Truth without Love?
Posted by markshaw1 on July 22, 2008
Is it possible to be truthful without love? Theologians might debate this quesion for years because it has tricky implications.
One thing is for sure: God is love and His Words are always perfectly balanced in truth and in love.
The rest of us who are human beings likely will fall to one side or the other: too much truth with too little love OR too much love with too little truth. Too much truth might exasperate someone. Too much love might produce false security in continued wrong-doing.
That’s why I love the balance of the Gospel: God saves sinners who do not deserve His grace and have not earned His grace. Rom. 5:8: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” - The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (electronic ed.) . Good News Publishers: Wheaton.
That’s why I also love our TEAM counseling model which often gives us a better, balanced approach in biblical counseling. Two counselors often produce a better mix of the truth delivered in love!
A very wise man said to me recently, “Would you agree that extreme justice and extreme love are neither?” To which I answered: “Yes!” He wanted to make the point that we’ve got to strive to be balanced in our approach at speaking the truth in love to others (Eph. 4:15). To be balanced is to be Christ-like!
-Mark (thankful to serve in a balanced ministry like Truth in Love!)
