Often, without being aware of it, we use us and our circumstances as the standard for classifying and judging the world around us. We are projecting our situation on everybody else. For me that becomes very obvious, when I had to much to eat and feel really stuffed. And in that very moment I walk by a falafel stand and see someone devouring their Mediterranean cuisine. So i ask myself the logical question: How can he eat anything? The answer is of course clear. Because he is hungry. But I am not. And I only see me and my situation.

Everything falls down. Or to be more precise: Everything is pulled towards the center of the earth. And with the right equipment you can measure the acceleration of every given object through earth’s gravity. Take your fancy apparatus and wander the globe. Then you will find, that gravity is not the same everywhere. I mean, for your daily use, it is sufficiently constant. But why give up now? So you hop on a rocket and fly to the moon. And don’t forget your machine. You will discover, that nothing is true anymore. Gravity on the moon is way different from that on your home planet. A few lines of math later and you notice, that the gravity depends on the mass of an object. And there you find a constant. This one number that is always the same, no matter the planet you are on. It is the universal gravity constant.

We live in a day and age where everything seems to depend on your perspective. We use terms like “facts” and “alternative facts” as a way to say nothing else than “this is my opinion and that is yours”. Unfortunately that completely depleted the word “fact” of its meaning. This is my gravity, that is yours. Nothing universal, everything relative. But we have a feeling, that can’t be the end of it. Some things have to be true, no matter how I feel about them. Just like gravity, there is a core, that remains true no matter where we are. The rest can often be derived from that.

For my personal use, I came up with the terms local and global truth. The gravity on earth is a local truth, for it is only true here. The universal gravity constant on the other hand is a global truth. It is true, independent of time and space. (I know, I should rather call it universal truth. But local and global give such a nice pair.) The feeling of being hungry or stuffed is very local, it is only in my belly. Feelings are also a local truth. They are real to him who has them. (Never dismiss ones feelings. They are not global, but they are very true and need to be acknowledged as such.) You have to hang up the phone before you can use the internet, was also a local truth. It was true (nearly) everywhere, but only for a certain (long forgotten) time.

The problem arises when we see a local truth as global. (The opposite is a lot less dramatic.) If you have ever been to a different country (or a different part of the same), you will meet customs you don’t understand. The locals behave a certain way and seem to think, that it is the only way to live. And you will stand out, because you just don’t know how to behave. How to drive, how to order food, even how to say hi. So for everything we hold true, we should be aware, if it is local or global and where the boundaries lie.

The Bible is full of commandments. But not all are for everyone. Some are true for everybody and for all eternity. For example God’s Love for us. Others are for certain times. We shall not follow the cloud and the pillar of fire anymore. That was only given to the people of Israel journeying through the desert. We have rules for the priests of the tribe of Levi. And we have a few examples of people of other tribes who tried to sacrifice and were killed by God for it. And yes, these are fairly obvious examples. I have yet to meet a person who is constantly trying to follow the pillar of smoke. So let’s find something else.

I heard a sermon about tithing. The pastor in a sense used the Bible to describe, when and how to fill out checks. But that can’t be biblical (and global) truth. In the history of the world only a handful of people have used (or are using) checks for tithing. So there must be a truth beneath that. (With tithing it comes down to: everything belongs to God anyway and He gave it to you to steward it. So be wise about your money.)

In a way, the punishment for sins is a local truth. Yes, the consequence of Sin is Death. But it became local, when Jesus took it all. So you should not beat yourself up when you sinned (figuratively or literally). Jesus was beaten on your behalf. The punishment is not true for you anymore. (A life away from God still brings an Eternity away from Him. So I am not giving out free passes here.)

With every commandment we see, we should ask three questions. To whom was it given? In which situation was it given? And did the circumstances change? Only when we are in the group and the situation and nothing has changed, the scripture applies to us. We cannot, for example, use everything in every letter in the Bible. Since they were written to specific groups of people in specific situations, some things may not apply. That is especially true for the letters to the seven churches in Revelations 2 and 3. And when Jesus fulfilled the Law by going to the cross, a whole lot changed. After all we died with Him and are no longer bound by the Law.

But like the universal gravity constant the power lies in finding the global truth. Knowing that constant for example gives us the power to calculate every gravitational force of every object. Or when we know the force, we can calculate the mass of an object (a planet, a star, a black hole, you name it). The same is true with the Bible. Behind the local truths we find the God, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And He is worthy to be sought for.