June 17, 2014
Love in Action
A friend confided that her family recently
confronted her about some changes in her behavior. I asked if she felt their
analysis was correct and she said, “Yes, now that it has been pointed out to
me. Two of my sisters are Christians and I know they will tell me the truth.” We
shared a passing moment of grief as to what her future may hold, but I was struck
by her acceptance and resolve. Actually,
I think this may be the first time I’ve seen a real life experience where speaking
the truth in love was received in love. “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).
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----The truth is a curious thing. If you try to know the all of it, you will fail. If you claim that at least everything you know is true, you lie. If you try to know all of the truth about a limited specific, you will fail again. Everything that is is what it is far beyond our comprehension. That is a most valuable statement that sounds rather senseless. In the world of science it is known as the identity principle, and it is the first reason why we can all…well…reason. The other identity principle we know as I AM THAT I AM. God is what He is, and from that He is who He is. We are kind of like reflectors in that truth known to us is the match of our perceptions to what something is. But our abilities to experience through our senses and to reason through what we’ve experienced are both extremely limited and greatly errant. Knowing the truth is not possible, so how could speaking it be?
-----This is a trick pulled on good people by the spiritual left since Satan lured Eve to human perfection’s last bite. He established in her an impression that she did not know like she ought to know just because she did not know all things. Ever since, we’ve been lured into battles and fights between us on the basis that “I know the truth, and you don’t,” even if expressed in the more couched terms, “I know better than you.” It’s an odd thing that somebody on one side of an ideological tussle will try to convince you that truth is not knowable until they have you dislodged from your beliefs and holding to theirs. Then somehow, knowing all truth becomes not only possible, but it also becomes the conceptual assurance about their ideas now being in your head.
-----That you either can or can’t or do or don’t know the truth is the lie. All truth is not knowable, but some is. Through all my pondering days I’ve seen the love of God in the fact that the very most important truths to know sufficiently are readily available. God has constructed messages concerning our need for Him and its fulfillment in all things from the stars above to the functions of nature around us to certain historical writings and ponderings of man to the deep places the individual mind goes in its reflections. In no venue has He made all of the truth available. But in every venue He has made appropriate truth available. It always is just what our crises really need.
-----There is the truth spoken from the spiritual right. It comes in bits and pieces of more or less relevance and stacks up bigger but never unto total completion. So love isn’t just that truth is served. When someone approaches another with the truth in love, that love has first come to know truly the other’s situation well enough to know what bit of truth will be relevant to its crisis. For love is relational in the specific way that it seeks to benefit and do good to whom it loves, or to at least avoid being dead weight. I certainly don’t know your friend’s situation, but I bet her sisters measured and prepared those truths for her as carefully as baking an angel food cake. And that might be why this rare event was there for your seeing.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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