In our country today, Judeo/Christian values are under assault. What brought this on? How could this happen so quickly? I thought that we were “One nation, under God…?” Our currency still says, “In God We Trust.” Let me suggest 3 erroneous philosophies that have crept into our world. I want to also give you the cure to this faulty thinking. (Read Acts 4:1-12 and you’ll get the basis for this truth. It is a GREAT story…so really, go read it!)
1. We don’t believe in absolute truth. We believe that everything is relative. Nothing is absolute. What may be true for you is not true for me. There is no black and white. Everything is gray. We believe that no one is right and no one is wrong. WE DO WHAT IS RIGHT IN OUR OWN EYES. After all, if there is no universal truth, than who decides what is true? We do. So truth varies from person to person, region to region, culture to culture.
The Cure: Anything that is built to last is built on truth. Absolutes. Solid. Sturdy. Like a corner stone in a building. The key to any building is the foundation. The corner stone is of utmost importance. If it is off, not stable, level, or sturdy, then all of the building is in vain. That is why we use a plum line and when things are straight, we say it is “true!” Jesus is the corner stone! He IS truth personified. Read John 14:6; 17:17; 1 John 1:5-8. Jesus is truth. His word is truth. He is the cornerstone that is ultimate truth.
Show them the truth. Jesus is truth.
2. We embrace positive tolerance. Now tolerance is a good thing. We need to be able to coexist even if we don’t agree with each other. But today’s tolerance is really positive tolerance in the sense that we are told not only to get along with each other but to EMBRACE the ideas and lifestyle of others as equally valid. Afterall, if we say no one has the corner on truth, then ALL must be true and we must embrace everyone’s idea of what is right and wrong. If we don’t, we are intolerant, and that is branded as the ultimate evil in our day. (Isn’t it funny that the “tolerant” can’t tolerate the “intolerant”?!)
The Cure: Jesus showed us the ultimate love by giving his life for us. “Greater love has no man than this, then to lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 He has made salvation free to us. If that is not love, I don’t know what is.
We embrace positive tolerance because we all want to be accepted and loved. That is the motivation behind positive tolerance. But listen, it is not love to accept something that someone is doing that is not healthy, holy, or right. That is being an enabler. That is calling “right” what God has called “wrong.” Here is a great quote from author and pastor Max Luccado, “God loves you just the way you are…but He loves you too much to leave you that way.” We are to speak truth in love to our neighbors.
Show them love. Jesus is love.
3. We make the sincerity of our faith more important than the object of our faith. We believe that the tenacity of whom or what we believe is more important than whom or what we are putting our faith in. It becomes more about us than the object of our faith. As long as we believe it with all of our hearts, it has to be true. After all, to quote Disney, “If you wish upon a star, your dream will come true.”
The Cure: The key is not how much faith we have but where we put our faith. Jesus brought this to light when he said to his disciples that if they had the faith of a mustard seed (smallest seed in that region), then they could move a mountain. So it is not about the amount of faith that we have. (Even our faith is a gift from God, but that is message for another day.) The key is what or whom we have our faith in. Simply because we really, Really, REALLY believe something is true, it does not make it true.
Show them your faith in Jesus. Show them Jesus.