"Only love can be trusted with the truth"

[ncjohn]

I was listening to a talk on CD last night and heard the quote–as closely as I can remember it–“Only love can be trusted with the truth.”

I gave a lot of thought to that the rest of the way home and realized how true that really is. I have seen and heard many–including many at this site–claiming to have or know “the Truth”. Yet that “truth” is so often delivered with a sledgehammer, and in such a hurtful way, that it is clear that they don’t really know the truth at all, at least not at more than a head level.

St. Paul said in one of his letters (1 Corinthians, I think) that Truth without love is a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. I don’t think it could be stated more clearly. Many of those using the sledgehammer approach will jump up and claim a “tough love” that is necessary to bring the wayward back to their senses. In my mind though, that “tough love” only works with someone who has great credibility with the listener and who the listener knows to have their best interests at heart. It cannot be heard from a stranger on a message board whose motives are not known. True love will recognize that and find a way to state even the hardest of truths in a way that doesn’t attack the person and drive them even further away.

It’s amazing how quickly some will totally cast aside the most important teachings of Jesus while trying to make someone else “obey the rules”. One of the most important teachings was to remove the beam from one’s own eye before attempting to remove the splinter from someone else’s. How arrogant we get in thinking we can even begin to understand God’s ways and God’s mercy and willingness to break His own rules out of love for us. How arrogant to think that we can begin to understand “the Truth” without standing in His shoes with divine wisdom and mercy. How totally and completely arrogant to think that we can cast our judgments on others while living such completely imperfect lives ourselves, holding them to a much higher standard than we hold ourselves. How completely ridiculous to think we can claim to speak for God while disregarding the very words of His son!

Father forgive me for the innumerable times I have laid my unjust judgments on others, possibly driving them further from you by misrepresenting Your face. I cannot know the Truth either for I cannot love perfectly as You do. My ways are indeed as far from yours as the east is from the west. But I believe that you can take even my misguided attempts and use them for Your purposes and Your glory. And when I don’t believe as I should, help me in my unbelief. Help me to hold Your people in my hands as You would and to never to further wound one of Your beloved flock.

Only love can be trusted with the Truth, and far too many times I don’t meet that standard. But I’m trying…

 

[Joysong]

Very apropro, ncjohn. Thanks for your reflections.

It’s good to see you posting again!

 

[ncjohn]

Very apropro, ncjohn. Thanks for your reflections.

It’s good to see you posting again!

Thanks Carole. I tend to post when I’m listening more closely to God and feel like He has some “mail” He’d like me to deliver. Sometimes when I’m not posting it’s because I’m not listening as closely as I should be since I know He’s speaking all the time.

 

[reen12]

quote: ncjohn

True love will recognize that and find a way to state even the hardest of truths in a way that doesn’t attack the person and drive them even further away.

How many times have I been one of “Job’s friends.”
I don’t even want to think about that.

How many times, has another goaded me - to the point
where I sin, in my own replies? I don’t want to think about that,
either.

I am often stunned, when I see a ‘true believer’ - getting in the face of some poor soul, who posed a question, in simplicity of heart…‘Job’s friends’ immediately going into ‘condemnatory mode.’

Any reply, based on stating another’s motives,
violates the boundaries of the other - in stunning disregard for the
well-being of the other’s mind, heart and soul.
To know another’s ‘motive’ - is soley God’s province,
Him knowing all the history, and the circumstances, of one’s life.

If I feel like I’ve been hit, amidships, by a truck - when such
hurting words are not even ‘aimed’ at me - what must the person, who asked a question, feel?

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees - you hypocrites! You shut the door to the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. Matt. 23:13

reen12

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Good post John, and how true.

I love the quote by the author of the book, "The Cloud of Unknowing, " which goes;

“God can not be grasped, except through love.”

So, God who is truth, can only be understood and revealed, through love.

Jim

 

[Joysong]

Reen12:

If I feel like I’ve been hit, amidships, by a truck - when such hurting words are not even ‘aimed’ at me - what must the person, who asked a question, feel?

And may God bless the person who jumps in to defend them, for they, too, are branded with the same condemnation often times. But I would rather share their cross than stand idly by and let the crowd jeer at them.

