When Truth Becomes Personal: Rediscovering What's Real in a Confused World

In a world where everyone claims their own version of reality, where "your truth" and "my truth" supposedly coexist without conflict, we find ourselves drowning in a sea of relativism. But what happens when truth stops being a concept we debate and becomes a Person we encounter?

The Question That Still Echoes

Two thousand years ago, a Roman governor named Pontius Pilate asked a question that reverberates through history: "What is truth?" He posed this question to Jesus, who had just made an audacious claim—that He came into the world to testify to the truth, and that everyone who belongs to the truth listens to His voice.

Pilate's question wasn't rhetorical. It was genuine, confused, perhaps even desperate. And it's the same question our generation asks today, though we've convinced ourselves we've found the answer: truth is whatever feels right to you.

The Hijacking of Truth

Our culture has reduced truth to personal preference. We've been told that what's true for you is true for you, and what's true for me is true for me—as long as our truths don't collide. The moment your truth contradicts mine, we have a problem. This philosophy sounds tolerant and inclusive on the surface, but it crumbles under the weight of reality.

Consider the various philosophies competing for our allegiance:

Relativism declares there's no such thing as absolute truth—everything is subjective. This leads to moral relativism, which removes any foundation for right and wrong. Under this system, we're forced to conclude that societies can determine their own morality, even if it leads to atrocities.

Skepticism doubts all truth claims.

Postmodernism admits absolute truth might exist but insists we can never know it (which is itself an absolute truth claim—notice the contradiction?).

Logical positivism restricts truth to what can be scientifically proven, conveniently eliminating faith from the equation.

Pluralism, perhaps the most prevalent today, suggests all truth claims are equally valid. But this creates impossible scenarios: How can two contradictory beliefs both be true? How can we believe in different versions of Jesus and both be right when those versions fundamentally contradict each other?

Why the Confusion?

The apostle Paul provides a sobering answer in Romans 1. He explains that God's wrath is being stored up against those who suppress the truth. Notice the word "suppress"—this isn't ignorance; it's active resistance. People push truth away, keep it at arm's length, even when creation itself testifies to a Creator.

Paul writes that what can be known about God is plain because God has made it evident. From the beginning of creation, God's invisible attributes—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen. We have an innate moral compass, an eternity placed within our hearts, and a universe that screams of intelligent design. Yet we suppress it.

The result? Darkened hearts and futile thinking. People claim wisdom while embracing foolishness. They exchange the truth about God for lies, worshiping created things rather than the Creator. When we look at cultural confusion and wonder how people fall for obvious deceptions, this is the answer: suppressed truth leads to darkened understanding.

Truth Is Not What—It's Who

Here's the revolutionary reality that changes everything: Truth is not a belief system or a philosophy. Truth is a Person.

Jesus declared in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Notice He didn't say "a truth" or "a way" or "a life." He said THE—singular, exclusive, absolute.

This statement flies in the face of universalism, which claims all roads lead to heaven. Jesus says there's only one road, and He is it. Not a westernized, sanitized, cultural version of Him, but the actual Jesus—God in flesh, universe-creating, star-breathing, risen Savior.

How Do We Know This Person?

We know Jesus through His Word. Scripture is God's revealed truth to us, showing us who He is, what He values, and how we're meant to live. Jesus prayed in John 17, "Make them holy by Your truth; teach them Your Word, which is truth."

Think of it like construction principles. Builders don't eyeball whether something is level or plumb—they use tools that measure against an objective standard. A wall might look straight to the untrained eye, but if it's even slightly off, the entire structure becomes compromised.

God's Word is our level, our plumb line. We place it against our lives and discover where we're off-balance. We don't get to decide what's true based on feelings or preferences. We align ourselves with the truth that's already been established.

Living in Light of Truth

Knowing truth requires three active responses:

First, we must know the Truth. Not just Bible facts, but Jesus Himself. We encounter Him through Scripture, which reveals His character, purposes, and plans. As Jesus said in John 8, "If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Second, we must live the Truth. Knowing without living is hypocrisy—the very thing Jesus condemned in the Pharisees. We must daily pray as David did in Psalm 139: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." When we discover we're off-center, we don't compare ourselves to others who might be further off. We return to God's Word and realign.

Third, we must speak the Truth. But here's the critical filter: position, practice, preaching, and posture. What do we believe? Are we practicing it? What are we proclaiming? And most importantly—what's our posture?

Ephesians 4:15 instructs us to speak the truth in love. If we speak truth without love, we're not actually speaking truth—we're being arrogant. 2 Timothy 2 reminds us to correct opponents with gentleness, recognizing that people caught in lies are trapped by the enemy. Our battle isn't against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces.

The Invitation

Romans 12:1-2 calls us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This is the pathway: surrender to God's truth, allow it to reshape our thinking, and align our lives accordingly.

In a world lost in translation, where words have been hijacked and truth has been relativized into meaninglessness, we have the opportunity to anchor ourselves to something—Someone—unchanging. Truth isn't up for negotiation. Truth isn't subject to cultural shifts or personal preferences.

Truth walked among us, died for us, and rose again. And He invites us to know Him, follow Him, and become like Him.

The question remains: Will we suppress the truth or surrender to it?