When Did Truth Become Personal Instead of Real?
- The Wholy Christian
- Feb 5
- 8 min read
Why “Everyone Has Their Own Truth” Sounds Right… Until You Slow Down and Think About It
Somewhere along the way, truth stopped being something we discover and started being something we claim. Instead of asking what’s real, we ask what feels right. Instead of weighing facts, we compare experiences. And instead of disagreement leading to clarity, it often gets shut down with a polite phrase: “Well, that’s your truth.”
At first, that sounds mature. Kind, even. It feels like a way to respect people without starting a fight. But once you sit with it for a moment, a deeper question starts to surface: if everyone has their own truth, does truth actually mean anything anymore?
Because in everyday life, we don’t really live as if reality is flexible. We expect numbers to add up. We expect promises to mean something. We expect actions to have consequences. And when something goes wrong, we don’t ask whose truth caused it—we ask what actually happened.
So why does truth suddenly become personal when the conversation turns moral, spiritual, or uncomfortable? And what are we quietly giving up when we let feelings replace reality?
Once we slow down and define what we mean by “truth,” a lot of the confusion clears. And what we discover isn’t harsh or cold. It’s grounding, stabilizing, and far more compassionate than relativism ever was.
What People Usually Mean When They Say “My Truth”
When someone says “my truth,” they’re almost never making a philosophical claim about reality. They’re usually trying to communicate something personal and meaningful. Most often, they mean one of these things:
“This is how I experienced it.”
“This is how I feel about it.”
“This is what I believe.”
“This is what makes sense to me right now.”
Those things matter. Experiences shape us. Feelings are real. Beliefs guide decisions. But none of those things are the same as truth itself.
Problems start when we collapse all of those categories into one word. When “truth” becomes a stand-in for emotion, belief, or perspective, it stops doing the job truth is supposed to do. It no longer describes reality; it just protects personal meaning.
That’s why conversations feel so circular now. People aren’t actually disagreeing about facts. They’re talking past each other because they’re using the same word to mean different things.
So What Is Truth, Really?
If we’re going to talk honestly about truth, we have to define it clearly.
At its most basic level, truth means that which corresponds to reality as it actually is. A statement is true if it matches what’s real, independent of whether anyone likes it, agrees with it, or feels affirmed by it.
That definition isn’t new, religious, or controversial. It’s the foundation of logic, science, history, and everyday reasoning. We rely on it constantly without thinking about it.
If someone says, “The bridge can hold the weight,” that statement is either true or false depending on reality, not intention. If a doctor says, “The scan shows a fracture,” that claim either matches what’s there or it doesn’t. Reality decides, not preference.
This is why truth can’t be created by belief. Believing something doesn’t make it true. It only means you believe it. Truth is discovered, tested, and aligned with—not declared into existence.
Scripture assumes this definition everywhere it speaks about truth.
📜 John 14:6
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
Jesus doesn’t describe truth as flexible, personal, or situational. He identifies Himself as truth. That means truth isn’t just an idea—it’s grounded in God’s very nature. What aligns with Him is true. What contradicts Him is not.
Why Contradictory “Truths” Can’t Both Be True
Once truth is defined as correspondence to reality, something becomes unavoidable: two contradictory claims can’t both be true in the same sense at the same time.
That’s not a Christian rule. It’s a rule of meaning. If contradictions could both be true, words would stop meaning anything.
Take this example:
“Jesus rose bodily from the dead.”
“Jesus did not rise bodily from the dead.”
Both claims can’t match reality. One may be false. But they can’t both be true. And everyone already knows this, even if they don’t say it out loud.
Nobody lives as if contradictions are acceptable everywhere. If your bank account says one thing and your card is declined, you don’t say, “Both truths are valid.” You assume one of them doesn’t match reality and figure out which.
We only start pretending contradictions can coexist when the topic is moral or spiritual—and that should tell us something.
Scripture Treats Truth as Something You Align With, Not Something You Create
The Bible never treats truth as something humans invent. It treats truth as something revealed by God and responded to by people.
📜 Numbers 23:19
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
Because God is unchanging, truth is stable. It doesn’t shift with culture, majority opinion, or emotional intensity. That doesn’t make it oppressive. It makes it trustworthy.
A truth that changes depending on who’s speaking isn’t compassionate. It’s unreliable.
Perspective Isn’t the Same as Reality (But It Still Matters)
This is where nuance really matters.
People often hear “objective truth” and think it means dismissing lived experience. That’s not what Scripture does, and it’s not what wisdom does either.
Reality is one. Our access to it is limited.
Two people can experience the same event and walk away with different impressions. That doesn’t mean there are two realities. It means humans are finite.
Scripture acknowledges this limitation, which is why it values multiple witnesses and careful discernment.
