Truth & Love

 

This last year has been, in large part, a time of application for me. God has been taking me through the process of taking whatever lessons/principles/truths He has taught me, and applying them to real life. I’m learning that studying and logic are wonderful things, and they can lead to important, foundational frameworks by which we can live faithfully.The new lesson for me is the messy part. If I believe that we were created to live in community, to share life with one another, then I must work to protect and cultivate relationships with others. I must strive to always be in a position to show someone else the love and truth of Jesus Christ.

Enter Problem: Stage Left

At what point does the need to share truth become more important than keeping a relationship possible? What do you do when you meet a person who doesn’t fit your framework? Is it possible for a Calvinist and a Wesleyan to co-exist, both faithfully obeying the Lord with their respective points of view? I didn’t think so a couple of years ago, buy my answer has since changed.

Understand that I don’t mean my view of truth has softened, or that my framework has flown out the window. I very much believe that there are truths and untruths, that the standard for all of those conflicts is the Word of God, given by the Holy Spirit to man.

Most of the principles and views that I tested and came to hold in college remain the same for me today. The dramatic change for me has been the number of those things to which I see no alternative, to which anyone who disagrees is fundamentally flawed in their beliefs and is unable to faithfully obey God as a result. There are still a few truths on that list, but it is a much smaller list than it once was. When those few truths are challenged, I think that we would be disobedient in failing to defend them.

That said, even when those few conflicts arise, truth and love can not be separated. They are both necessary all of the time in our words and deeds. When truth is spoken, it must be shared in a loving manner. We must do everything in our ability to ensure that everyone with whom we come into contact knows that we care for his or her well being over our own, that we love them unconditionally as we are loved by our Father.

So………..

Confused yet? Good. If you’re following this line of thinking perfectly, that means you’re just as ADD as I am.

This duality is constantly being refined in my own mind, and the problem itself is too pervasive, too foundational to be concretely defined. Drawing unimpeachable borders around what can be said and when is just useless, because ever relationship, interaction, and word spoken is a unique occurrence in the ever-progressing unfolding of God’s plan for the universe.

With that mindset, the only helpful principle for me is to love the Lord, my God, with all my heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. For me, my chances for success are higher with two rules to follow than they are with more than two. If it’s good enough for Jesus…

So, love people. This, friends, is our calling. Don’t let pride, logic, or the need to be right rob you of the chance to love and show love.

 

Let us wonder; grace and justice

Join and point to mercy’s store;

When through grace, in Christ our trust is,

Justice smiles and asks no more.

He who washed us with his blood

Has secured our way to God.

-Grace and Peace