December 27, 2013
I Tell You the Truth
I sometimes struggle with speaking in love what
I know to be the truth. Is my tone too harsh, my words too blunt, or do I sound
unsympathetic or judgmental? Unfortunately many of us are so uncomfortable that
we simply opt-out of speaking the truth at all. Paul, referencing spiritual
infancy and maturity said, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all
things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.” (Eph 4:15 NIV) Apparently
there is an element of spiritual maturity needed for both parties if they are
to hear and speak words ‘in love’. I wonder if a key to this love language is
to follow the example of Jesus, “I tell you the truth…”
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Jesus was perfect. He didn’t err in the slightest way. Not a minute detail of what He did so much as even inclined towards anything other than the precise purpose God determined for it. And Jesus hammered the Pharisees and scribes, “…hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs…full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness…” (Matt 23:27), “…hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye…” (Matt 7:5), “…you have made void the Word of God. You hypocrites!” (Matt 15:7), “…hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity.” (Matt 23:25), “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites…” (Mark 7:6), “You fools!” (Matt 23:17) Uh. OK, Jesus. I’m still with you.
-----Moreover, His Spirit inspired some juicy stuff about one of God’s ‘tudes, too: “The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, and his soul hates him that loves violence.” (Ps 11:5), “Thou hatest those who pay regard to vain idols;” (Ps 31:6), “…thou hatest all evildoers.” (Ps 5:5), “I hate double-minded men…” (Ps 119:113), “I hate them with perfect hatred;” (Ps 139:22). So much for “God hates nobody!” At least, that’s how the RSV says it.
-----I’m not supposing these ideas were delivered with mushily emoted body language in lullaby like cadence well mixed with many honey drippy tones. Yet, God who hates is love, and Christ who blasts is truth. Love and truth, if you think about them, are like two sides of a coin.
-----Not in that heads and tails are opposing. That’s entirely the wrong analogy. A coin must have two sides - each a part of the same. It just is the nature of the thing. And each side is as much the coin as the other. Love can not be love without being true. If the Pharisees were indeed and totally truly hypocrites, then to not call them hypocrites would not be love. If they were fools, to call them otherwise would not be love. For the most basic concept of love is constructiveness. To construct is to build, which is to integrate two or more things by the ways in which each augments the other and all of them together augment each. It can not be done without each paying regard to what the other is in itself and to what they all are together. Therefore, love builds truth. Truth is merely the complete match of a concept to the reality it reflects. The fact of the Pharisees and the fact of Jesus-ness augmented into Jesus statement of what Pharisees were. The fact of what evil doers are and the fact of what God is augments a particular relationship between them which is separation, the opposite of construction. Hatred.
-----Of course, we’re not God. Hatred is very dangerous. We should not try it at home. In fact, the truth is very difficult. The only way our minds can perfectly match all reality knowable is by their knowing and understanding all evidence completely. That’s not going to happen any time soon! So we must handle truth very, very cautiously. And that makes love a difficult construction project indeed! When does it need to be tough? When does it need to be gentle? I’m not completely sure yet, but for now, what I perceive of Paul’s drift looks like a tendency towards the latter.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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