Despite what we would hope, our children are being brought up to believe that there is no absolute truth, no clear right and wrong. Society preaches tolerance to the point of advocating "relative truth" -- that is, the idea that things can be true, or right, for one person, and false, or wrong, for another, and that we must allow people to conduct themselves according to their personal views of truth and righteousness.

It sounds like a nice way to get along with one another, but it is entirely unbiblical. Today's lesson focuses on laying the groundwork for teaching the students that there is such a thing as Absolute Truth, and it is defined by the Person of God.

A major source for this lesson is the book Right from Wrong: What You Need to Know to Help Youth Make Right Choices by Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler.

Reaching the Teen

We must first get the students to admit that they believe in some absolute truths, but are unsure about others. We need to get them thinking, arguing and discussing what makes something right/true. We move from the initial confusion to pointing to McDowell & Hostetler's Precept-Principle-Person of God.

Materials:

The True/False Quiz

Bibles

Opening Activities:

Who is here? Round-robin attendance to get students to know names

Pair off for weekly "high points and low points"

Distribute a copy of the quiz and have each student fill it out. The bottom of the sheet is for later in the class. There are many lessons one can draw from these True/False questions. Here are some of them:

• Students accept some things as clearly true or false, based on their faith in mathematics and science. Questions 1, 6, 8, 9 and maybe 12 are examples of that. It is interesting to note, however, that while question 8 is clearly False according to most reasonable definitions, it is actually true, if you are working in base-16 (hexadecimal) numerals. This means that, in the right context, this statement is true. It is likely that you cannot make that point without teaching some math. But if a student makes the point, you can teach about context -- when discussing what is right or wrong, context is important, and as regards moral behavior, the world created by God is the context.
• Some things are opinion or conjecture. Questions 5 and 12 are such questions. God is not in the business of telling you what your opinion should be. He is the basis of moral decisions.
• You might not be able to answer if you don't know the answer. Questions 2 and 12 are certainly examples of this. But so are 3, 7, 10 and 11, if one does not know what God says.
• Some people will already behave, or even believe, moral relativism. Question 3 is meant to show this, but question 10 might, also.

Question 7: Be careful here. Some relevant verses --

James 2:26 "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

Ephesians 2: 8-9 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast."

Points to make:

God told his people throughout the years how to behave. He taught them right (behavior) from wrong (behavior). The "Do this; don't do that" kinds of laws are called precepts. It tells someone what to do or not do.

Behind each precept is a principle. The principle behind "Do not lie(give false testimony)" is honesty. The principle behind "Do not murder" is the reverence of life, and the love of neighbor as yourself.

The basic reason for the precepts and principles is the very nature of the person of God. Truth is right because God is Truth. Love is right because God is Love. Purity is right because God is pure. God is the original Good, and we can discover what is Good in what we do by comparing our actions to God. WWJD: "What Would Jesus Do?" is a great question.

After discussing the concepts of Precept, Principle and Person of God, we use Honesty as the first principle.

Precepts

Exodus 20: 15-16

Leviticus 19: 11-13

Principle: Honesty

Ephesians 4:25

1 Corinthians 6:10

Titus 2:10

Proverbs 12:22

Acts 5:1-10 - the story of Ananias and Sapphira

Person of God

Deuteronomy 32:4

Titus 1:2

Hebrews 6:18