Love and Truth

"Love does not delight in evil 
but rejoices with the truth" (1st Corinthians 13:6 NIV).

The balance of truth and love is of great importance. Without love, truth is hatred. Without truth, love is a lie. Without the other, neither one is any good. Together, they are all that matters. This is righteousness.

The Triune God is the eternal, living embodiment of the two. Jesus, the Son of God came into our world to make Him known. To reject Him is to personally reject love and truth. God is love, and His word is truth (1st John 4:8, John 17:17). 

There are some who talk and sing about love, but they do not love God. Nor do they turn to Him to learn truth. They do not want to know God who is love. In fact, many of these same people who talk about love actually hate Jesus. And they hate anyone who wants to follow Jesus. 

Love is not just a concept. Love isn't even just an action. Love is a Person. God is love. But sinful humans twist, corrupt and pervert the concept of love. They want to isolate it from the truth about sin, and the need for repentance and reconciliation with God through faith in Jesus Christ. 

We want love on our own terms. But that's just not even how love works. Love involves sacrifice. You give up what you want in order to please the ones you love.

That is what Jesus did. He gave up His life to please the Father, and to save sinners. That's also what the Father did. He gave His only begotten Son to save sinners. And to love God is to surrender to Him. We are called to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God (Romans 12:1). 

On the other hand, it is easy for religious people to bang the truth up side everybody's heads all day long. But they may not have any compassion. In fact, many of these religious people do not practice, or even preach the truth. I was watching a very disheartening documentary on the History Channel recently. The topic was cult leaders. The satanic deeds of Charles Manson, Jim Jones, David Koresh, and Paul Schaefer were detailed. Such people twist, corrupt and pervert the Scriptures for their own sick and evil desires. 

We may also think of groups like the Westboro Baptist Church, or even mainstream churches that are just focused on arbitrary, cumbersome rules and regulations with little to no grace or mercy. And then there are people who do preach the truth very well, but they just sin in secret and make little to no effort to stop sinning.

Now we all stumble. All of us sin and fall short of the glory of God. We all get off track and stray from where Christ wants us to go. I know that I have. That is why grace is essential. And by God's grace we are able to return to Him.We should realize that the love of God is what drives His truth, and His truth is what drives His love. The righteousness of God is a perpetual cycle of truth and love.

The reason God condemns sin is because of what it does to the soul of the sinner. It corrupts our nature. It twists us into something we were not made to be. It causes trouble in our lives. It makes havoc in society. And it alienates us from a holy God who made us and cares for us.

Jesus came into the world to take away our sin, and bring about reconciliation between us and Him (John 1:29, 2nd Corinthians 5:17-21).