Love, Truth and Malevolent Compassion (Part 2)
Whether you listen to the podcast or read the transcript in Part 1, I hope it's clear that there is a difference between being compassionate and being loving. Compassion without reason is a poison that kills despite it's desire to help.
In a similar way, the truth is a blunt instrument that can bludgeon a person if is not tempered with loving compassion. Immature Christians can sometimes beat others over the head with truths that are void of compassion, but that is not how we are called to represent God's Kingdom. Ephesians 4:15 in context tells us that we grow in maturity as we speak the truth in a loving way. I find it hard to read verses 11-18 and not understand that truth and love must be knitted together.
Can we truly love another without knowing them? Sure, we can never fully know another, just as the most self-aware person can never fully understand themself. We are complex and influenced by a myriad of past experiences, personality traits and cognitive biases. But love accepts the good the bad and the ugly in the beloved. Love grows as the truth about the beloved is both understood and accepted, but love reaches a ceiling where the truth of the beloved is limited because every revelation about the one who is loved becomes an opportunity for the one who loves to love even more.
What is Love?
But what is love? It is hard to define in English because we have a single word that describes so many things that range from an unconditional love, to a brotherly love, to a comfortable relationship, to pure lust. There's a beautiful illustration of Jesus' love for believers in John's gospel as Jesus asks Peter to "feed His sheep". Jesus makes it clear to Peter that if Peter loves Jesus, he will take care of the flock of believers. What is less clear in our English translations is why Jesus asks three times. It seems redundant, but the tension in the dialog is made more clear in the original Greek where twice Jesus asks Peter if he has an unconditional love (agape) for Jesus to which Peter responds that he has brotherly love (phileo) for Jesus. The third time Jesus comes to Peter's level, using the word phileo.
As representatives of Christ's Kingdom, we are called to the highest form of love (agape), but Jesus uses us for greater things despite our imperfections. Like Peter, our ability to love can grow as we trust and obey Jesus' calling in our lives. Love is undeniably a feeling, but for both agape and phileo, it is also a decisive action; the biggest difference between the two is the unconditional, self-sacrificing nature of agape.
There are other Greek words that we translate as "love" in English. One of those is a transactional love, eros, from which we get the word "erotic". Eros seeks to "get" something from the desired object as opposed to agape which seeks to give for the benefit of the beloved. Conventional business wisdom is built around eros, but God's economy is built around providing value to others, often being delivered without cost to the recipient. Eros always demands something in return.
Our world is built around lust, and we therefore our culture overloads the term "love" to include eros, but that is not how I use the word. Instead, the easiest way for me to understand love vs. lust is to recognize love as a decision to give for the benefit of others whereas lust is a desire to acquire something for self-benefit.
So as I understand love, it is conjoined with truth, using reason as the bonding agent. I believe they are inseparable. As explained earlier love ceases to be love without truth. But can truth exist without love?
What is Truth?
Have you ever stopped to think about the words used to swear in a witness in a US court of law? "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" It is not simply "Do you swear to tell the truth and not lie?". Rather, it commits the witness to tell the whole truth and not to embellish it. Why is that important? I would suggest that it's because the most effective lie is the half-truth. Our minds fill in the gaps and embellish the truth when spaces are left in the whole truth.
So what is true apart from the Author of all truth, and what are the repercussions of understanding a fact apart from the omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent Creator? Thinking we can understand "truth" without understanding it's Author and the context behind that truth can lead to a multitude of misunderstandings. A person can idolize science when they fail to see the passion of the Intelligent Designer behind natural laws, but the scientist who sees the love of God behind each new discovery has a greater appreciation for the truth and sees the next steps that flow from that knowledge.
I acknowledge that religion has historically beaten down facts that challenged beliefs, but science was made possible by a culture that believed it could understand God better by better understanding His creation. The Renaissance (14th–17th century) and the Protestant Reformation (16th century) overlapped in a way that allowed for the Scientific Revolution (16th–18th century). I would gladly argue that all truth is God's truth, since He is the Author and that it pleases God to probe deeper, building upon each true thing He has shown us. It is not God or the Bible that have stunted discovery, but rather, religious zealots who feared the discovery as a threat to their understanding.
It is the glory of God to hide things
but the glory of kings to investigate them. ~ Proverbs 25:2
I would further submit that it is the challenge and the privilege of all Christian educators to instruct their subject domain in the context of God's love, reflecting God's decision to give for our benefit. But who is a Christian educator? Is it simply teachers in a Christian School? Can it apply to Christian teachers in secular environments? What about teachers in our churches and small groups? What about parents as they raise children? The bar is set high, and we can only do it in His power as He leads, being faithful to pursue truth, to investigate what God has hidden for our glory.
What would it be like if we only spoke the truth in love? How would that change us, and how would it change the world around us? We don't know everything and we don't know perfectly, but we do know the One Who does, and it is our job to point others His way, sharing the bits and pieces that we understand along the way.
