Another commonly repeated, highly consequential lie is that there’s such a thing as “your truth” and “my truth”: Christian, your truth doesn’t exist. Your truth won’t bring hope or save anyone. … The Cross is the answer to every lie that tells me I can find everything I need inside myself. … The Cross is not just a symbol of salvation. It’s a place of rest. 

In her new book, author and apologist Alisa Childers targets the lies that often masquerade as cultural proverbs today. In Live Your Truth and Other Lies: Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed, Childers offers just what the title promises. She exposes the bad ideas at the center of slogans we hear all the time. You can receive a copy of the book with a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month. Just go to colsoncenter.org/august. 
Though the mantras that dominate our world can seem harmless, they are not. “Our culture,” Childers writes,  
is brimming with slogans that promise peace, fulfillment, freedom, empowerment, and hope. These messages have become such an integral component of our American consciousness that many people don’t even think to question them. … The problem? They are lies. 
In fact, Childers argues, slogans like “You are enough,” “authenticity is everything,” “Put yourself first,” “It’s all about love,” or “God just wants you to be happy,” commonly redefine words like love and hate and happy. What’s left is a modern-day “tower of Babel” (or “Babble”) situation where those with the most social media followers are granted authority and assumed to have expertise on life and how to live it.  
At the root of these destructive slogans is a view of the self. For example, Childers cites Glennon Doyle, whose New York Times No. 1 best seller Untamed centers around her decision to leave her husband for a woman she saw at a local zoo, all while quoting Carl Jung: “There is no greater burden on a child than the unlived life of a parent.”  
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A recent survey suggested that an alarming percentage of evangelicals do not believe in the sinlessness of Christ. That is a brazen attack of the enemy on the gospel itself. Is that doctrine being undermined because it’s not being taught or because people are not taking hold of it for one reason or another? Does something need to be rebooted?

On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. (Isaiah 62:6–7, NASB95)

It’s no surprise that our society is becoming less and less familiar with the Bible. It’s often regarded as archaic, superstitious, and contentious, something relegated to a less enlightened time. When the Bible is cited, it’s akin to quoting Shakespeare’s pithy sayings. As a vestige of yesteryear, the Bible can be brought to bear to lend some sort of fading gravitas but often those quotes are butchered and misapplied in service to one’s own aims, such as “money is the root of all evil” or “do not judge.” More often than not, these quotes are introduced into conversation by those who know virtually nothing about the Bible or its message, let alone give glory to its Author.

The greater problem is that the church is becoming less and less familiar with the Bible. There are actual surveys that document a growing biblical illiteracy among churchgoers, but I speak here more anecdotally. As I have led Bible studies in the community, those who belong to a wide variety of local churches and who appear to have a lively faith are unaware of basic Biblical knowledge. Even those in positions of leadership in local congregations show themselves to be unfamiliar with accounts such as Rahab’s role in the siege of Jericho and Nathan’s rebuke of David. Nor do they know their way around the Bible.

What has most recently alarmed me and piqued my curiosity has to with a recent conversation that was related to me. A woman who regularly attends a large seeker-sensitive church expressed ignorance of basic doctrine. In fact, the word doctrine was unfamiliar to her. She didn’t make a connection between what a church does and what the Bible teaches. But what was really strange was her comment that she read through the Bible every year.

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We cannot know what is in the hearts of fellow Christians as they seek to honor God in their daily lives, and we should not impose restrictions on believers where God has given us liberty. Although it is human nature to do so, we also should avoid comparing ourselves with other believers and thinking that they are better than we are—or that we are better than they are—for whatever reason, since all of us are sinners in need of God’s grace in Christ.

Do you ever feel like other people are better Christians than you are? Maybe they read their Bibles more, give more money to the church, pray more for others, are involved in church ministry, do more good deeds, or never seem to do anything really sinful. It’s easy to get discouraged when we start comparing our own Christian walk with other believers we know.
One of the big reasons this happens is that humans are geared to think that keeping rules is how we are right before God, and they are actually correct about this (see Lev. 18:5; Luke 10:25–28). The problem is that no one can keep God’s laws perfectly. This is why Jesus came: we need his perfect righteousness and perfect sacrifice to be counted to us through faith in Christ so we can be declared justified before God.
Some Christians can add requirements that the Bible doesn’t dictate.
Still, Christians are often prone to think that they will be closer to God by keeping certain rules and living certain lifestyles. The problem with this is that some Christians can add requirements that the Bible doesn’t command, or they may consider certain lifestyle choices to be more spiritual than others. What is a Christian to do when it comes to knowing how to live according to God’s word in this world?
The Westminster Confession of Faith gives us excellent counsel in this area in its chapter, “Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience”:

God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in anything, contrary to his Word; or beside it, if matters of faith, or worship. So that, to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands, out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience: and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also. (WCF 20:2)

Look at the phrase, “or beside it.” With these words, the Westminster Confession of Faith reminds Christians that they are not bound by any “doctrines and commandments of men” that are not found in God’s word. It is also true that believers must be considerate of their neighbors, not causing them to stumble (Rom. 14:13–23: 1 Cor. 8:7–13). The sixteenth-century pastor and theologian John Calvin reminds Christians to use their freedom responsibly and lovingly:

Nothing is plainer than this rule: that we should use our freedom if it results in the edification of our neighbor, but if it does not help our neighbor, then we should forgo it (The Institutes, 3.19.12)

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