Making Good Choices - Ten WordsSample

Making the right choices – Ten Words

Word # 9 Truth!  

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.” (Exodus 20:16)

Most people know that their actions should be guided by their conscience. Some take this to mean, "I think this is right," or, "I think this is what I should do." Some take it to an even easier level and say things like, "I need to follow my heart." However, there is a problem with that. Everyone does what they think is right (or at least seems to be right to themselves), but the underlying action is not necessarily guided by the right values.

Our conscience is a powerful tool for making the right choices. If your conscience is not properly formed, then it will not lead you in the right direction. In a society in which truth is relative, we need a compass which will always refer to a fixed point which never changes. This is, of course, the Bible, which tells us that God is the ultimate standard of truth—true North! We can navigate the many choices we need to make using the Bible as a compass.

God’s Word, the Bible is the absolute standard of truth. Without recognising this, we are given over to a relative meaning of truth in which truth for one person my not be truth for another. 

Truth is not a concept or a philosophical idea. It is a Person. Jesus is the truth about God and about life. Jesus, at His trial, stood before Pilate who asked Him, “What is truth?” Pilate would have spoken Latin, “Quid est veritas?” It is surmised that Jesus replied in an anagram. “Est vir qui adest!” “He who stands before you.”  

Jesus did say, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:6) If Jesus is the truth, getting to know Him and His ways and following His teachings will lead us into all the truth. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)

Making the right choices?

Truthtelling is the norm in the Bible and is rooted in God’s nature. That is why we can rely on His promises and build our lives on the truth of the Bible. As Christians, we have been given the Spirit of God and He will work on our conscience to guide us into making the right decisions. “I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 9:1)

Conscience is a word derived from the Latin ‘con ‘, meaning together, and ‘science’, meaning to know. So, our conscience is to know, together with God, what is true.