The Way, the Truth, the Life

Relativism. Absolutes. Whew! Those are heady philosophical terms that few of us spend much time pondering out-of-sanctuary. We’re content to leave such contemplations to those who study within book-lined walls or in classrooms far removed from the assembly-line worker, the waitress, the quality-control engineer, the harried mom with three preschoolers.

And that’s okay. We don’t need to crack a philosophy book or sit in on a university lecture to get a handle on Truth. There’s really nothing high-brow or exclusive or hard-to-grasp about Life. Nothing it takes an egghead to understand about the Way to God (in fact, they often struggle harder).

Because the Truth, as we heard Sunday, is a Person who sat thirsty and hungry beside a well, and invited a Samaritan woman to end her long search for meaning. The Life looked up at a little man perched in the branches of a sycamore tree, and invited Himself home for dinner – and that day salvation came to that house. The Way stood in the shadows with a seeking Pharisee, and invited him into the process of new birth. The Way, the Truth and the Life is a Person – Jesus Christ. Have Him, and you have assurance of what is real and right, where you’re going, and how to get there.

Pastor Phillips mentioned Sunday “the wear and tear of relativism.” Aptly put. How easy it is for Christ-followers to slip into the mindset of the world, to compromise, to rationalize Truth. We hate to appear intolerable and we worry about coming off harsh and turning people away. Besides, we aren’t smart enough to refute our neighbor’s arguments. Where is the chapter and verse to support our stand? What respected authority can we quote to convince the skeptics?

Not to worry. Our heritage as Christian & Missionary Alliance people is “Jesus Only” - the watchword of founder A. B. Simpson’s life. Still today, as the choir sang Sunday, “We preach Christ.” Not merely conservative ideals or a particular brand of theology or denominationalism, but Jesus. A Person, not a theory. Flesh-and-blood, not words on a page or rules in a book. A relationship with Him, not intellectual enlightenment.

Do the same in your life this week. Preach Christ. Jesus only. Jesus, the Way, the Truth, the Life. Walk the Way He leads; live the Truth He teaches; enjoy the Life He gives. It will be, for you, a simple and freeing thing. And it may be, for someone you meet, a woman-at-the-well experience.