What is Truth? Anchoring Your Life When the Culture Shifts

Day 1: The Trust Recession and Shifting Sand

Scripture: John 18:38 (ESV)“Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’ After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, ‘I find no guilt in him.’”

Rundown: We are living in what researchers accurately call a "trust recession." If you look at the data from Barna Research, the average person's confidence in institutions telling the truth has steadily plummeted from 39% in 1996 to a record low of 27% today across 14 different institutional areas. People look around and genuinely feel that no one is telling them the truth anymore. We see it in the church, too. While a local, small-church pastor ranks near the top of trusted individuals—falling only behind family members and local businesses—the "celebrity pastor" is ranked dead last, below even politicians. Why the massive discrepancy? Because trust takes a lifetime to build and only a fraction of a second to destroy. And the modern world has watched people who are supposed to be proclaiming the truth of the Gospel twist it, embellish it, or abandon it the moment it stops serving their personal agenda.

This trust recession didn't happen in a vacuum. It happened because we live in a culture that treats truth as a relative, personalized commodity. We are constantly told, "Well, that’s your truth," or "As long as it's true to me, that's what matters." But Pilate’s cynical question to Jesus—“What is truth?”—is the exact same question our culture is choking on today. If truth can shift based on your feelings, your perspective, or the latest cultural trend, then it was never truth to begin with. If I point to a wall and close my eyes, the wall doesn't cease to exist just because I'm not looking at it.

Truth is a bedrock. It cannot change. If it changes, it’s just an opinion. And if you build your life on the shifting sand of your opinions, your emotions, or what makes you comfortable in the moment, it will inevitably collapse when the weight of real-world adversity presses down. You can’t build a legacy on feelings. We have to stop starting with the conclusion we want to be true and then scrambling to find proof to back it up. Radical ownership demands that we start with the unmoving bedrock of God's Word, even when it tells us things we don't want to hear.

Action Step: Audit your foundation today. Take a brutal inventory of your life: where are you currently operating based on what you feel rather than what is actually true? Identify one area—your marriage, your finances, your parenting, or your schedule—where you have been making excuses based on your emotions. Repent of that today, stop playing the victim to your own feelings, and ask God to anchor your mind back to the unshakeable truth of His Word.

Day 2: Crossing Your Toes in a No-Fault Culture

Scripture: Matthew 5:33-34 (ESV)“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God...”

Rundown: When we were kids, if you wanted to tell a lie but didn't want the guilt of breaking a promise, you crossed your fingers behind your back. If your siblings caught onto that, you kept your hands in front of you and crossed your toes inside your shoes. The religious leaders of Jesus' day, the Pharisees, did the exact same thing—they just dressed it up in sophisticated legalism. They figured out that the Old Testament law required them to fulfill any oath made in God's name. So, to give themselves a loophole, they started swearing by the Temple, or by the earth, or by Jerusalem. They were making commitments with their toes crossed, treating their word like a contract with a built-in escape clause for when things got difficult.

We do this today because we live in a "no-fault" culture. Think about getting into a car accident in a no-fault state like Florida. No one wants to take the blame; both drivers immediately point the finger at the other person, leaving the insurance companies to fight it out while neither party takes responsibility. This exact same mentality has infiltrated our faith and our commitments. A hundred years ago, you had to have a legitimate, legal reason to get divorced. The culture understood that when you said, "Till death do us part," you actually had to mean it. Today, we want an out for everything. We promise to love our spouses in the good times, but the moment it gets hard, we start looking for the exit. We over-promise our time to our friends, but when it's time to show up and do the work, we have a million excuses.

Jesus is calling His followers to a standard of radical integrity that shatters the no-fault culture. Stop exploiting the loopholes. Your word should be so solid that you don't need a legally binding oath to back it up. When the church operates with crossed fingers, bending and embellishing the truth to save face, the outside world sees it. Why would a lost world trust us with the eternal truth of the Gospel if they can't even trust us to show up when we said we would?

Action Step: Identify where you are crossing your toes. Have you said "yes" to something—a relationship, a team, a ministry, or a neighbor—that you are currently trying to back out of simply because it got inconvenient? Stop making excuses. Honor your word this week. Let your yes be yes, fulfill your commitment, and show the people around you what a dependable, truth-telling Christian actually looks like.

Day 3: Brisket, Texts, and the Danger of Proof-Texting

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (ESV)“But test everything; hold fast what is good.”

Rundown: One of the most common questions people ask is: If we all have one Bible, how do we have 65,000 different Christian denominations? The answer boils down to a fundamental failure to take ownership of how we read the text. The first rule of hermeneutics (interpreting scripture) is that a text only has one meaning: the specific intention of the author. If I text my wife, "I love you," she knows exactly what I mean. She doesn't read it and think, "He feels about me the way he feels about smoked brisket." She doesn't misinterpret my intention because we know each other. 

There is one author, and there is one intention.

