What Yardstick Do You Use For The Truth?

1 February 2026  Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12-13

“…nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue….” (Zephaniah 3:13)   (See more at CrescendoBible.com/blog)

An under-appreciated Catholic classic is the Don Camillo stories by Giovanni Guareschi. They are set in post-WW2 Italy and feature a parish priest, Don Camillo, and his adversary, the communist mayor Peppone. The drama of the stories is driven by Don Camillo’s opposition to the atheism of communist government, and the struggles of Peppone to be a loyal communist and a faithful Catholic at the same time. The stories are warm and satirical, and often hilariously funny largely because, despite their many zany arguments, Don Camillo and Peppone have a great deal in common and actually like each other. They agree on what truth is, and differ only on how to express that truth in a way that makes sense in their rapidly changing world.

It is hard to write stories like that today because we don’t have that much in common with our adversaries, and we don’t agree on what the truth is. Indeed, it has become so much easier to conceal the truth. Incredibly muscular technologies like AI allow people not just to alter photographs, but make photographs of things and people that never existed.

The solution Christians pressed was an even more intense commitment to truth – so intense that truth for them became not a “what” but a “Who,” and the Who was God Himself. It was a relationship to God so intense that they believed God was with them, in the flesh, and He would give his life not just for them, but to them every time the people gathered.

The same is true of documents, and videos. Our cleverness has made it increasingly difficult, approaching impossible for many, to discern what is really true, and whom we can really trust. At least Don Camillo and Peppone were using the same yardstick – that’s why they could argue. We can’t agree on what yardstick to use, or even if there is one. We can’t argue anymore; we can only fight. Our enemies can’t just be wrong; they have to be lying. We can’t persuade them; we have to destroy them.

Zephaniah’s world was the late-7th century B.C. It was a world becoming less stable because of mass migrations that were undermining confidence in the cultural legacy of many peoples, including the Jews. People started messing around with odd cults and cultural practices that were changing the way people thought about what was “really real.” It was a time of many prophets – along with Zephaniah there were Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk, and Obadiah, all of them urging a version of the same thing: “They shall do no wrong and utter no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue” (Zephaniah 3:13). Truth was the cure.

All of them failed. Judah was conquered and lost everything – their temple, their priesthood, their country. They were marched into exile, and could bring with them only what they could carry.

It wasn’t the first time a country had collapsed, and it won’t be the last. Observant types will already have noticed certain similarities between Zephaniah’s time and ours.

The Jews recovered, and then lost their country again, and then recovered again, but not before spinning off a reform movement that they finally decided they couldn’t live with – that was Christianity. And the solution the Christians pressed was an even more intense commitment to truth – so intense that truth for them became not a “what” but a “Who,” and the Who was God Himself. It was a relationship to God so intense that they believed God was with them, in the flesh, and He would give his life not just for them, but to them every time the people gathered. No one would have to guess what the yardstick for truth was anymore. No one would have to wonder if that yardstick was reliable because God was with them, God was for them, and God was in them. Jesus is the cure.

We can have stories like Don Camillo and Peppone again, but not without doubling down, tripling down on what the truth is, on Who the Truth is.