Truth or Love. Must We Choose? (Part One)

This is a three-part look at II John, one of the shortest letters in the Bible, but also at one of the most important controversies in the church and on the street. It is a crucial issue which has many pastors fooled. We must get it right.

Many people think love comes way before truth.  Some sincerely pursue love but never chase truth, at least God’s revealed truth.

It is discussed at Starbuck’s and in theology books.  Over a latte an amateur theologian says he thinks the Beatles were right: “All you need is love.”  Some add, “I don’t need any more of the strait-jacket teachings of the church – where has that brought us?  We need people who will learn how to love each other.”

No word on where they will learn that.

Some in the new mood of inclusivism theologically have said it more academically; stating that the world has heard enough of the church’s pronouncements of truth – those outside the church simply need to feel our love, especially by our embrace of all.

A lot of this thinking has come into the church also.  I don’t mean just by writers who are followers of Christ – some of them simply call for love instead of doctrine, as if there were a choice – but also with the habits of people.

Many of them simply do not take time to study what the Bible teaches about both love and doctrine, actions and belief.  There is no room for debate about which of the two we should major on!

As with the two wings of an airplane, both! II John makes it clear.

II John was written as a personal letter to a woman who might as well have been named Church.  She is indeed “the chosen lady,” and as John addresses her he immediately gets into the emphasis on truth.  And love.

Truth is central ^1-4

Relationship

The lady is chosen – is this a reference to the sovereign election of believers by God?  And John loves her (the church?) “in the truth.”  Already he is showing how truth guides love. The “lady” is related to God, who is truth, and therefore also to John, who is committed to the truth.

Commonality

John reminds pastors why we should talk about love and truth in the same breath: “all who know the truth” love this lady! It is because as believers they have the truth in them, and the truth always gets us to love!

We just cannot separate the two – not at Starbuck’s in the discussions, not in the new books, not in the established churches. Not in our own hearts! The two are twins.

Objectivity

“Truth is whatever you believe for yourself – that is truth for you” – I was told this by a medical doctor who saw me reading the Bible on an airplane.  I did ask her if she practiced that in medicine.

“Of course not.”

John is excited that some of the children of the women (church?) were “working in the truth, just as the Father commanded us” (4).  Obviously truth is a place to be.  It can be walked in!

Jude speaks of “the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 4).  Paul said he had “kept the faith” (II Timothy 4:7).  Clearly there is a content of faith.  It is objective, not just a feeling or a warm spot.

From this it is clear that love and truth are inseparable.

Why we should understand this

And the first reason of course is that it is true.  The Bible is clear about the call to proper doctrine, “sound” or healthy doctrine, and the call to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Saved or unsaved neighbors. So this is part of the mandate and part of the gospel that God has delivered to us.

But it is also important because we choose every day how we will live, and we should choose the ways of love based on the doctrines of love.  We must choose how we relate to people and show God’s kind of holy love on the basis of what God has revealed about how we should treat others.

So it is not promiscuous love.  It is not feeling love that we make up as we go.  It is a clearly defined righteousness shown in relation to others and this includes doing good for them, helping the poor and needy, showing love, forgiving.

Do you do this?  It is essential that people in the church see this kind of love and truth modeled in their pastor’s lives and also their leaders’!  While we are all fellow strugglers, we can still teach and practice this balance.

We would also have to say this is important because of the way the world or the non-churched analysts see how believers live.  So many of them have stayed away ostensibly because of “the hypocrites” as they call them.  That is, people who say they believe the right things and follow the Bible but don’t show it with a consistent love and obedience to God.  So they are bad models.

And then there is the confusion of people who are just nice to everybody and very inclusive about all morality and all people, in the theological sense of that inclusiveness, and that just can confuse people who are wondering what the Christian stands for.

So someone who has balance about love and truth is going to clearly show exactly (just about) what a Christian should look like in this world.  He and she should be people of love, guided by truth.