Nov 20, 2009
How to Recognize When Truth Becomes Our Idol
Though it doesn’t always happen intentionally, truth is capable of creating boundaries around ourselves and our fellow Christians.
While I believe that truth, creeds, and biblical lessons are vitally important for Christians, committing to preserving truth over acting it out can have a series of unintended consequences. Our priorities should be acting on the truth and then defending it only as a secondary matter—something that our actions should generally take care of in the first place.
We have been saved by a relational savior who gave us community, a community meal, and the Holy Spirit. Each of these is very relational in orientation. While Jesus taught truth and asked us to believe, his emphasis repeatedly turned to our actions and his commands pointed to how we relate with one another.
As I examine my own life and observe much of Christian discourse, I am concerned that truth has become an idol. When we make preserving the truth a higher goal than living in it and building others up, there are a series of problems that can crop up:
Truth as an Idol Creates Boundaries
We separate ourselves from others, believing we have not part with each other based on an understanding of the truth. It is an odd thing to begin with Jesus as a relationship, but to disqualify one another based on something other than that relationship.
Truth as an Idol Creates a Power Structure
If there are some who are in and some who are out based on error in the truth, then some will emerge as defenders of the truth. They preserve the boundaries and keep others from crossing them. Whether in formal positions or only in practice, certain teachers of truth will claim power that gives them license to tell others what to do and where they belong.
Truth as an Idol Creates Conflict
With boundaries and power comes conflict as certain people desire to explore outside the boundaries. Those in charge of the boundaries will attack them based on truth, not relationship.
Truth as an Idol Trumps Relationship
When truth becomes an idol, relationships can be sacrificed for the greater good of preserving the truth. Love becomes optional when the truth is most important since those in error are no longer considered in relationship with those in the truth.
Truth as an Idol Trumps Faithfulness and Action
Truth becomes an idol brings us to the point that we ignore its impact on our actions and our faithfulness to God. When we define belonging to God in the limited sense of having our truth straight, we ignore the teachings of Jesus and the apostles that action is a requirement of belief. Texts such as Matthew 25 and James 2 cease to speak with their same power and authority.
Great post Ed! You’ve just described Fundamentalism in all its legalistic, “take no prisoners” glory.
Thanks Nathan. Having spent a few years in the fundy camp and considerable time in the conservative evangelical camp, I’ve felt the tension of each of these marks of truth idolatry.
I pray that we can find the right balance without slipping into some kind of listless relativism.
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In what sense are you using the word “truth”? We can easily distinguish someone’s assertions about “the truth” from “the truth” especially because we’ve all got our own.
How we interact with our assertions of the truth is really complex. Experience, motivation, relationships, ego all quickly get involved along with limitations of language and communication. It’s further complicated by our capacity to discover truth via someone else’s words.
The gospels assert that Jesus made a great many statements that were so audacious for that context his death was all but certain. People today seldom catch on. They cough at the virgin birth but “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Um. Talk about straining gnats and swallowing camels! One of my favorites is Luke 4:18-21, the Nazareth Manifesto. Jesus declares the end of the age of decay after which people rightly seek to end his life.
I don’t think Jesus didn’t want to turn the light on for people with regard to truth, he was just multi-faceted in his approach. Some learn by hearing (teaching), some learn by seeing (signs and actions) some learn by doing (follow me).
It also seems that the more convinced one is of their connection to the truth the less anxious they need to be about it. Certainly of course is no guarantee of veracity but fear and frenzy seem more easily tied.
Thanks for your posts. pvk
Thanks Paul, I was dealing with a pretty basic sense of “wanting to be right,” so I appreciate you fleshing out some nuances.
I am at my worst when I am disconnected from the truth. I think that’s why Paul prays his prayer in Ephesians 1 that the eyes of their heart would be opened.
When I am disconnected from the gospel truth about me I get very self-saving, usually at the expense of everyone else. I imagine that I need my money, my time, control, etc. Jesus can only be followed if I believe that in fact in the light of the resurrection I now get to be extravagantly liberal with what really amounts to confederate money. The kind of lavish freedom Jesus describes which appears so costly it is normally disregarded as impractical is itself an expression of deep joy based on the truth that normally seems so fleeting.