📜 Deuteronomy 19:15
“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.”
Perspectives matter because they help us see more clearly. But they don’t create truth. They help us move closer to it.
Different Domains of Truth Aren’t “Different Truths”
When people say, “There are many truths,” what they often mean is something much more reasonable than it sounds. Most of the time, they’re trying to say there are different kinds of true statements. And in that sense, they’re not wrong.
We talk about truth in different domains all the time without even noticing it. Math describes numerical reality. History describes what actually happened in the past. Morality describes what is right and wrong. Symbolism and poetry describe meaning in a non-literal way. These domains aren’t competing with each other. They’re answering different kinds of questions about the same unified reality.
For example, “A circle has no corners” is mathematically true. “David was king of Israel” is historically true. “Lying destroys trust” is morally true. None of those statements cancel each other out. They don’t contradict because they’re not trying to describe the same thing in the same way.
Confusion only enters when we mix categories. Problems happen when someone tries to treat a moral truth like a personal preference, or a historical claim like a metaphor, or a symbolic statement like a literal one. That’s not plural truth. That’s category error.
Truth itself isn’t fragmented. Reality isn’t divided into disconnected pieces that contradict each other. If reality is coherent, truth must be coherent too. And from a biblical perspective, reality is coherent because it flows from one consistent God.
📜 Psalm 119:160
“The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.”
Notice the wording. Scripture doesn’t say God’s Word contains many unrelated truths that occasionally clash. It says the sum of His Word is truth. It’s unified, internally consistent, and enduring. Different domains don’t weaken truth. They show its depth.
Absolute Truth Doesn’t Mean Rigid Application
One of the biggest misunderstandings about absolute truth is the assumption that it leads to rigid, robotic living. As if believing in objective truth means every situation is handled the exact same way with no nuance, wisdom, or discernment.
That’s not how Scripture works.
God’s truth doesn’t change, but the application of that truth often depends on timing, context, and purpose. The principle stays fixed. Wisdom decides how it’s lived out.
📜 Ecclesiastes 3:7
“A time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”
Both silence and speech can be right. Both are grounded in truth. But they’re not right at the same time, for the same reasons, in the same circumstances. Speaking when you should be silent can be harmful. Staying silent when you should speak can be just as damaging.
That doesn’t mean truth changed. It means wisdom mattered.
You already live this way in normal life. You don’t talk to a grieving friend the same way you talk to a coworker in a meeting. You don’t discipline a child the same way you correct an adult. You don’t apply the same words, tone, or timing in every situation—but you’re still operating from the same underlying values.
Biblical truth works the same way. God’s moral reality is absolute. His character doesn’t shift. But how truth is expressed requires discernment, humility, and love. Absolute truth doesn’t eliminate wisdom. It demands it.
Why “Everyone Has Their Own Truth” Sounds Kind but Breaks Everything
The phrase “everyone has their own truth” feels compassionate because it sounds like it protects people from being judged or dismissed. And in the short term, it can lower tension. Conversations end. Arguments pause. No one feels challenged.
But that kindness comes at a cost.
If truth becomes personal, disagreement stops meaning anything. Error disappears. Correction becomes impossible. Accountability fades. At that point, truth no longer describes reality—it just validates emotion.
And once truth works that way, it can’t do the things we actually need it to do.
You can’t say something is wrong—only that you don’t prefer it.
You can’t say something is unjust—only that it hurts.
You can’t call anyone to repentance—only to self-expression.
Eventually, even the gospel becomes optional. Jesus doesn’t save us from sin; He just offers one perspective among many.
But that’s not how Jesus spoke about truth.
📜 John 17:17
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
Jesus doesn’t pray that His followers would be shaped by sincerity, authenticity, or personal meaning. He prays they’d be shaped by truth—something solid, external, and real. Something capable of correcting, refining, and healing.
Truth isn’t the enemy of compassion. It’s what makes compassion real. A doctor who refuses to name the illness isn’t being kind. A friend who never tells you the truth isn’t being loving. And a faith that won’t deal with reality can’t actually save anyone.
Truth, when rightly understood and wisely applied, doesn’t crush people. It gives them something firm to stand on.
Final Thought
There can be multiple perspectives, beliefs, interpretations, and applications—but there can’t be multiple contradictory truths.
Truth is unified because reality is unified. And reality is grounded in the God who is truth. When we define truth clearly, we don’t lose kindness. We gain clarity, stability, and a faith that can actually hold weight in the real world.
Ask Yourself:
Where am I tempted to call something “true” simply because it feels true to me?
Do I let Scripture define reality, or do I quietly reshape it to fit my comfort?
Join the Discussion:
Where have you seen “my truth” language help someone feel heard—but also blur the line between perspective and reality?
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