As I reflected upon Easter tonight, and prepared for the celebration of Christ's resurrection (and our Life because of it!) tomorrow, and tried to help prepare my children's hearts, I was once more struck by the majesty and truth and glory of His LOVE. At the same time, I am deeply saddened by our unintentional and yet very real trivialization of God's love, as we Christians try to "share" God's "love" with a "lost and dying world" (a phrase which is true in one sense and yet unBiblically hopeless in another). In trying to "share" God, we think our "job" as Christians is to tell the world (which is by definition unregenerate and unrepentant, for once someone is seized by God they are no longer of the world) that God "loves" them.
As a preparation for a future post, and for my own edification, I spent quite a bit of time tonight researching some contemporary Christian works of fiction, including "The Shack". I read a lot of good points on several web-sites, including http://hereiblog.com/2008/08/08/the-shack-review/ and http://www.challies.com/archives/book-reviews/the-shack-by-william-p-young.php , but as I read down through the back-and-forth discussion on the first site I couldn't help but notice that many of us Christians (yes, even those of us who identify ourselves as "Reformed") seem to see "truth" and "love" as being in some sort of tension, as though we have to constantly balance upon a tightrope in order to follow Paul's admonition in Ephesians 4:15 that we are to be "speaking the truth in love".
Of course, there is a Biblical basis for differentiating (or at least separately listing) "truth" and "love", as in the above verse and in 2 John 1:3, but as we recognize the majesty and inerrancy of God's Word we should come to terms with the fact that just because two ideas seem contradictory to our limited human minds (the best other example I can think of is God's sovereignty over everything versus man's responsibility for his own sin) does not mean that they are not both equally, Biblically true.
As usual, one of my friends and mentors has already said it first, and best (though for lack of photographic memory I must paraphrase here): there is only one truth, and love is contained within it. Not only is truth cold and hard without true love, but it actually ceases to be actual truth (one could substitute the word "orthodoxy" here, which embodies most, if not all, of true doctrine). And not only is love washed out and useless without truth, but it is NOT actually true love!
"No greater love has man than this, that He lay down His life for his friends." (John 15:13) Thank you, Lord! May we all do a better job of proclaiming the true significance of Your love!
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