These days many people seem to be caught up in determining their own truths.
As a sixth-grader I distinctly remember taking a true-and-false test on China one day in class. I felt poorly prepared to take the test and, to my surprise, I actually aced it with a perfect score!
Frankly, I might well have scored much lower and would have accepted my grade, since I knew I had not properly studied for the exam. I actually guessed on at least a dozen or more of the 50 questions and got them all correct.
My point is this — there was only one right answer for each question. It was either true or false. My opinion did not matter at all, and I would not have been allowed an opportunity to argue my point on any question with the teacher. After all, she knew the subject and wrote the test questions.
So why is it these days this world now takes a stance and allows us to pick and choose what we consider to be true or false? In my humble opinion, it’s absolutely true or false. We’re not given a choice on what’s right or wrong. Yes, we can choose to do wrong, but that does not make it right.
Moral absolutes are not only given to us, but in our hearts we really can know what is right and what is wrong. We have a Teacher Who even came down to Earth to help us better understand the truth.
In fact, Christ Jesus, our Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit are the Truth! We only need to look at what is written in God’s Word and placed in the heart of every man to know right from wrong.
Moral absolutes have been swept aside by our society. Just look around at people today and you can see by their lifestyle that they have bought into this deception of Satan. He’s been spreading lies since his encounter with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and his divisive questioning goes on in the minds of men today more than ever.
It always seems to go something like this: Surely God wouldn’t take action against you for something as harmless as that! We may not hear an audible demonic voice, but we’re confronted with conflicting thoughts and frequently someone will come alongside us to confirm that what we’re doing isn’t really that bad at all. Sound familiar in your life or the life of someone around you?
In Matthew 4:1-11, you can read the full account of the temptation of Jesus in the desert. This bold scheme by Satan using bits of scripture attempting to persuade Jesus to follow him has always amazed me. Just because Jesus became a man for a short while for the sake of mankind, I just can’t believe Satan’s boldness to think he could possibly outsmart the Son of God.
In verse 3, after Jesus had been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, he asks Him “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread,” then Jesus replied in verse 4, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Did you hear that — we are to listen to the Word of God and let it help us discern right from wrong. It’s absolutely true or false.
In verse 6, Satan continues “If you are the Son of God … Throw yourself down. For it is written …” from the highest point of the temple to which he had taken Him. Jesus once again responded “it is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Then as a third test, Satan took Him to a very high mountain and declared to Jesus “All this I will give to you … If you will bow down and worship me.” Then Jesus responded one last time “Away from me, Satan. For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
When I read these words, I know that I’m following the one True God, Who has demonstrated the way we are to live this life that He made perfect on the cross at Calvary.
I imagine some of you reading this may consider my thinking to be narrow-minded, but I know that God has our best interests in mind. I’ve spent much of my life trying to follow my own path and I can attest that the path He’s put me on over the past 35 years has been one that has proved to be the one I will continue to follow this day forward.
Don’t follow the lies of this world. Simply come to realize … It’s absolutely true or false!
Passages to Ponder
— Jim Langley has been writing for more than 30 years while working as a life and health insurance agent in Santa Barbara. In recent years, his passion has turned to writing about his personal relationship with God, and his goal is to encourage others to draw near to Him as well. As a longtime member of CBMC of Santa Barbara (Christian Business Men’s Connection), he started writing Fourth Quarter Strategies columns in 2014, and he now reaches an international audience through the CBMC International devotional Monday Manna. He can be contacted at jim@fourthquarterstrateies.com for more information. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.