A simpler form of this question might be: “Does truth change to line up with what I believe to be true?”
People today use the phrase “my truth”, as if their truth is isolated from the scrutiny of “other people’s truth”.
The popular way of articulating it is: “You have your truth, I have mine.”
The popular way of feeling about it is: “If you tell me your truth and I don’t agree with it, I have a right to be offended and angry. Keep your truth to yourself, it doesn’t apply to me!”
This type of mentality is a very recent societal development that has crept stealthily into the church. Christians refuse to acknowledge correction and anyone that presents truth that is contrary to their way of thinking is rejected at best and seen as evil at worst.
The ability to pull out God’s Word and study, presenting relevant scriptures is a skill that few have. Instead that pull out a book written by someone that agrees with them and assign it the authority of God’s Word. It’s easier and it affirms them, rather than reproves them.
To see this mentality at play in a different setting, confront a friend about a recent event that hurt you and try to clear the air. Rather than re-examine what was said and who reacted in what way, they will become angry, scream out their truth, based on what they were feeling and believed to be true at the time. Then they will insist that you acknowledge their version of what happened and align your beliefs with theirs.
They have no desire to examine actual truth and even if proof is presented, they deem it unimportant in the light of their feelings.
So, is it wrong to confront deception? What if it is going to harm the person being deceived? If a person is basing their beliefs and therefore their decisions on bad information and the end result is going to harm them, possibly for all eternity, shouldn’t we speak truth, so they can at least can examine it?
If a person chooses to exalt God’s Word to the position of final authority in their lives and reject anything that doesn’t align with it, he or she has then arrived at the truth.
If they act in obedience to it, doing what it says, even when it’s hard, they have crossed the line and are now a ‘follower’ of Jesus. Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow Me.” It’s at that point that we become His disciple.
The Word of God is to be a mirror so we can take a good long look at ourselves and see what areas of our lives need to be corrected, repented of and adjusted. Living life as if we are the final authority of what we do and say, make us ‘Lord’ and not Jesus.
A humble believer asks God to show them truth whether it is what they want to see or not.
James 1:19-25 NASB
19 You know this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Now everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; 20 for a man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. 22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25 But one who has looked intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and has continued in it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an active doer, this person will be blessed in what he does.