Dear children, let us not
love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
— 1 John 3:18 (NIV, 2011)
WHAT is love? An age-old question.
My thought here is love is truth in
action, acted out lovingly. Let me attempt to convince you, by making the
following statements, and by supporting those statements with my understanding
of what love truly is — love in and among the common people, as a communicated
reality of divine delight in relationship.
Love wrestles with the truth. When ‘truth’ is presented it’s to be wrestled with; this is the
antecedent to growth. Many times we shirk the wrestling to be done. We shrink
in fear of exposure. That we don’t have the mettle. But just a little more
fortitude brings a ton of blessing of, “I can do this!” Love wrestles with the
truth because it cannot rest until justice is done.
Love must act on the truth. It cannot sit on by and let the truth meander, pretending that
falsity will do. It cannot. Love is courage to speak the truth as well as the courage
to face the truth. These are both potentially scary concepts, but they’re never
scary when they’re lovingly deployed. But such crucial conversations require
great skill; great heart; great empathy and understanding. Truth never damages,
only ‘truth’ haphazardly delivered without love.
Truth is wedded to love. Imagine them walking back down the aisle having been through
the rites of marriage (from time immemorial). Neither is male nor female, but
they’re the accompanying set for life. When we want truth like Jesus did, and
we want to love as Jesus did, life has all the right input. God gives us truth
and love to give. And our truth and love, wedded together as we use them, both
interdependent on each other, come via the vine of God; we are his branches and
the life force is the truth-and-love set.
Truth acts lovingly. For truth to be harsh would make truth untrue in character. It
would be truth missing the mark: a fatal dichotomy. Truth is lovingly deployed.
The hardest of hits, then, so far as truth is concerned, is received well. So
truth can be relied upon to deliver in trustworthy ways without undue angst;
the ripples of anxiety, shockwaves of harm — that damage trust and respect in a
relationship.
Truth is heaven brought to earth. Can we imagine the communications in the
heavenly realm? Pure truth. Pure love. Truth, in the heavenly halcyon heights, wedded
to love as it is, we imagine being perfect. And there are those moments here in
earth as we feel them; moments when we feel genuinely impacted by the sweet
touch of God’s holy Presence. Truth cannot fail love; perfectly arrayed it’s inspiring
and ever building up in nature and stature.
***
Love is truth in action, acted out
lovingly. In truth and love there are no losers, only winners.
Truth and love, united and
resolved, build up and inspire growth, joy, and hope.
In truth and love is both safety
and growth.
© 2015 Steve Wickham.
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