 

[reen12]

I sometimes think that - those whose modus operandi is ‘accuse and condemn’ -
arise, each day, thrilled! with the thought of launching the first stone -
in ‘defense’ of the Prince of Peace.
“But, Jesus, didn’t we defend You? Didn’t we try to save souls from error?”
“Didn’t we accuse and condemn in Your Name?”
“Was this not an act of charity, on our part, hurling those verbal stones?”
“Did we not correct error?”
“Didn’t we defend the truth?”

And will their Master say: “I am Truth.”
“Whenever you misused My Name - you distorted My face, more than the Roman soldiers.”
“You made Me unrecognizable, to some who sought Me, and you compounded the
existing injuries of others, already wounded by such as you.”
And the blessed thing is, it will be those who were hurt by these verbal stones, who will
beg God to show mercy - to those who made it a practice to cast the first stone.

quote: ncjohn

St. Paul said in one of his letters (1 Corinthians, I think) that Truth without love is a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. I don’t think it could be stated more clearly.

“My sheep hear My voice.”

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

Even over the “noisy gongs and clanging cymbals” of this world,
blessed be He.

reen12

 

[reen12]

quote: Joysong

And may God bless the person who jumps in to defend them, for they, too, are branded with the same condemnation often times. But I would rather share their cross than stand idly by and let the crowd jeer at them.

This is what I do not understand, Joysong. Others could come
to Christ, through seeing the peace in suffering, the sheer kindness of Christians,
to one another, and to all. The evangelicals, that I’ve met, radiate their joy and their love of their Savior. To an evangelical, the good news truly* is* good news, and they wish to share this.

I do not at all hold that getting in someone’s face is the
exclusive territory of one ‘religion.’ [Someone once got in my
face, while I was out shopping! Another ruined a social
gathering for me, harrying me about the 'true faith," from the
main course, right thru dessert.] My stomach was in knots.

Whenever this happens, all I can think of, ruefully:
‘Gimme that ol’ time religion…’ If it’s good enuff for dypepsia,
it’s good enuff for me. http://bestsmileys.com/nono/9.gif

reen12

 

[ncjohn]

Good post John, and how true.

I love the quote by the author of the book, "The Cloud of Unknowing, " which goes;

“God can not be grasped, except through love.”

So, God who is truth, can only be understood and revealed, through love.

Jim

Exactly Jim!

You are one of those who can concisely say in a couple words what I have to use paragraphs to expound on. As I’ve noted on occasion, my motto seems to be “never say in five words what you can use five hundred for!”

Peace,

 

[ncjohn]

“My sheep hear My voice.”

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a106/reen12/sheep.jpg

Even over the “noisy gongs and clanging cymbals” of this world,
blessed be He.

reen12

And blessed are those who are able to find the pasture where the Good Shepherd pastures His sheep. Where their peace cannot be taken away and where the Shepherd binds their wounds.

And that’s a beautiful drawing Reen. I’m not sure if that’s one of yours or one you’ve saved from somewhere, but most of the time now I feel exactly like one of those smiling sheep.

 

[reen12]

Maybe the spiritually and the psychologically sturdy can ‘live and move and have their being’
in the world, but the weak and the wounded need the Shepherd to temper the wind to their
shorn condition. Shorn of what? Shorn of the ‘groundedness’ that each human being needs? Such groundedness is to be found close to the Shepherd, Who is the Ground of *all *being, where a lamb may find, for the first time, a sense of being protected from the sure and the certain and the sturdy



and Someone to hide behind - when those who would verbally rend and tear and condemn are near. He has His Shepherd’s crook, which makes the little sheep feel better.



reen

 

[ncjohn]

I think Reen, that in many ways that is why only love can be trusted with the truth.

Love will use the truth to lift another up and bind their wounds. Without that love, “truth” is often a heavy rock which someone then ties to the cross the other is already carrying.

When that happens, one begins to doubt the Shepherd–as the Shepherd gets portrayed as a mugger ready to take what little is left–rather than leading one toward the Shepherd.

When the time comes, while I believe God will look upon them with great love for trying to help, I believe they will also get their chance to see–and maybe even experience–the great pain that their misperceptions caused. If it’s true that “to whom much has been given much will be expected”, then many of us who have been given much will definitely have some ‘splainin’ to do.

I can only look back with great sorrow on the times I too have added weight to someone’s cross.