“Speaking the truth in love.”  (Ephesians 4:15)

Facebook members are well acquainted with the way some who call themselves Christians can be brutal in the way they present truth to the world.

Their words are usually on target but their spirits are harsh and unloving. They defend the biblical family but damn anyone with a different point of view. They affirm the right of the unborn to live while consigning the “pro-choicers” to the farthest reaches of Hades. They hear that someone is making a film or writing a book or giving a speech against Jesus as Scripture presents Him and they lose their Christianity attacking such blasphemers.

Such people do more damage to the Lord’s cause than good.

Speaking truth while skipping the love is not a new phenomenon.

While Paul and his colleagues ministered in the city of Philippi, a slave-girl followed them around, calling out, “These men are servants of the Most High God! They proclaim to us the true way of salvation!”  Anything wrong with that?  Nothing other than the fact that she was demon-possessed and notorious in that city (see Acts 16:16ff).  Paul was eventually fed up with her shenanigans and cast the demon out and silenced her. (In the process of becoming whole, she also lost her gifts of fortune-telling which had lined the pockets of her owners. That set off a chain of events which the Lord used to reap a great harvest in the city.)

In the Lord’s “message to the church at Ephesus” in Revelation 2, He said, “I know your deeds and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men.” They despised the unsaved. “And, you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false.” They had a passion for defending the truth.

“Nevertheless,” Jesus said, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4).

How serious a matter was this? The Lord said, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the works you did at first, or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place–unless you repent” (2:5). If you persist in doing God’s work without love, Jesus told them, He would cancel their franchise. They might still operate and even call themselves a church, but He would no longer show up.

This is a serious matter indeed.

The Lord happens to be particular as to who tells others about Him and how they do it.

But forget about trying to make certain Christians see that. Tell them they are harming the work by their caustic attitude and they accuse you of caving to the enemy, of being a people-pleaser, of valuing the approval of men more than God.

Some are so caught up in proclaiming the truth, they have forgotten to love.

Truth and love work well in harness with each other.  Love keeps truth from being harsh and bitter. Truth keeps love from being mushy sentimentality.

Truth without love is demanding, unyielding, ungracious, and perfectionistic. It proclaims law and rules, demands rigidity and uniformity.

Love without truth is soft and pliable–cotton-candy mushy and sickening sweetness without providing anything substantial. Love cries when it sees someone hurting but has nothing with which to pick them up.

The newly minted Apostle Paul is a prime illustration of truth without love.  When he first arrived in Jerusalem preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul was gifted and eloquent, fiery and anointed, attention-getting and truth-proclaiming. (Acts 9:20-31)

The only problem is that Paul was enraging the very people he wanted to win. Instead of wanting to know his Saviour, Paul’s audiences wanted to kill him (9:23,29).

After the disciples slipped Paul out of town and away from his enemies, we read: “Then the churches….had peace and were edified” (9:31).

It does not speak well of your ministry if everyone is glad when you finally leave town.

Clearly, Paul had some growing to do.  This would require time, quietness, and seasoning.  We may assume–we’re arguing more from silence here–that this was what the Lord had in mind by allowing Paul to return home to Tarsus (9:30) and leaving him there for an indefinite period.  Only after a revival broke out in Damascus among Jews and Gentiles both, did it occur to Barnabas that this would be the very place where Paul’s calling would fit perfectly. “Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to see Saul” (Acts 11:25 is one of the pivotal sentences in the history of this small planet).

Now, it’s a different Saul (Paul) who enters Damascus to work with the other disciples and reach out to the unsaved. For a year, he and Barnabas worked with that church and brought many to Jesus.  From all we see in their relationship, the biggest clue of the change in Paul is that he put himself under Barnabas, all the way into the first missionary journey, at which time the Holy Spirit began moving the trainee to the forefront (in Acts 13:7, they are called “Barnabas and Saul; in 13:13,it’s “Paul and his party”).

The three epistles bearing the name of John are eloquently written essays on truth and love.

Here are a few snippets….

–from The First Epistle of John:

“He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause of stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness…” (2:9-10)  Do you see how truth and love are twin forces here?

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue (only), but in deed and in truth” (3:18). We speak the truth in love (see Ephesians 3:15) and we love in truth.  They are twin forces.

“This commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also” (4:21).  We are not allowed to love the Word while ignoring our brethren; this is not an option.

–from the Second Epistle of John

“This is love, that we walk according to His commandments” (vs 6). This is an echo of the Lord’s teachings from the Upper Room (John 14:21,23,24, and 15:10,14).  The Lord wants no disciple who professes love to Him while disobeying. To obey is to love.

“If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds” (vs. 10-11).  Our expressions of love must be governed by a devotion to truth.

–from the Third Epistle of John

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (vs 4).

“We therefore ought to receive (Christian workers who need our support), that we may become fellow workers for the truth” (vs. 8).

IN CONCLUSION….

It is not enough that I know the truth, love the truth, and preach the truth.  Unless the love of Christ dwells in me and flows from me, my words are as “sounding brass or a clanging symbol” (I Corinthians 13).

Unless the love of Christ fills me and anoints all that I do, my deeds are unprofitable and lifeless.

Unless His love has transformed me and governs all that I do, my gifts of sacrifice are rejected by Him and worthless of any eternal value to me.

“The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5).

“Dear Lord, teach me thy truth, then wrap that truth in thy love.  Give me thy love, then sharpen that love by thy truth. I pray this that thy work may go forward and my life may count for Thee. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”