Truth or Love

Parenting is a great metaphor for life, and many of my hard-earned lessons have come through my relationships with my kids.  They’re fantastic kids, and I love them with all my heart.  I would take a bullet for either one of them in a second if needed.  Sometimes, when I hear noises at night while I’m laying in bed, I imagine exactly how I would jump out of bed and sprint up the stairs to save them from a bad guy with my bare hands.  At other times, they make me so crazy frustrated I have to go for a run just to get some sanity & peace before talking with them.  The issues we’ve encountered with our children are nothing compared to the hell I put my own parents through when I was a kid…just ask anyone who’s known me for awhile.  Anyway, in moments of frustration, when kids get stuck in a behaviors or underlying beliefs that threaten their well being in some way, it’s the parents’ job to hold them accountable to what’s right…but to do it in such a way that feeds their spirits and strengthens the relationship.  This is parenting 101…and it’s the hardest lesson of all.  Chasten and embrace. Set free and guide. Judge and accept.  Obedience and grace.  These seem like opposites, and most people lean heavily on one while neglecting the other.  Healthy, effective parents embrace the tension and excel in both.

So here’s the metaphor.  Today in America we’re seeing a huge spiritual backlash against the traditional christendom of our predecessors. Generations have been growing-up believing increasingly that truth is relative, religious people are mean-spirited, and churches are full of hypocrites. The travesty is that this has been sometimes true…enough of the time that it’s poisoned an otherwise Godly heritage and given birth to a pendulum swing.  I may be oversimplifying to make a point, and forgive me if that’s so, but it seems to me that the type of faith that was promoted & exemplified in most of the 1900’s was characterized by an overzealous pursuit of true doctrine, separatism and growth formulas; at the expense of honesty, brotherly love, and the lifestyle of service that was displayed by our Master. This backlash has produced a tidal wave of followers of Jesus who are very sincere, accepting, and accommodating; but who really don’t know what they believe or why…and they’re falling prey to all kinds of false, misleading, and cancerous beliefs that don’t look anything like Jesus.  

This is one of the most important issues facing the Church today…rediscovering the art of living in truth AND love. We can only do this in the power of God’s Spirit living in us.

On the one hand, Jesus commanded us to love each other and sacrifice our preferences for others.  We see Him and His early followers in the New Testament standing in strong opposition to religious fundamentalists and making friends with the shadiest people in society.  

On the other hand, we are recipients and guardians of truth.  If the Bible is actually true historically and philosophically, and if Jesus really is who He says He is, then adherence to that narrative and body of teachings is of paramount importance.  

We need a new movement.  One that joins these two character traits of God and puts them on display to the waiting, watching, wandering world around us.  Let’s be the Holy Spirit’s movement, starting in our own lives.

Scripture Reading.  Below is an excerpt…just verse 15 of Ephesians chapter 4.  But you should read the whole thing….so good!

“…Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ.”