You can know truth by looking to God

By Rick Warren

“I“[God] shows how to distinguish right from wrong, how to find the right decision every time” (Proverbs 2:9 TLB).

Three philosophies — individualism, secularism, and relativism — have devastated our society’s moral thermometer over the past few decades. The consequences have been dramatic on society in general and on each of us individually.So what do we do about it?

You have to start with God. He embodies truth. What is right and wrong gets its meaning in the character of God himself. Dishonesty is wrong because God is honest. Unfaithfulness is wrong because God is faithful. You can know truth by looking at how God interacts with us.

The Bible says, “[God] shows how to distinguish right from wrong, how to find the right decision every time” (Proverbs 2:9 TLB). We can know the character of God through his Word. The Bible tells us what’s true, whether or not we like what it says.

Once we encounter truth, God’s truth, we’ll recognize two key features of it every time we see it.

It’s universal. It applies to everyone. If it doesn’t apply to everyone, it’s not truth. It’s an opinion.
It’s unchanging. It won’t be moved by fads or fashions. Adultery was wrong 2,000 years ago, it’s wrong today, and it will be wrong 4,000 years from today.

The choice is yours. A few years back Newsweek summarized this question on the cover of their magazine. They asked, “Whose justice? Whose morality? Whose community? Whose family? Whose values?”

That’s your choice each and every day. Our world today gives us three options for how to discover truth: We can choose to base our morality on what we think, on what other people think, or on what God thinks. We really have no other options.

Our choice will dictate how we live, how we love, and, someday, how we die. But it’s our choice.

What will you choose?

Rick Warren is pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. This editorial first appeared on Warren’s blog.