Being Right vs Being Loving

 My highest value is Truth & Love. It's not my highest two values; it is my highest value because I don't believe the two can be separated. A partial truth is the most powerful lie. The gap in the full truth leaves an opening for so many different, wrong understandings, but the full truth cannot be separate from love. 

Sadly, as John 1 points out, men prefer darkness to light; mankind prefers the lie or half truth to the full truth that can set us free. The full truth can't be spoken without love. Christians are commanded to speak the truth in love, but sadly, we can sometimes only speak the half-truth, focused on sinful behavior without love for the person caught in that sin. When we do that, it comes out as an accusation rather than an affirmation, and in the process we resemble the Accuser of Men (a.k.a. - Satan) rather than the One True God, Whose image we bear as ambassadors to this world. 

When we sin, the Accuser speaks half-truths about who we are and what we deserve. When we sin, we show ourselves to be sinners, and the wages of sin is death. Therefore, the Accuser says we are worthy of death. All true, but only half true. The full truth is that Jesus paid the price for our sin, meaning that He took the punishment for us and paid the debt on our behalf. That was not a one time payment. Rather, it's a payment sufficient to cover all sin: past, present and future. 

Everything I've written above is explained in the Bible. It's described by Paul in the book of Romans as the doctrine grace, where "grace" is receiving good things you don't deserve and "mercy" is not receiving the negative consequences for what you do deserve. We have not received this grace so that we should continue to sin, that would be a half-truth. Rather, we are free to sin but called to do what is right, and that is the reality of our freedom in Christ. We would not have freedom if we didn't have the option to sin, but we can demonstrate our love for God and others by obeying what is right. 

As recipients of His Grace, we are called to live holy lives, where holiness is being set apart for Him. As His Image Bearers, we are called to represent Him well, and when we don't His grace is still sufficient for all our short-comings. We are therefore free to fail, to get up again, and to learn how to live rightly.

So the full truth is inseparable from love, since it's His love that gives us the freedom to live in truth, and when we stumble, the righteous get back up again. Like the loving Father that He is, God rejoices in our steps and picks us up in our stumbles. He sees us, and He cultivates the good in each of us. Every stumble is simply a learning opportunity on how to walk more firmly and more steadily. He see us, He sees our flaws, and He loves us and encourages us to be better. 

So just as the truth can't be separated from Love, Love isn't fully Love without the full truth. To love another, we don't just love the image of them. We love them despite their flaws. That is how God loves each of us: He sees us, knows us, and loves us. And if we never change, He will continue to love us as we are, but He encourages us to become greater than what we are, and He walks with us in the process to become the men and women He knows we can become. 

In this same way, He as has called us to love one another. That does not mean that we love the sinful behavior of others. Rather, we love them even in their sinful behavior and with intentionality stand ready to help others overcome the things that are holding them back. Hate the sin and love the sinner, recalling that we too are somewhere on the journey ourselves, maybe further along in some areas and further behind in other ways. As iron sharpens iron, so one person can sharpen another so that we are continuing to be changed from glory to glory as His spotless Bride, made spotless by His sacrifice for us and not because we are righteous in our own power. 

In the end, we called to know Him through His Son, Jesus Christ and to love one another. 

This is His commandment: to believe in His Son, the One named Jesus Christ, and to love each other as He commanded us. 1 John 3:23

copyright ©2026 Mitchell Malloy (http://mitchellmalloyblogspot.com/)

See The Dichotomy of Being for more on our freedom to sin and call to holiness. 

And if you are struggling to find meaning in your life, this summary of Ecclesiastes may help you find the path. 

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