So the battle rages…
So the battle rages – whether framed as “love versus hate” or “truth versus apostasy”,the Christian world is struggling with how to deal with the cultural evolution toward the normalization of homosexuality, gay marriage, gender reassignment, etc. Paul’s instruction to “speak the truth in love ” is so important in our day! Of course we are to love people – all people, including sinners of every kind. After all, where would we Christians be if God hadn’t loved us in our sins enough to send His Son to die for our sins? And as God’s children, we’re to have the same love for people that He does.
On the other hand, we are called to live holy lives, to speak the truth of God’s Word in its entirety, not picking and choosing only the parts we agree with. Lots of Christians quote Romans 2:4 “…God’s kindness leads you toward repentance”, with focus on kindness and love. But they completely avoid the words before and after that partial verse; they avoid the very clear warning about God’s judgment against those who do not repent. Paul writes in 2:2 that “God’s judgment… is based on truth”, and in 2:5 that those who do not repent are “storing up wrath” for themselves “for the day of God’s wrath.” Another example of this selectivity is to say “judge not, who are we to judge?”, but to ignore Paul’s teaching in I Corinthians 5:11-12 – “… you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler… What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? Expel the wicked man from among you.”
Paul balances God’s love with God’s call to holiness throughout his writings. For example, in Ephesians 5:1-2 Paul exhorts us to “be imitators of God and… live a life of love.” Then in the very next verses, he writes, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people… No immoral, impure, or greedy person – such a man is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God” (5:3-5). Read also 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
Again, we need to speak the truth in love. We will genuinely love people, and we will unashamedly value God’s Word, speaking His truth in love. Let’s not divorce those two things – truth and love. Truth without love is harsh and unChristlike. But if we sacrifice God’s truth on the altar of “love”, we have perverted the Gospel, erroneously redefined love, and misrepresented God Himself.