Truth has Consequences

In today's world, we often find ourselves adrift. Is this news article reliable or not? Is the photograph accurate or altered? Did this really happen? Were the person's words taken out of context? Is something true of not? For that matter, what is truth (to quote Pilate) and does it even matter?

In church this Sunday a prayer request was shared that if the hurricane and flooding weren't enough for the resident of Asheville, North Carolina, now they have to deal with spilled nuclear waste. Our two programmers live in Asheville so I prayed quickly and contacted them when I got home. There is no nuclear waste in Asheville. Fake news, and we prayed so fervently!

For followers of Christ, the more fundamental questions are easier to answer. Is there truth? Yes, it is whatever corresponds to reality. (There is no nuclear waste in Asheville.)

Is there my truth and your truth? No, there is only God's truth, and his truth is whatever corresponds to his character. After all, he created the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. “Good” is what corresponds to his character and activity. “Evil” is whatever is contrary to his character and activity. While that may not help us decide what a person says is true or false, we do have a solid foundation upon which to base our lives. We are not adrift on a sea of uncertainty.

In this Curious Christian snippet, Dr. Sean McDowell asks a fundamental question about truth. Does truth really matter? Can you live your life independent of truth? Here are his thoughts.

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Dr. Sean McDowell

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So let's take a step back and ask the question, Why is truth really important? Why does it matter? Well for one obvious reason is that truth has consequences. Truth has consequences.

My uncle is a retired pastor from the Northeast and he told me a story one time about a distant cousin of mine I never met. He said, "Sean, this cousin of yours was deaf. He couldn't hear at all and he'd go walking on the train tracks same time out near where he lived, kind of in the back forest area every day. It was a daily walk for him. He went walking one morning, same time, same place, but it never occurred to him that they would change the times that the train came. He's walking along, believing that he was safe, thinking it was true that the train would not come, but they switched the times and he couldn't hear the warning. The train couldn't stop in time. Struck and hit your cousin and he died largely because of false information." Now that's a pretty dramatic story, but it makes the point that truth has consequences.

I was reading a story some time ago about some teenagers who thought it was funny to go pull up some stop signs at an intersection. So people went rolling through, thinking and believing that they were safe and didn't need to stop, and it led to some disastrous accidents.

Friends, truth has consequence. If you have a headache in the morning and you are just not quite adjusted, you pick up a bottle and you think it says Tylenol, but it says rat poison. Consequences.

Truth has consequences in the big things but also in the small things. Right? Have you ever just thought about how much you live your life based on what you think is true? Okay, so what time is that class? Where is that class? Moment by moment we're actually making decisions based on what we think is true. The wrong exit has consequences. That's in part why Hosea the Minor Prophets said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

If you don't love truth and follow truth you'll wreck your health. If you don't love and follow truth you'll wreck your finances. If you don't love and follow truth in a relationship, you will wreck that relationship.

Truth has consequences.

Dr. Sean McDowell