The Truth in Love
Thought for the day. If the love in you is offended by the truth, is the love in you the love of God?
How can we speak the truth in love if we view truth as hate or we view truth as unloving?
1 John 1:5-7 says. 5) And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that GOD IS LIGHT, and in Him there is NO DARKNESS AT ALL. 6) If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7) but if we walk in the light as He Himself is the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Now just for argument sake(though I am not trying to start an argument, but rather end one), lets replace the word ‘fellowship’ with the statement ‘a loving relationship in unity of Spirit’ and then read 1 John 1: 5-7 again, I’m not trying to rewrite the Bible or even divert anyone from the text of the Bible in any way but I do realize that sometimes we use a word so many times that we either lose its meaning or the word just becomes meaningless to us in any personal sort of way. So with the word ‘fellowship’ written in definition, 1 John 1: 5-7 would sound like this,
And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that GOD IS LIGHT, and in Him there is NO DARKNESS AT ALL. 6) If we say that we have a loving relationship in unity of Spirit with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7) but if we walk in the light as He Himself is the light, we have a loving relationship in unity of Spirit with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Now, as I said before, it is not my desire to rewrite or divert the Word of God in anyway, but I am hoping to add clarity to the very Word of God we are holding in our hands. I not only want to read the words I want to understand them. As I read this passage and I understand it better, it causes me to ask some very important questions that reveal and define the truth about trying to be a child of the light while walking in darkness. After all it was Jesus who said, “If the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness”.
If we were to really examine this passage of scripture and look at it carefully it would make you wonder,….
1. Does God make compromises concerning His truth?
2. Is God’s philosophy like yin and yang,…you know,…’well balanced’ and therefore accepting of a little darkness? (a Buddhist theology though taught in modern evangelical circles)
3. Can we honestly practice the truth if we continue to walk in darkness?
4. Do we have fellowship with God if we walk in darkness?
5. Can we have fellowship with one another if we walk in darkness?
6. Does the blood of Jesus cleanse us from all sin if we walk in darkness?
7. and just one last thought,…If God is love, then is the love of God in us if we walk in darkness???
And what is darkness? well, just read the rest of the short little book of 1 John.
Once we are in Christ we are to hunger and thirst for righteousness, we are to seek FIRST the Kingdom of Heaven and HIS righteousness….I’m not saying that we wont fail miserably at times and fall way short of the Glory of God, and need continuous grace and mercy from God in order to walk with Him, however I am saying that to devise doctrines or little ‘deals’ with ourselves or other people to wink at sin, agree with it,…or cover it up(of course out of love,….sigh) is straight from hell, period. Truth is light and reveals sin, the true servant of God is not someone who never again sins, they are someone who responds to sin with repentance and submission to God, not accepting its work in us as OK or acceptable. Christians are to be loving to other people but absolutely ruthless in pursuing truth especially in our own lives, when truth exposes a new layer of something separating us from God we should be exited for the opportunity to shed one more layer of flesh to walk in the love of God just that much more(true growth).
Anyway that’s a lot of thought, if you get a chance look at 1 John and make up your own mind,
~ Daniel Paul ~ (2009)