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Many Today Have Taken Oprah Winfree’s Advice About “Speaking Your Truth” Which Has Confused The Meaning of Truth

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In 2018, Oprah Winfree said the following at the Golden Globes, “What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have.” 

The concept of “my truth” and “your truth” is prevalent in our culture today and appeals to so many. Interestingly enough, this type of philosophy is nothing new. It was around even before Christ. Philosopher Protagoras (490-420 BC) was an advocate for this and said: 

“Man is the measure of all things, something is to me as it appears to me and is to you such as it appears to you.”

Can we really pick and choose what is truth and claim it as our own? No, we can’t. We are entitled to our opinion, but we’re not entitled to our own truth. If something is true, it’s true for everyone. Truth is defined as what corresponds to reality and tells things as they are.  

Nowadays, people tend to use subjective truth and claim them to be objective truth. The problem with this is that they are very different. How so?

Subjective and Objective Truth

Subjective truth is determined and depends on the subject, that is likes, dislikes, private and personal preferences. Seven-Up is the tastiest soft drink would be a subjective truth, because some people will say this is true, but others will not. If something is not true for everyone, then it’s not objectively true and is only an opinion or a preference. 

Objective truth, on the other hand, depends on the object. This refers to factual or historical claims. For instance, there is only one true medication for diabetes that really works to reduce blood sugar quickly and for a sustained period of time. That is insulin. It doesn’t matter if you like or dislike it, insulin is the only effective medication that really works with diabetes. If you have diabetes and don’t take insulin, you could die. Personal preferences don’t apply here.

People use objective truth every day in their lives. For instance, fire is hot and it’s probably a good idea not to put your hand in it otherwise you’ll burn yourself. Or if you’re walking around with a book in your hand and you suddenly let go of it, it will fall. 

I recently asked my class to guess which blood type I was. This is a fun game to play, especially in Japan because people are interested in matching blood types with personality. FYI, this is not including positive or negative blood types. 

Some of my students guessed I was A, some O, and others B. None of them thought I was AB, which was interesting. Now, I can’t be all of them at the same time, right? That would be impossible. I can only be one. When I told them I was A, some were very surprised, but others weren’t. My husband was probably the most surprised because he was convinced that I was O for the longest time. 

Moral Claims: Objective or Subjective Truth?

When morality and beliefs are discussed, people are very quick to change the meaning of truth. Many people view moral claims as subjective personal preference claims. In fact, moral claims are objective because they are facts about the world.  

For example, “It is wrong to torture animals.” This is not a subjective preference claim because it is not saying “I don’t like torturing animals” nor is it saying, “Well, if you don’t like torturing animals, then don’t do it.” We would be against torturing animals because it is objectively and morally wrong for everyone, not just for you. And the reason we can say this is because there is a moral objective standard or moral law, which has a moral lawgiver. 

Jesus = The Truth

Truth has been under attack since the very beginning, the Garden of Eden. Satan first questions truth by asking Eve, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). After Eve answers, he denies the truth by replacing it with a lie: “You shall not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil.” (v.5). His tactics have not changed one bit. 

Jesus highlights Satan’s very nature in John 8:43-44 during a long debate with Jewish leaders who would not accept His teachings: 

“Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (NASB)

Jesus, however, is the perfect embodiment of truth. He is all that God is and the expression of Him (John 1:1). God cannot lie because it goes against His very nature (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Hebrews 6:18) and since Jesus is God, He cannot lie. Whenever Jesus spoke, He spoke truth. It was not always well received, because truth is offensive and sometimes very hard to accept.

The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of truths that Jesus taught (Matthew 5:1-8:1). The crowds were amazed because Jesus spoke as one having authority and was above any scribe they had ever heard (Matthew 7:29). Some of the truths Jesus taught here elevated what was already written in the law. 

For instance, “You have heard it said ‘You shall not commit adultery’, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt 5:27-28 NASB). What Jesus is saying here is true because when we look at someone with lust, we have committed sexual acts with them in our minds and hearts. 

Similarly, the parables of Jesus (e.g. The Sower Matt 13:5; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-8, The Mustard Seed Matt 13:31, 32; Mark 4:31-32; Luke 13:19, The Wicked Landowner Matt 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19, The Lost Sheep Matt 18:12-14; Luke 15:4-7) are embedded in truth. They were understood by those who accepted Jesus and listened carefully to what He taught. But they were not understood by those who rejected Him, as was prophesied in Isaiah 6:9-10. 

Jesus’ criticisms were also embedded in truth. His address to the crowd about the Pharisees and their hypocrisy is one of them (Matthew 23: 2-36). He refers to them as hypocrites, serpents, brood of vipers, blind guides and blind men and describes them for what they are: clean on the outside, but on the inside full of dead men’s bones (v. 27). Jesus’ approach here is quite direct and offensive, but all of what He said about them was true. 

The truth that sentenced Jesus to death was when He claimed to be equal with God. This was a huge offense to the Jewish leaders because it was seen as blasphemy and punishable by death. But it was true. Jesus was God in the flesh. 

Our culture today treats truth like ice cream flavours and tries to suppress anything that offends, which is the inconvenient truth. Truth is offensive. It doesn’t matter how nice you are, truth will offend. But truth is what we all need. 

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6 NASB). Jesus is the only way, but He gives an invitation to come to Him, no matter who you are. 

Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

Blaise Pascal

References

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