Relativism carries with it the idea that there is no absolute truth. As a guiding assumption and, taken to it’s logical conclusion, relativism destroys not only community but scientific endeavour, the study of the arts, history, medicine and more since you are no longer aiming at true conclusions but at what suites the prevailing touchy-feelies.
We live in an age of relativism. And so, Salman Rushdie’s exhortation telling people to, “write their own story…”, and the Mammas and the Pappas calling us to, “Make your own kind of music… even if no body else sings along…”.
Thankfully, most people are inconsistent when it comes to relativism.
Men can be very relativistic when it comes to their shady finances but suddenly become moral crusaders when the wife runs away with the milk man or when someone at the checkout hands them $10 change from a $30 item purchased with a hundred dollar bill.
People are increasingly relativistic when it comes to defining a woman, but nobody seems to want a relativist in the flight tower:
“Well, captain, that red light, it could mean the plane is out of fuel, but hey, let’s not get all dogmatic. You write your own story about the red light. Make your own kind of music. I mean, after all, whose to say?”
Truth takes courage. As the wise man once said, the worst thing that can happen as a consequence of telling the truth is the best in that can happen in that particular situation.
Lies, of which relativism is a subset, only ever makes things worse.
Truth is confronting and Christians are called to be truth tellers. To declare, with all humility, the way things really are.
This does not mean you are obliged to tell the neighbour’s wife that she’s fat. Truth is beautiful. But indiscretion is like lipstick on a camel, or some such thing (Proverbs 11:22). All truths are good, but not all truths are equal.
To be truly courageous with the truth is to start by speaking the truth about yourself. (Matthew 7:5). Who are you, really? More importantly, who are you before God? For what a man is before God, that he is, and nothing more.
Truth is a little like a tsunami hitting the beach. It’s like watching lightning crack over cane fields. It’s terrifying and beautiful at the same time. It anchors the soul, liberates us from guilt, delivers us from secret shame and sets men free.
For this reason, God came into the world as the man, Jesus Christ. To set men free from to their relativist delusions.
This world runs along tracks created by God.
We complain about the tracks, fly off the handle and go off the rails, only to discover the surprising and unexpected fact that true freedom can only ever be had by staying on track and living life according to the way God has made the world. That is, according to what is true and real and good.
Relativism, says John Piper, poses as humble by saying: “We are not smart enough to know what the truth is.”
It certainly sounds humble. But look carefully at what is happening. It’s like a servant saying: I am not smart enough to know which person here is my master—or even if I have a master.
The result is that I don’t have a master and I can be my own master. That is, in reality, what happens to relativists: In claiming to be too lowly to know the truth, they exalt themselves as supreme arbiter of what is true. This is not humility. This is the ground of all pride.
But as every man who has ever brushed his teeth with a spanner will tell you, relativism bites, the truth cannot be hid for long and reality always wins.
So speak and so act as those who love the truth
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