“For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.” – 2 Corinthians 13:8
Truth must matter to the people of God! This is even more true in our post-truth culture in which many let their politics and preferred news sources define truth. We’ve entered an era in which our political loyalties (in any direction) and non-stop news/social media consumption (which is directly tied to our political loyalties) not only spoon feed us our truth, but we don’t care at all about the possibility of any truth coming from a different source. This is unacceptable for followers of Jesus!
We serve the God of truth and are commanded not to bear false witness (including passing along false information). God’s Word is our ultimate source of truth and its content must take priority over any earthly news source. That must be the absolute, rock-solid first commitment for every Christian.
Then when it comes to earthly news sources, we must branch out beyond just those that repeatedly echo whatever it is we like to hear or happen to believe about the news of the day. God sends rain on the just and on the unjust, so there is no single human party, channel, or twitter feed with a monopoly on the truth (though some may be entirely false). Christians should engage with a variety of sources and kinds of information.
We should be people who are curious, who use the faculties God has given us to be actively learning our whole lives. We must become people who discern and sift the mixture of truth and falsehood flows out of any human speaker, party, channel, or feed. We should be people who are quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry, and slow to like and share. We must be for the truth. Not “our” truth. Not “their” truth. “The” truth. Truth must matter!