Truth and Love

I think the biggest challenge Christians face today is learning to forgive as Christ forgives us. In fact, what I feel the Lord has called me to do is to help the Church restore and cultivate an atmosphere of grace and forgiveness. One of the things I have been learning is that you cannot really grow a healthy root system of grace unless you are just as diligently working to make sure you are growing it in the rich soil of divine truth. One can’t grow without the other. If you want to see the fruits of a life of grace, you need a life that is also full of truth.

If we are going to love one another with the same love that God gives us then it needs to be a love that reaches out in grace while being anchored in truth. Grace is love shown in how we respond to others. Truth is love shown in how we conduct ourselves towards others. The great description of divine love in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 supports this understanding of love.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not selfseeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

In these verses we see that love is shown in the expression of grace (how we respond to others): love is patient, love is not proud, love is not rude, love is not easily angered, love keeps no record of wrongs, and love always hopes.

Love is also shown in the expression of truth (how we conduct ourselves towards others): love is kind, love does not envy, love does not boast, Love does not delight in evil, love rejoices in the truth, love always protects, love always trusts, and love always perseveres.

What I want to focus on this morning is 1 Corinthians 13:6, Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Love is shown by truthfulness. People who are full of God’s truth are—surprise, surprise—truthful people. The Bible has a lot to say about truth. It talks about Jesus being the Truth. It talks about the truth setting us free. It talks about living in the truth, believing the truth, recognizing the truth. What I want us to focus on this morning is the characteristic of being truthful. You remember from last week when we talked about righteousness that the fruits of righteousness are shown in two ways: personally in our integrity and publically in being just towards others. Truthfulness is similarly shown in a personal way and a public way: personally by honesty, and publically by trustworthiness. Let’s take a look at each of these and then think about how we can take this home with us.

It shouldn’t be any surprise that being truthful means being honest. Psalm 15:1-3 (NIV) LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart. Michael B. Brown made this observations about Quakers, “Historically, Quakers have resisted being sworn in before testifying in court. Their rationale is simple. If they have to promise to be honest for the next few minutes, the obvious implication is that they are dishonest the rest of the time. And if such is the case, why should anyone trust the oath they make?”

They take to heart Proverbs 12:22 (NIV), The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful. God delights in us when we are truthful. God loves it when we are truthful because it means we are acting like Him. God declares in Isaiah 45:19 (NIV), I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right. When we speak the truth we are speaking God’s language for He is the God of truth. Three times He is called the God of truth, Jesus proclaimed, I am the truth, and four times the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth.

When we don’t tell the truth, we are speaking the language of God’s enemy. Jesus said, Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:43-44, NIV). If you really want to tick God off, lie. Psalm 5:6 (NIV) says, You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors.

While God wants us to be honest about ourselves and about one another, it is also important to remember that the truth cannot just be spoken any old way we want. It is to be told in love. Ephesians 4:15 (NIV) says, Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

R.C. Sproul once said that whenever someone began a conversation with him saying, “I need to tell you something in Christian love,” what followed was neither Christian nor loving. If truth is given outside of love, instead of growing up into Christ we end up stunting our spiritual growth or the growth of the people we are speaking to.

We need to be honest and loving. That means when we tell the truth it needs to come from a spirit of humility, given with a confidence of who we are by the grace of God, that it is done in a way that proves we are makers of peace, lovers of forgiveness, and thankful for our relationships with each other. It needs to come from a desire to promote goodness, righteousness, and justice. If you are thinking, “Are you serious? That’s a lot to think about before I can speak the truth in love!” Yes. Yes it is.

Secondly, when we are truthful it shows us to be trustworthy. David wrote in Psalm 26:2-3 (NIV) Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth. When our walk is truthful, the fruit it produces is trustworthiness.

The great line in the movie, A Few Good Men, was when Daniel Kaffee shakes his fist and cries, “I want the truth!” to which Col. Nathan Jessup retorts, “You can’t handle the truth!” Jesus wants to know how much truth you can handle. How much can Jesus trust you with? When we are asked about the truth, are we honest in giving it? Are we honest when the temptation is there to be dishonest? Are we as trustworthy when we are not being watched as when we are? Many of the challenges we face are designed by God to reveal to us just that: are we honest and are we trustworthy?

What can Jesus trust you with? Jesus says in Luke 16:10-11 (NIV) Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?