Spotting the Difference Between Truth and Sincerity

Kathleen Norris is a writer that takes you on a journey. She doesn’t have to use the old template of a beginning, middle, and end like we’re taught in Comp 101. Sometimes the “end” of her books is really just the beginning—at least for me. As she leads the reader on a road, occasionally she pulls off to the side for one of those scenic lookouts. You know the ones, like in the Smoky Mountains where you can see other states, or here in our neck of the woods, we have scenic/historic pull outs so you know where Lewis and Clark launched a raft, found a deer, or fell into the water. Norris uses these scenic pull offs to tell the reader something of significance—something important that isn’t really relevant to her main thesis. Interestingly, I’ve learned as much about life and gotten as much wisdom from these scenic pull outs as I have from her books’ central themes. She’s a brilliant writer and oftentimes her insights are a little too heavy for me and I have to sit and ponder an idea, look at it again, re-read it in hopes of digesting the message—the moral or lesson in her story.

Recently, in one of the scenic turnouts Norris takes, there’s a mind-blowing statement (she is referencing Henri de Lubac), “It is not sincerity, it is Truth which frees us, because it transforms us. It tears us away from our inmost slavery. To seek sincerity above all things is perhaps, at bottom, not to want to be transformed.” Norris explains that followers of Christ must become adept at “spotting the difference between truth and sincerity.”

And she never speaks of it again. She goes on and writes another 150 pages and never mentions this topic.

But this scenic turnout truly caught my attention. I grappled with it for days. In our postmodern, deconstructive culture—the world in which we live—I think people do value sincerity more than Truth. In fact, for most people in our culture today, sincerity is the highest value you can hold. That’s why Oprah is so popular among Christians. Oprah is nothing if she is not sincere.

Sincerity is one of the ways that we as a culture embrace pluralism. “He can believe what he wants and I can believe what I want and it’s all good as long as we both truly believe.” Or, “Your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth.” But the truth IS, there’s only one Truth. People can be sincerely wrong and very adamant about the non-truth they believe. Even Christians.

Look at the Crusades. Not our best moment in Christian history. Or look how German Christians turned a blind eye during Hitler’s reign of terror against the Jews or even most recently the earnest and sincere guy that shot and killed the abortion doctor right here in Kansas. Without a doubt, we as followers of Christ can also be very sincerely wrong.

So how do we determine what is Truth and what is not? How do we become good at “spotting the difference between truth and sincerity” as Norris has said? Not just in others’ lives, but in our own as well?

It’s tough, no doubt about it. Look at the Gospels, for example. Four writers, three of them actual eyewitnesses, and though the basic premises are the same, some of the details are very different. Two men at the tomb; one man at the tomb—or were they angels? Jesus not at the tomb; Jesus was at the tomb. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James were there; the other Mary; only Mary. Judas hung himself (Matthew); Judas died because his bowels fell out (see the book of Acts). (Seriously, that’s what the NIV says). So how can we know Truth? How do we differentiate between perspectives and Truth? Because in order to differentiate between sincerity and Truth, we must know what Truth really is!

Well, for one thing, Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life…” (John 14:6 NIV) Okay. But what does that mean to me in regard to relationships? Disagreements? Political differences? Differing opinions about doctrine and the dos and don’ts of the Christian faith? How does that help me find Truth in complex situations?

And let me do my own scenic turnout here: Truth isn’t as easy as asking, “Well, WWJD?” As I’ve heard preached recently, that’s not a reasonable question. The better question is, “What Would Jesus Have Me Do?” Or “WWJHMD?” As Father Edward Beck recently stated on his ABC series Focus on Faith, “We can’t always know what Jesus would do. For example, Jesus never shoveled snow. He was perfect in every way and without sin, so his decisions were perfect; we are not. He also commanded the wind and the waves and he never confronted an Islamic terrorist trying to fly a jet plane into a building. So we need to ask, ‘Jesus, what would you have me do in this situation and how can I serve you in this circumstance?’” Anyone remember good old Rees Howells? He used to say, “The answer for me might be different than the answer for you because obedience is better than sacrifice.” Truth in these matters manifests when we walk in obedience. At times, when we’re faced with tough choices and decisions, we ask God what we should do. Conflicts, problems, dilemmas—these things have the ability to bring us closer to God if we focus on Him and choose to seek His face in each and every situation rather than a formula or some pat answer. The Truth is, in my opinion, most of the time, in most situations, God is affording us the opportunity to know Him better, not to pass some kind of WWJD exam. Anyway…

Truth. How do we know it and how do we honor it above sincerity? What I want to wrestle with here is how do we, as followers of Christ, deliberate or make a conscious effort to discern what is truly Truth and what is just feel-good sincerity?

