Erin C. Peters

You don’t have to search too far on the internet to find controversy. While controversy itself is not new and the debate topics might change for each generation or time period, there is an interesting trend in almost all of controversies I see. Most of them take place amongst Christians.

Alcohol consumption, baby-wearing, discipline, whether leggings are pants and if Starbucks’ red Christmas cup is an attack on Christianity are just few of the topics debated amongst Christians.

I’m not trying to stir up trouble or offer a place to debate any of these topics, but what I want to take a look at is truth.

Why look at truth? Because in many of these debates, the phrases “absolute truth” and “what is true for you is not necessarily true for me” have come up repeatedly. So what is true?

True: in accordance with fact or reality; without deviation; without variation from type.

How can there be more than one type of truth? How can one issue have a variety of answers for Christians who supposedly believe in the same Most High God and the same Holy Bible?

For most Christians, if you ask them where they get truth from they will say the Bible, God or Jesus. If we take a look at the Bible, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth…” almost 80 times in the gospels, so He obviously knew the truth. He also said in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” So hopefully you agree with me on the fact that Jesus is who He says He is and He knows the truth about everything because He is the truth!

So why as Christians and Christ followers are we coming to many different conclusions and convictions on the same topics? It makes me wonder, are we really and truly turning to the same source for our truth? Are we turning to the One who is Truth to find what we believe?

This is not to cause controversy or guilt, but to get us all thinking about where we truly get our truth from. Are we coming up with an answer that makes us feel good inside? Are we getting our facts from the media? Are we looking to famous Christian authors, preachers and speakers to see what they believe and are doing? Honestly, I’ve been guilty of finding “truth” from human sources more times than I care to admit.

And friends, even if what a fellow Christian does is approved by God, I still need to seek truth out for myself. I still need to be praying and seeking His will, not following blindly behind someone else, because we’re all human, we all make mistakes and we never do anything perfectly.

There is only One who paid the ransom price for us. He is the only One who knows the truth and what is best. He is the only source we should ever turn to or cite when forming our opinion on what decisions we face. We treat Him with nothing but disrespect and dishonor when we don’t turn to Him as our only source of truth.

What about you? Can you answer honestly where the truth you live by comes from?