Truth and Love

Ephesians 4:15

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”

I could probably write for days about this topic, however, I will refrain myself.

To start, truth and love are both awesome things. Without truth, we wouldn't know what to think, how to live, who to love, etc. Without love, every human interaction would be meaningless because we would all be selfish jerks who couldn't trust each other. I feel as though we need both of these to survive.

I also feel that these two entities are the cause of a ridiculous number of debates, especially within religious circles. For some reason, it seems as though it's impossible to incorporate both truth and love into our message and ministry. Virtually all churches or religious organizations tend to fall into one of these camps. I feel that as humans, we can't be passionate about anything without drifting toward extreme ideas-in this case, truth or love.

Examples:

(I don't know everything about both of these, but this is what I understand to be a general overview. Correct me if I'm wrong)

-Westboro Baptist Church.

YAY let's take every verse in the Bible completely out of context to continually remind people of the "fact" that God hates gay people, soldiers, etc. (note the sarcasm). This group of individuals makes signs and pickets huge events and has probably alienated countless people from Christianity. Their emphasis is on truth (even though it is taken out of context) and they show no signs of love whatsoever.

-Solomon's Porch.

So what do you think it means, man? Well I'm not exactly sure, but, you know like, love and stuff. This "church" essentially consists of people sitting around in a circle in which they read the Bible and discuss it. While the idea seems completely harmless, it allows for anybody to assert their opinion as truth, and makes the Bible lose all of its authority. Their emphasis is on love and making people feel welcome (which is a GOOD thing!!), but they run the risk of letting people manipulate truth.

Disclaimer: I am not against truth or love. While it may seem that way, I am merely pointing out some extreme examples. I admire both groups for being bold and different, I just wish they could focus on both truth AND love.

More common examples would be conservative Christianity and emergent churches. Conservatives focus on Bible study and knowing exactly what God means in scripture passages. They desire so much to know about what God is saying that they become blind to the world around them and ultimately are ineffective at loving those outside their walls. Liberals focus on loving others and social justice and the like in order to be the hands and feet of God. They desire so much to reach others that they become blind to the pursuit of truth and ultimately fail to realize the importance of scriptures.

I'm not saying that all churches are bad or even that all churches fall into one of these camps. No church will ever be perfect on this side of Heaven and that is a reality that we need to accept and be aware of. There are definitely churches with prideful and selfish motives but there are also churches with pure and selfless ones. I don't claim to know everything, or really anything for that matter, after all, I am only 19 and have so much more to learn. When I look at Ephesians 4:15, though, I just wonder why it is so hard to live out. How do we speak in both truth and love?

I do not hate the church. I love it, in fact.

If anyone reads this, please feel free to disagree with me. I love conversations about this and I want to learn more!