Unveiling Truth: 5 Modern Ideas That Clash with Jesus' Teachings

In a world where truth from lies are becoming intermingled, Jesus' teachings offer a very different perspective on many things our society believes. Jesus taught that spiritual wealth and generosity were more important than material wealth and possessions. He also believed in selflessness and putting others first, which is different from the world's message of self-gratification. Jesus believed in unity and forgiveness, which are different from the message of division and animosity. Jesus exemplified humility and serving others, compared to the world's pursuit of power and dominance. 

What Jesus taught and how Jesus served and loved are is in stark contrast to some of the things we hear and see today. Jesus always came with a balance of grace and truth. In his book ”The Grace and Truth Paradox” Randy Alcorn gave this description: “Truth without grace breeds a self-righteous legalism that poisons the church and pushes the world away from Christ. Grace without truth breeds moral indifference and keeps people from seeing their need for Christ." In this article, we will examine five common lies that may appear to be true on the surface but are fundamentally misleading. The teachings of Jesus in the Bible often diverge from what we commonly hear today, which should come as no surprise.

Follow Your Heart 

Listening to your heart means doing whatever feels right. However we are reminded in the bible from Jeremiah,

“The heart is deceitful above all things And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17:9-10 NKJV

Living life on your terms means rejecting expectations of what it takes to grow into maturity. Following your heart is where you prioritize your pleasure, fulfilment and satisfaction. You pursue love that feels right to you, choose a career that aligns with your natural talents, and live where you want to live. You dress the way you want, eat what you want, watch what you want, listen to what you want. You prioritize your desires and needs over others. You follow yourself, however Jesus said; Follow Me (Matthew 16:24-26)

Be True to Yourself

William Shakespeare wrote, “This above all: to thine own self be true.

One website stated, “Being true to yourself means thinking and acting in ways that align with your own values and feelings—rather than the values of others. If you’re living true to yourself, you feel confident in your identity, and you are pursuing goals that you know will lead to your own happiness.”* On this same website, you can buy a MasterClass to learn self-expression and authenticity from RuPaul, a famous drag queen. Nothing says authentic or being your true self like dressing up in flamboyant and exaggerated costumes and make-up, but I digress.

Cambridge Dictionary defines being true to yourself as “to behave according to your beliefs and do what you think is right.”* This is very similar to the advice of following your heart, self is at the centre and what feels right to me is what I must do. However Jesus said; Deny Yourself (Matthew 16:24-26)

Believe in Yourself

The Berkley Wellbeing Institute writes this about believing in yourself…*

“Believing in yourself means having confidence in your own abilities. It means being able to trust yourself to do what you say you'll do and knowing that those efforts will result in the desired outcomes. That means that believing in yourself comes from a mixture of several key psychological experiences—experiences like self-worth, self-confidence, self-trust, self-respect, autonomy, and environmental mastery.”

Again notice the keyword in this description - SELF. There is a common theme that keeps reoccurring here and it is that self is at the centre. I follow what feels right to me and I am the one to bring about what I want in life. You don’t need the help, advice, wisdom or guidance of anyone else. I can make it apart from anyone else. Jesus didn’t say to believe in yourself, Jesus said to Believe in Me (John 11:25-26)

Live Your Truth

At the 2018 Golden Globes Oprah Winfrey said “Speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have.” To live in your truth simply means to live as your most authentic self, doing things daily that bring you happiness and joy, living as true to yourself as possible. 

What is true to you doesn’t have to be true to someone else. With this worldview, there is no ultimate truth just what is true to me and what is true to you. So if I don’t like this “truth” then I can reject it because there is no ultimate truth, just what is true to me and true to you. And they can be completely opposite of each other. Self is there again, most of these phrases that are almost the same with slight variations on how these lies are expressed. Jesus didn’t tell people to live their truth he said I am the Truth - (John 14:6)

As long as you are happy that’s all that matters

In a Q&A session, C.S Lewis once said “If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad. Imagine a set of people all living in the same building. Half of them think it is a hotel, the other half think it is a prison. Those who think it is a hotel might regard it as quite intolerable and those who thought it was a prison might decide that it was surprisingly comfortable. So what seems the ugly doctrine is one that comforts and strengthens you in the end. The people who try to hold an optimistic view of this world would become pessimists: the people who hold a pretty stern view of it become optimistic.”*

“The reason why it can never succeed is this. God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” ‭

For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life. (Mark 8:36)

*https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-be-true-to-yourself

*https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/true-to

*https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/believe-in-yourself.html

*https://www.cltruth.com/2017/happiness-c-s-lewis/