’t reached by arguing, but by seeing Jesus in you!