So what is truth? How do we know what we know? This is the basic epistemological question, isn’t it? How do we know what we know and how do we know what we know is true? That question is too big for me and this little blog. But…

Facts are true, but sometimes facts change. Remember when the great thinkers and scientists of our world believed the earth was flat? And Galileo was almost burned at the stake for challenging the fact that the sun revolved around the earth. And what about the atom: not creation’s smallest known substance after all, is it? So facts can change, more information can reform what we know to be true.

Eyewitness accounts are sometimes called truth. But it’s kinda like those blind guys and the elephant thing all over again. And eyewitness accounts are influenced by perspectives, as I have already mentioned about the Gospels. Let’s face it. People see things differently. I can’t tell you the number of times Daryl and I were on two completely different vacations together. He found it invigorating and stimulating and I wanted to go into a coma.

Once, years ago, Daryl and I had a conflict with a brother in Christ. A good friend stepped in to mediate and he—also a brother in Christ—told us, “Well, his truth is his truth and what your truth is may be different—actually is different. There are two truths here.” But there aren’t. There never are. There can’t be. So I asked our mediator fellow, “What if someone accused your wife of having an affair? And you knew she wasn’t and she knew she wasn’t, but the accuser was absolutely, sincerely convinced she was. There’s a truth there and a non-truth. Right?” So we can know some things with absolute certainty and these would be Truths, would they not?

And don’t jump to the Ten Commandments on me here. I’m not talking situational ethics. For example, you shouldn’t kill. What if that person is attacking your child? Don’t lie. What about protection of human life like the ten Booms hiding Jews in WWII Holland? What about stealing? If you are hungry and have no food and your children are starving and you have no way to feed them? Do you steal then? Honor your father and your mother. What if your father molested you and other children…how does one honor a father like that? I’m just saying that it’s a lot harder than it looks, but it’s worth pursuing because, as Norris says, Truth transforms us; Truth changes us.

Here’s what I think. I think Truth reveals itself daily in the small things of living. When a store clerk gives me back too much change and I return it to her. When reporting an account of how many people were in attendance, I am not inflating the number. Truth is practicing the discipline of being as accurate as we can as often as we can. Truth is also found in Scripture. For instance, God is love and God loves us, each one of us of the human race—foibles, warts, flaws, and all. I believe, because He said it about Himself, that Jesus is the only way to God: “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 NIV). He said it and if I believe He is Truth, then He is also Truthful.

This is why as followers of Christ we should pursue Truth. God, what is the truth here? What is right and what is wrong? In days when the water of our culture is murky and navigating gets tougher and tougher, we need to be seekers of Truth and that comes through our asking God to reveal Himself and His Truth in each and every situation, relationship, in how we do business, and the whole of how we approach our world. We ask God, straight up, “God, what is True here and what is false?” If we do this, I believe human conflict among believers will lessen, not go away, but certainly diminish. If we do this, we can stand as followers of Christ for what is True and stand against what is not. Social hot topics of our day: abortion, homosexuality, health care, ministry, how to respond to Islam, benevolence, work, sexual sin, play, the right thing to do with what we’ve been given—all these things must go through the grid of Truth and by seeking the Holder of All Truth, we begin to build an intimacy with the Trinity that moves us from sincere followers of Christ to Truth Bearers of Love.

Because let’s face it, sincerity will never transform us or the world; sincerity will not save the world, but Truth and Truth alone will. Moving from just sincerity to sincerity based in Truth means seeking God with all of our hearts to know what is true and right and good; soaking ourselves in God’s Word so that His Truth may wash over us, cleansing us and helping us bring every thought into captivity—the captivity of His Truth. It involves sitting under good preaching that challenges us and exhorts us, and spending time in prayer that transforms our hearts and minds, being open to honest rebukes from people with whom we live in community, being open to change and mid-course correction if need be; it’s desiring God’s Truth above our own comforts, traditions and even our own established pet peeves. Truth begins when I invite the Holy Spirit into my life and I say, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24 NIV). Once we allow God’s Truth to transform us, then we are better able to be conduits of that Truth to transform and change a hurting and dying world and to do that with the utmost sincerity. Peace.

— Teri