In my world, the discussion of truth, or Truth, is all part of the job. I discuss my truth, your truth, and occasionally the truth.

Most fun, for me, is to talk about ontological truth. Ontological truth, in my meaning, is free of needing any foundational argument laid out before it in order for the ontological truth to be… well… true.

Quick example: God is love. That’s an ontological truth. I used this ontological truth in my time in Iraq. I had many candid conversations with Muslim people, and we would talk about God. I have often been asked the question, “Is Allah the same as the Christian God?” And the truth can be worked backwards from our ontological truth. Hang with me.

The God I worship, no matter by what name I call Him, is love. So, it stands to reason that the God a Muslim worships, no matter what name they call Him by, could certainly be the same God that I worship. If, and it’s a big if, that God is love. Certainly the case works with my own Christian brothers and sisters as well. It doesn't matter how similar our worship is, or our names for God. If they are worshiping something other than Love—we cannot be worshiping the same God.

So a friend of mine told me that he stopped believing in Jesus. Our conversation went something like this:

Him, “I don’t believe in Jesus anymore. I don’t believe in the Church. I certainly don’t believe that all this theology that I was taught growing up.”

Me, “Interesting. Tell me, do you love your wife, or hate her.”

“What? I love her. What do you mean?”

“So you believe in love over hate. Love is good. Hate is bad.”

“Yeah. I guess.”

“So you believe in love, forgiveness, self-sacrifice for your neighbor, and all that is good?”

“Of course. I just don’t believe in Jesus. And you don’t need to believe in Jesus to believe in love. And you’re not going to catch me in some kind of trap here.”

Me, “No, no. Of course not. You are much too smart for that. But you say you don’t believe in Jesus, but you do believe in love. You don’t believe in Jesus, but you do believe in truth. And for me, Jesus is those qualities—the very embodiment. So, whatever you think Jesus is, and reject; I probably think that’s good of you. The qualities that you still believe in are actually the very essence of Jesus.”

“No. I don’t think so.”

Me, “Yeah, you do. Let me try it again. Suppose you really liked fresh milk. You drink fresh milk, and find a brand of milk in the grocery store that is called ‘Fresh Milk.’ You buy a gallon of that ‘Fresh Milk’ milk, and when you get home you pour yourself a nice, tall glass. You drink it, and immediately you spit it out. It’s rotten. The ‘Fresh Milk’ milk is actually spoiled milk. You wouldn't then change your mind, and say: I actually don’t like fresh milk. You would laugh at the ‘Fresh Milk’ brand you bought and never buy it again; because it is not fresh milk, no matter what the brand says.”

Him, “Umm… maybe.”

End of conversation.

There are some pretty cool ontological truths that I am aware of; and their uses in my profession are myriad. I just gave you the first one, “God is Love.” The second I will give you is much like it, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

In churches especially, we are prone to be led to believe that something is from God when it actually is not. Sometimes you don’t need a deep meditation on what is from God and what is not. We have some ontological truths given to us in Scripture that are an easy standard to judge against. I don’t care what the preacher says, if the “movement” of God is creating hate, bitterness, unrest, impatience, spitefulness, self-centeredness, faithlessness, harshness, or indulgence; the thing cannot be from God.

Lastly, let me bring it on home. I counsel people in spiritual matters quite a lot. It’s part of my job. I get, “how do I know if this is from God?” quite a lot. You would be amazed at how many people don’t take who God is into account. For them, the question is a Pandora’s box, and best left to a spiritual expert to answer.

So, and this is the wild ending coming way out from left field, if you want to know what God is up to, or what He may have in store for you, or what His will might be, or if you have a destiny with Him, or what you should do in a given scenario: embrace and practice those things that God is. Love.