“Is an attachment to orthodoxy necessarily accompanied by a rigid and unloving spirit? If we were to think of all the orthodox people we know, then we might conclude that that is sometimes the case. If we recollect all the unorthodox people we know, then we might come to the same conclusion! The real question is whether there is any likely or necessary connection between orthodoxy and lack of love. . . .
Any idea that love and orthodoxy are antithetical to each other is foreign to the teaching of Christ. Our Lord requires both. Let us therefore reject the sort of self-righteousness in which we congratulate ourselves on being orthodox and think that this somehow compensates for a lack of love. Similarly let us not think that Christ will overlook denials of his Word simply because we are loving.”
--Noel Weeks, The Sufficiency of Scripture (Edinburgh, 1988), page 237.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.In the words of Noel Weeks, love and orthodoxy. In the words of Josh Harris, humble orthodoxy. In the words of the apostle Paul, speaking the truth in love.
Ephesians 4:15-16
As we live this kind of life, we are growing up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, who saw no conflict between truth and love, but always spoke the truth no matter how unpopular it was, and always did so in love.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.In the words of the apostle John, grace and truth. Not one. Both.
John 1:17
HT: Christ Is Deeper Still
6 comments:
I'm not sure it's so important to be more concerned with what is doctrinally right than in being authentically good.
Thanks for stopping by Elise. I assume what you mean when you say authentically good is what I mean when I say we are to be loving?
If so, then I would say your statement is a dangerous one because it begins to elevate love above truth. And that's how the false dichotomy creeps in, when we say one is more important than the other.
I don't think truth is more important than love. But at the same time I would hesitate to say love is more important than truth because, without truth, how do we even know that what we are calling love is really love?
I think that the life and teachings of Jesus (who is described in the New Testament as both truth, John 14:6, and love, 1 John 4:16) show us that if we're truly gonna get either right (and none of us perfectly does though we strive to), we have to get the other right. And if we get one wrong, we will eventually get the other wrong as well.
Sorry if the original post wasn't clear but I wasn't trying to say that being doctrinally right is more important than being authentically good or loving. My point was to say that they are both essential. None more than the other.
"[Love] rejoices with the truth."
1 Corinthians 13:6
I think your original post was clear about both love and truth being essential. Sorry I didn't mean to say that it wasn't. I appreciated this post very much, and reading your blog in general has been thought provoking and encouraging! what you said about knowing when love is really love put things into perspective. I tend to lean toward one more than the other I guess
You're not alone! I think we all are more inclined toward one side more than the other. For me, it's towards truth.
And that's why it's so important to preach the importance of both to ourselves again and again, especially the one we are less inclined towards.
For me, that means preaching love, love, love to myself ... again and again.
Not such a bad thing... =)
"Not such a bad thing", indeed! :-)
Your pointer to 1 John is a good one; search on know*, believe*, command*, and love/loves in 1 John. The disciple whom Jesus loved, fighting various Gnostic heresies, reiterates again and again in this short book that knowledge, love, and obedience are all important and can't be separated out from one another...
Post a Comment