Yet, when we approach the Bible, we often toss the Author's intention completely out the window. We start with the conclusion we want and then go hunting for a verse to back it up. This is called proof-texting, and it is a dangerous, deceptive game. It allows us to twist God’s Word to fit our lifestyle instead of bending our lifestyle to fit His truth. We read a verse, decide we want it to mean something that makes us comfortable, and if someone disagrees, we just split off and start a new church down the street.

The harsh reality is that the problem in the modern church isn't a lack of information. You have access to more biblical knowledge on the phone in your pocket than the greatest theologians of human history had in their entire lifetimes. Our problem is a lack of transformation. We don't want to do the hard work of digging into context. We'd rather swipe through 90-second TikTok videos from pastors who promise us health, wealth, and prosperity because it tickles our ears. But remember, Satan knows every single word in the Bible. Information without submission is useless. If you want to walk in truth, you have to do the heavy lifting of studying the Word in its actual context and letting it change you, even when it hurts.

Action Step: Stop relying on 60-second clips for your theology. Today, pick one theological stance or belief you hold tightly and test it against scripture. Read the full chapter, not just the single verse you like. Take 15 minutes to actually dig into the context, the author, and the audience. Stop looking for the Bible to agree with you, and ask the Holy Spirit to align your heart with the truth.

Day 4: You Can't Change Your Hair

Scripture: Matthew 5:36-37 (ESV)“And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”

Rundown: One of the most profound and sobering realities we have to wake up to is our complete and utter lack of control. Jesus explicitly tells us not to swear by our own heads because we don't even have the power to naturally change the color of a single hair on our bodies. We live under the arrogant illusion that we hold the reins—that we can control our circumstances, manipulate outcomes, and promise results. This arrogance bleeds into how we make commitments and even how we pray.

We make promises assuming tomorrow is guaranteed, ignoring the fact that we aren't promised our next breath. We pray for healing and act as if our specific words or the volume of our voice holds the magical power, completely forgetting that Jesus is the power, not us. We serve a God whose ways are higher than our ways, and whose thoughts are infinitely higher than our thoughts. If you and God were on the same level of intelligence, you would be worshiping the wrong God.

Because we lack control, we also frequently lack knowledge. But as Christians, we are often terrified to admit that. When tragedy strikes or someone asks a tough theological question, we spit out pre-packaged, bumper-sticker answers to sound smart or to artificially comfort someone. We try to explain the hypostatic union when we haven't even read the book of John. Radical ownership doesn't mean pretending you have all the answers; it means acknowledging that you don't, and submitting fully to the God who does. Sometimes the most truthful, powerful answer a Christian can give a hurting or questioning friend is, "I don't know the answer to that, but let's dig into the Word and figure it out together."

Action Step: Where are you desperately trying to play God in your life? What situation, relationship, or outcome are you trying to force your will upon? Relinquish the illusion of control today. Admit what you don't know, stop making promises you don't have the power to keep, and actively submit that specific situation to Jesus.

Day 5: Eggs, Evidence, and the Only Truth

Scripture: Romans 1:18 (ESV) & John 14:6 (ESV)“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

Rundown: If you look at the humble egg over the last 30 years, you'll see a perfect picture of how human "truth" shifts. In 1990, eggs were the worst thing you could eat—guaranteed to give you a heart attack. By the mid-90s, they were a superfood for building muscle. In the 2010s, they were linked to disease again. By 2015, they were back to being a superfood. Today, you can literally Google and find peer-reviewed studies proving both sides simultaneously. This is the exhausting reality of living in a culture that relies on shifting human knowledge.

But biblical truth does not shift. We have definitive, historical proof that Jesus of Nazareth lived, died, and was seen by over 500 people after His resurrection. Even secular historians like Pliny and Josephus recorded His existence. We look around at the vast complexity of the universe and know that creation demands a Creator. Yet, as Paul writes in Romans 1, mankind actively suppresses the truth. Why? Because we don't want the accountability. We are tired of "adulting." We don't want to answer to a Creator who has the authority to tell us how to run our marriages, how to spend our money, and how to live our lives. So we push the truth down, pretend God doesn't exist, and make up our own rules.

But Jesus didn't say, "I am a way, and a truth." He said, "I am the way, and the truth." There is only one. You can sit here and argue, you can find a YouTube video to back up your rebellion, and you can cross your fingers behind your back while you play the church game. But one day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. Truth will always stand on its own, and it will always prevail. Submitting to God's truth means giving up the victim mentality, stepping up to the plate, and accepting responsibility for your life. When you stop fighting the truth and instead surrender to Jesus, you find the only freedom that actually lasts.

Action Step: Take the "Be Salty" challenge. Set a timer for 10 minutes today and sit in complete silence. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal one specific lie you have been believing and building your life upon. Is it the lie that you have no value? The lie that you are in control? The lie that you don't need the church? Confront it. Call it out for what it is, confess it to a trusted brother or sister, and replace it with the unchanging truth of Jesus Christ.