The Costliness of Truth

Is absolute divine truth less than relative truth?

At a High School graduate in Ohio, a Christian suggests biblical marriage to the students, and the woke culture labels the speech hateful and inappropriate.^[1]https://news.yahoo.com/hateful-anti-lgbtq-graduation-speech-113036984.html  accessed June 7, 2022. In his remarks, he suggests – not commands nor dogmatically affirms but recommends the biblical exclusivity of marriage. However, society condemns his suggestion as unsuitable and unreal, so much so that one offended person thought the speaker should be ostracized and removed from the gathering.^[2]https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2022/06/06/after-anti-gay-speech-at-ohio-high-school-graduation-lgbt-students-demand-apology/  accessed June 7, 2022. The last I knew, a suggestion meant a proposal or idea which reflects a personal viewpoint. Have we come to a place where we cannot even hear of an idea with which we disagree?

Graduation initiates one’s future, and I cannot imagine that every speech at graduation needs approval from every student. However, I am sure all of us have heard comments we disagree with, and I know I have. So challenging graduates with their beliefs or relationships encourage growth in their life.

As a Christian, I always hear the modification and re-defining of biblical truth by living near many Muslims that continually give me a different perspective. Let’s get down to the real issue as Proverbs 23:23 says, “Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.” As believers, we buy to preserve truth while society seeks to sell the truth and re-label it. They groom the minds of social media to tolerate a world where no absolute truth exists. My biblical world and the Muslim societies where I have lived would disagree with this bent on reality.

Sold truth thrives on denying a divine perspective. Embracing non-truth often manipulates understanding by claiming embarrassment for non-compliance. Often society accuses Christians of intolerance while promoting their biased version of acceptableness.

Today, marriage is no longer marriage. Society labels a civil contract as a marriage, but the extended meaning of contract refers to many diverse relationships. Personal sexual decisions embrace freedom of private rights. As believers, let’s not just say marriage but define biblical marriage as a covenant marriage. Society seeks contractual understanding by labeling relationships partnerships, often called civil unions. A civil union with its contractual sense can never be considered a covenant marriage. For believers, biblical covenant marriage is not something to be left behind or a nostalgic remnant of the 1950s.

Social modification confronts us continually. Pride used to mean a deep satisfaction in one’s honorable achievements. Still, now the term assumes the uplifting of voices to counter biblical marriage.^[3]See https://www.dictionary.com/e/historical-current-events/pride-month/ The rainbow resembled God’s promises for a future hope but is now a symbol of diversity. Society labels the Bible as inappropriate and ignorant but allows freedom for sexual tolerance – buying allowance, not truth. The world mixes biblical and birth genders with one’s inward identity. Truth is a lie, and lies are deemed truthful. Absolute truth is junked for a version of relativity. Or the absurdity of the world’s belief that there is no absolute truth.

God’s eternal Word (The Bible) is valid for all people and at all times. Despite what people think, the truth remains. Natasha Crain said, “The opposite of absolute truth is relative truth. To say that something is relatively true means that it can be true for one person and not for another.”^[4]https://natashacrain.com/what-is-the-difference-between-absolute-and-relative-truth/  accessed June 7, 2022. An excellent read on absolute truth. In the world’s attempt to brainwash, they do not even allow for biblical truth, the relative-truth-sense. They want absolute divine truth to be less than relative truth. They do not even want Christians to have the truth but label us ignorant and out of touch. Folks, we buy absolute truth and only consider relative truth. Society promotes relative truth as fundamental and denies divine truth.

How we use and define words begins our desire to buy the truth. Well-respected commentators say that purchasing the truth is “to shun no expense, no effort, no privation, in order to attain to the possession of wisdom; and not to sell it, i.e., not to place it over against any earthly possession, worldly gain, sensual enjoyment; not to let it be taken away by any intimidation, argued away by false reasoning, or prevailed against by enticements into the way of vice, and not to become unfaithful to it by swimming with the great stream.”^[5] Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 6 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), 344. Christians, let’s protect the costliness of truth and not allow desires, intimidation, reason, or the mighty stream of social media influence to modify the truth.

Why do we honor the truth? The Gospel Coalition stated, “From a Christian perspective, truth is far more than a philosophical concept; it is deeply theological, because it is intimately tied to the nature of God and his self-revelation.” ^[6]https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/truth-error-and-knowing/

I recommend the following for clarity in proclaiming biblical marriage:

• When talking about biblical marriage, call it a covenant marriage. The word marriage means too many things not to give the term a good descriptor. 
• When discussing civil “marriage,” label it a civil union, partnership, or relational contract.
• Likewise, do not call covenant marriage a civil union or partnership.
• Affirm your spouse as a wife, husband, or spouse – not a partner or mate, which connotes contractual understanding.
• Biblical marriage is exclusive, but civil partnerships are not. Society values diversity, not exclusivity. Encourage exclusivity in your relationship by honoring a biblical covenantal marriage in your actions and thoughts.

We cannot bargain and negotiate the truth – seek to acquire and preserve it.

“Consider truth as a thing of the highest value, and spare no pains, cost, or sacrifice to obtain it, and, when gotten, keep it safe; do not barter it for earthly profit or the pleasures of sense; do not be reasoned out of it, or laughed out of it.”^[7]H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., Proverbs, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 443.

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