AI Summary
5 min readPassionate Grace
The problem with truth is not the concept itself—it's what we do with it. As Tim Keller observes in this sermon on Ephesians 4, the moment anyone claims to have truth, they almost inevitably use it to gain power over others. The postmodern critics are right about that much. But their solution—abandoning truth claims altogether—is impossible, because the claim that nobody has the truth is itself a truth claim. The real question is whether there exists a kind of truth that can be held without becoming a weapon.
The Problem: Truth and Power
Keller begins by noting how uncomfortable the average person is with the word "truth." He quotes Bill Clinton's remarks after 9/11, where Clinton contrasted terrorists who "think they have the truth" with enlightened people who "don't believe you can have the truth." Keller points out the irony: that statement itself is a universal truth claim, one that says "you ought to adopt my take on reality." As historian Jacques Barzun observed, "truth as a goal and as a guide cannot be dispensed with"—skeptics only pretend to do without it.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:03) **Introduction: The Problem of Character Formation** - Keller frames the core question: what does true Christian character look like, and how is it formed, beyond mere moral effort.
- 2 (00:37) **Scripture Reading: Ephesians 4:15-25** - Keller reads the passage, which contrasts living like the Gentiles with the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
- 3 (02:52) **The Core Distinction: Morally Restrained vs. Supernaturally Changed** - Keller introduces the series' theme: the difference between a heart that is merely ethically restrained and one that is fundamentally transformed.
- 4 (04:44) **"Truthing in Love": More Than Ethical Honesty** - Keller unpacks the odd Greek phrase in Ephesians 4:15, which literally means "truthing in love," indicating something deeper than mere truth-telling.
- 5 (06:43) **The Problem of Truth: Power and Possession** - Keller diagnoses the cultural problem with truth, using a quote from Bill Clinton to illustrate the modern fear of truth claims.
- 6 (11:04) **Foucault's Insight and the Inevitable Power Trip** - Keller engages with Foucault's idea that truth is always a thing of this world, produced by constraint and inducing effects of power.
- 7 (16:16) **Paul's Radical Solution: A Truth That Makes Servants** - Keller explains that Paul's solution is not to abandon truth claims, as that is impossible, but to point to a specific kind of truth.
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Show Notes
A lot of people think that to say Christians have a changed relationship to the truth means that Christians become honest. It’s not less than that. Technical, ethical honesty is one thing. But we’re talking about something more and deeper.
In Ephesians 4:15, Paul says, “speaking the truth in love.” But what Paul actually says in Greek is, “truthing in love.” He turns a noun into a verb. It’s an awkward phrase. And it harkens to a place where Jesus speaks of his followers as people who are of the truth, sort of made of truth, swimming in truth. It means a supernaturally changed heart is a heart that has an attitude and relationship to truth that no other kinds of hearts have.
What are we talking about? In this great passage, we see 1) the problem of truth, 2) the encounter we have to have with truth, and 3) something about the practice of truth.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 3, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: Ephesians 4:15-25.
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