“It’s all relative.”  “Hey, if it works for you.”  “I would never force my subjective truth on you.”  “There are no absolutes.”

Have you heard these before?  I have heard them a lot lately, and there is some truth to them.  I was talking to a friend this morning (Thursday), and he said, “I can’t understand why anyone would not like coconut!”  Bev does not like coconut, and I can take it or leave it.  I was asked at a car show recently why was I “wasting my time on a British ’car’ (they did not say “car”), why don’t you get a real vehicle?”  Sometimes I wonder the same thing.  So lots of things in life really are subjective and a matter of taste.

There are other things that clearly are not relative, or subjective.  When I am told there are no absolutes, I immediately ask if they are sure about that.  Of course they cannot answer “yes” because then they have contracted themselves.  Gravity is an absolute – you go anywhere on this planet and jump off a building – you are going to (eventually) hit the ground.  Death is an absolute – no matter what you do, the mortality rate is still 100%, just give it time

So how do you stand for truth in a world that thinks everything is subjective?  You could get mad and hurl accusations and insults at people.  You could decide that they are right and keep silent.  You could attempt to rationally (and patiently) explain it to them.  No matter what you choose to do (and we all have tried them all), people still do not have to believe you.  After all, they did not believe Jesus and who could debate against Him?  Many times in the Gospels have we read about how people tried to trap Him, to trip Him up.  The operative word here is tried.  They never succeeded; He always saw through them and would not allow Himself to fall for their tricks.  He never got sidetracked by false arguments, or by minor points of the law.  Eventually, those who were trying to trip Him up quit.  They stopped bothering.  I wish that meant that they left Him alone (or that they will leave us alone – sorry, that will never happen).  Instead they went for a full frontal assault.

The lesson here is that Jesus never strayed from the truth – no matter what the cost. Neither should we.  When we are confronted by people who want to trip us up – stick to the truth.  When people throw accusations at us – stick to the truth.  When they attempt to sidetrack us in ridiculous arguments – stick to the truth.

For this to happen, we must constantly immerse ourselves in the truth.  We need to be so familiar with the truth that when we are presented with a lie, immediately we recognize that “something” is wrong – even if we cannot immediately identify what it might be.  Jesus is the Truth and He says, “the truth will set you free.”