2 Tim.3:7 “They are ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
I first discovered I was colour blind at Primary school. My art teacher couldn’t believe the colours I was painting the cows. Later on, at Secondary school, in the science class, the teacher soon realised that reading the litmus test paper was beyond me. It’s not that I can’t see any colours at all (that’s only in the rarest of cases) It simply means that the colours I see may not necessarily be the colours you see. In fact, they could be entirely different. Obviously, I could never be an electrician or a fashion designer. Fortunately, it doesn’t affect my work at all. However, it does impair my ability to pick out matching shirts, ties and socks. (By the way, if you’re wondering how I manage at traffic lights, I remember the sequence.) It’s a quirk of nature that you and I can look at the same colour and see two entirely different things. It’s a kind of ‘colour dyslexia.’ One of the things though I have to accept, is that my personal perception of colour doesn’t actually change the colour. Green is still green and brown is still brown no matter what they look like to me. No matter what colour I think my shirt is, my wife still insists its blue.
In a kind of way truth works much the same. Our view of truth is often distorted by the cultural, religious, social or historical lenses we see it through. But truth is truth. It doesn’t change because of how we see it. We are often told there are no absolutes. Whatever feels right for you is right for you. Set your own standards. Live by your own rules. Do your own thing. But can that be right? What if I decided to completely ignore the traffic light sequence, and instead insisted on my own faulty perception of colours? After what you now know about me, I don’t think you would want to be my passenger!
When it comes to the great eternal issues of life and death, time and eternity, Heaven and Hell, we should take great care to discover truth. We simply cannot afford to get it wrong. Our eternal future is at stake. Jesus spelt it out for us. He left us in no doubt that He is the source and fountainhead of all truth. In John 14:6 He says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Satan is the father of lies and the truth is not in him. (John 8:44) It is impossible for God to lie. (Heb.6:18) This world’s opinions and trends are ever changing. As the Bible says, “They are ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (11Tim.3:7) Why? Because they are looking in all the wrong places. They ignore God’s unchanging, infallible Word.
Recently, my grandchildren clubbed together and bought me a pair of special lenses to clip on to my glasses. They are designed for people like me who are colour blind. The first sunset I saw through them I was wowed by the blaze of colour. I had never in over seventy years seen a sunset as vibrant as that. What made the difference? The lenses I was looking through. For a believer to have a proper worldview we have to look through the lens of God’s Word.
- Pastor David Goudy