Eph 4:15But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
The TRUTH of God's Word--the TRUTH of CHRISTIANITY--it is a precious thing. For the Christian, it is the only possession of real value and something that is greatly treasured. In fact, he can be so caught up in its jealous defense that he begins to regard it as how an unbeliever may regard a Porsche--something that makes him big and a head above the rest. But as Paul remarked in the passage above, the truth must be spoken in love. If the motivation is not love it is not God-pleasing, and if it is not God-pleasing it is nothing.
I have, in the past and now, been guilty of using the TRUTH as a means of boosting my own ego. For this I repent and ask the Lord to humble me and make more real the fact that I have nothing that was not given to me by Him in His glorious grace.
I was thinking that a good title for this post might be, "Showing the goodness and glory of Christ, in love." Too often our attempts to bring out God's truth take the tact of "proving the other wrong." I'm sure you don't mean it in a negative way, but I don't think I'm just playing with semantics here. If I think of my confrontations as primarily showing the other to be "wrong," might I be missing the emphasis of showing the other the brightness of the "right?" Just a thought. How we frame things matters, and too often I think we are scared of appearing to be weak and capitulating toward worldly ways and it leaves the taste in people's mouths that avoiding wrongs rather than wholehearted pursuit of "the good" in Christ is the goal. "PURSUE righteousness, love, faith..."
ReplyDeleteThank you.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, knowledge puffs up as Scripture says; and if we have all knowledge but lack love we gain nothing.