Truth and Love
Twelve years ago my parents gave me a Bible for Christmas and over the course of the past decade, wherever I’ve gone, it’s gone with me. The tattered pages are dog-eared and a latticework of highlighter and handwriting cover most of the book itself, a tangled network of discoveries, convictions, confessions, thoughts and questions.
It’s a devotional Bible with bits and pieces of insight written by Max Lucado before and after each chapter. A few nights ago I was snuggled into my bunk on the tour bus about to begin the book of 2 John when Lucado’s well-worded preface sparked a new flicker of perspective like a kitchen match in a dark room.
Here’s what he wrote:
The single most difficult pursuit is truth and love.
That sentence is grammatically correct. I know every English teacher wanted to pluralize it to read: The most difficult pursuits are those of truth and love but that’s not what I meant to say.
True, love is a difficult pursuit. Correct, truth is a tough one, too.
But put them together, pursue truth and love at the same time, and hang on, baby, you’re in for the ride of your life.
But that’s the task of the Christian. Love in truth. Truth in love. Never one at the expense of the other. Never the embrace of love without the torch of truth. Never the heat of truth without the warmth of love.
Never would be easier if we could choose between the two, but we can’t. So John, in this second letter, calls for a hybrid.
“I love all of you in the truth, and all those who know the truth love you. We love you because of the truth that lives in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, will be with us in truth and love.”
2 John 2-3
Truth and love. Love and truth. Never one without the other. To pursue both is our singular task.
A compelling notion but one I’ve never thought too deeply about until now; the idea that truth and love must walk hand-in-hand. Everyone strives to love by all capacities the word includes, and naturally that’s an beautifully admirable thing to pursue, BUT how powerless is love without TRUTH? Applicable to my own life: how often do I worry about living a pure life of love if/when I’m not living the way God has commanded me as a follower of Christ? By all means, I am guilty.
So often I’ve heard quoted something cliche and melodramatic like, “all you need is love” in response to so many of life’s toughest questions and hardest struggles, but sometimes it’s easy to lose focus of that truth-shaped hole, that essential missing puzzle piece that’s required in order to glimpse the bigger picture which demands both love and truth, the latter being life lived as God has commanded.
I spent the night tossing over it and it seems all roads lead to one conclusion. Ultimately, my prayer is that Jesus continue His ever-present work in my heart, change me from the inside out, unearth and kill off those roots of sin, doubt and immorality so that I may better reflect Christ, so that I may better serve Him, so that I may better understand and live the life of love He’s called me to live via truth.
I’m so excited about this.
To Him be glory, greatness and power.
“I ask you that we all love each other. And love means living the way God commanded us to live. As you have heard form the beginning, God’s command is this: Live a life of love.”
2 John 5-6