Articles
The Search for Truth
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Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem;
See now and know;
And seek in her open places
If you can find a man,
If there is anyone who executes judgment,
Who seeks the truth,
And I will pardon her.
(Jer. 5:1)
Buy the truth, and do not sell it . . . (Prov. 23:23)
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God had pronounced doom upon Jerusalem for her sins, yet promised to spare the city if He could find one honest man "who seeks the truth."
This connection between truth and destiny is not arbitrary. If we want a positive outcome in life, finding truth must be at the top of our priorities.
Truth is an objective reality that exists outside of ourselves. We do not create our own truth, nor can we shape it to fit our preferences. Instead, we must conform our lives to it. In our postmodern age, that premise has been replaced by a spirit of absolute relativism. "There is no truth" has become the starting point of every endeavor--and the result has been chaos.
Truth is not something we are born with. It is a complex body of knowledge that must be gained through a lifetime of inquiry. We learn it in bits and pieces, sometimes from wiser colleagues, sometimes from experience, sometimes from revelation. Truth is wherever we find it, requiring a constant process of evaluation, sifting, refining, and adjusting what we know to fit what is real.
In the natural world, for example, there are physical truths--we call them "laws"--to which we must adapt our lives. The pursuit of that truth we call science. Isaac Newton's discovery of the laws of physics revolutionized our understanding of physical reality. But the truth he discovered was not complete, and Albert Einstein's discovery of the theory of relativity centuries later further sharpened our understanding of how the universe operates. It is our commitment to the search for truth in the physical realm that has created our modern standard of living.
There is also a metaphysical truth, a truth about our inner life, about the values and ethics that govern our relationships with others and with God. Like the laws of nature, these truths must be sought out and learned. In the Bible, God has given us a body of revelation to enlighten us on how these spiritual laws operate. It is in our best interest to understand that truth and conform our lives to it. We won't learn it all overnight; but it is the search that makes all the difference.
In the end, God could not find a single truth-seeker in Jerusalem, and the city's fate was sealed. God is still looking for truth-seekers today. Are you one?
--David
