True Love and Loving Truth

Introduction

Hey, good morning to everyone joining us online, and to the students and staff here in person!

We are blessed to have you with us and pray that God reveals more of Himself to you as we open our hearts and His Word together. Would you just bow your heads in prayer with me as we prepare our hearts for God’s Word.

Open hearts

Sensitivity to your Word

Hide me behind the Word

Growth

I know there are many students in the room who don’t know who I am, so I wanted to start out by briefly introducing myself and telling you a little bit about me.

My name is Josiah, and I’m the youth pastor here at TSC summit, and I also work for the school as the special project supervisor, which is just a fancy way of saying I know how to use a paint brush!

I got married to my wife Karis a little over a year ago, she’s definitely the better half! So it’s unfortunate that you are meeting me before her, because she would have left the better first impression!

I’ve been here at the school for 10 years now! I came as a student in 2010, graduated and then stayed on as an assistant in the sports department working with Pastor Ryan. Over the years, I’ve held different responsibilities up until where I am today.

So I’ve sat where you are sitting before, I know the emotions, questions, excitement, fears your facing, but I also know its going to be a journey that is well worth it. So I’m excited for you all, and looking forward to getting to know you better over the course of this year.

But enough about me.

I want to share this morning about two things that I believe are becoming increasingly more important in our generation.

When I look around I see that people are starved of these two things....truth and love.

How many of you would say, we could use a bit more truth and love!

Now when I say they are “increasingly more important,” I’m not saying that the value of these things has gone up, because truth and love are just as important now as they have always been.

Rather what I’m saying is that our valuation of them has gone down.

And I want to show you how both of these things need to work together in order for there to be a full representation of the Christian life, and the Gospel message which we are responsible for carrying forth in our generation.

And that’s so important because we are always one generation away from the gospel becoming extinct....obviously God’s Word will stand because it is God’s word, and Jesus said the gates of Hell will not prevail.

So I don’t want to make it sound like God needs us

But we have the incredible privilege and responsibility of being ambassadors of this Gospel. God has chosen to use us.

So, I want to start by addressing truth and love separately because that is often how we view them.

You’ve probably heard how we need to balance truth and love, almost as if they are opposed to one another.

And we have individuals and churches that tend to lean further on one side than the other. Some might even use the language, “I would rather err on the side of truth” or “I would rather err on the side of love.”

Both of those ways are wrong ways of thinking of truth and love, because in reality the goal is not to “balance” them out rather we are called to pursue them both 100%! We are all in for truth, and all in for love!

So we are going to look at how we tend to view them individually, and then we’ll look at what Scripture has to say and tie them together to form a more accurate picture of them both!

So let’s start with truth!

Truth

There are many ways that people can view or define truth. Some say that truth is absolute, and others say it is relative to the person, or experience, or culture.

There are a lot of nuances to how we view truth, but I’m going to keep it simple and specifically address how Christians can tend to treat the truth.

We tend to treat truth as something that is factually true. It is a matter of fact, specifically face based on the Bible, but really any fact in general.

If it is a fact, it is truth. Lying is wrong....fact. You and I are human beings....fact. Chick fil a chicken sandwich is way better than Popeyes chicken sandwich....fact!

And although that may be correct, it is still a shallow understanding of Biblical truth, to limit truth to factual statements.

Those that tend to lean more toward the factually true side are the “we tell it how it is” folk

Well we didn’t ask you to tell it to begin with!

They don’t care if it offends you or hurts your feelings, this is how it is. You can’t cry over spilled milk.

A famous political commentator often says, “Facts don’t care about your feelings!” And it’s true right....truth is truth, regardless of how you feel about it.

These type people are often the principled type people. You ever hear someone say, “It’s the principle of the matter!” I actually tend to be this kind of person.

Tell BWW story

There was one time back when I was still in high school that I went out to eat with a friend. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings! Anybody else here that loves them some Bdubs? So we had our wings and the waitress brought us our receipts. I think my amount was something like $12.95. So I gave her a twenty, and when she brought me my change, she only gave me back $7. Instantly, I was thinking, wait a sec…you were supposed to bring me back $7 and 5 cents. And even though I didn’t really care about the 5 cents, I was like “it is not your job to assume I don’t care that I get all my change.” And so as a principle of the matter I only left her a $1 tip. Now obviously, I’m not justifying that, please don’t ever do that! that wasn’t very loving, but at the time I justified it because “it was the principle of the matter!”

Tell Dunkin Donuts Story

More recently, my wife and I were driving for vacation, and do you know what one of my biggest annoyances is when I’m driving on a long trip. It’s when a gas station or coffee shop is advertised on the highway, and then when you get off the exit it ends up being like 5 miles down the road. I don’t have that kind of time to waste when I’m taking a 12 hour trip! So recently we were driving and I wanted to pull off and get some coffee somewhere, and there was this dunkin donuts that was only supposed to be like half a mile down the road. So I pulled off the exit and kept an eye out and probably drove 2 or 3 miles looking for this stinking Dunkin Donuts. Finally, I got ticked off enough that I said, I’m not giving them my business because they were much further than what they said they were! So I turned around and headed for the interstate. Well, right as we are getting close to the interstate, my wife shouts out, “oh there they are!” They were literally right off the interstate. The problem was it was a small location within a strip mall area, and they had no big signs or anything indicating that it was there…we just happened to see it. I said to my wife, well, I’m not stopping now because they should have advertised it better…how can they expect us to see it when they don’t have proper signage? It’s the principle of the matter, and I drove by. And my wife was like, “Are you serious right now?” What if I wanted a cup of coffee? And I said “Did you?” and she said “I was thinking about it!” And I said, well just keep thinking about it until we find another place!

Now I know all of you are thinking this guy sounds like a jerk! I have my moment unfortunately, but I promise you I’m not always like that!

There is a difference between a principle or a truth and the truth.

A truth is a fact, the truth is much more than just a factual statement, and I’ll explain more about that a little latter on.

A truth can be separated from love no problem. And its not because the truth itself is unloving, it’s that you’re unloving.

There is such a thing as timing and tone when telling the truth!

That’s why you get people who can be bold for truth, but extremely lazy in love.

Some Christians think that all they have to do is stand for truth even if it’s a Biblical truth, and being loving doesn’t matter, because truth is what matters.

They’ll speak truth without love and state that truth is more important. The problem is you are separating two things that were never meant to be separated.

So keep this in mind. There is a difference between a truth and the truth.

I’ll come back to this in minute, but first, lets look at how the world has started to define love.

Love

The word love, is extremely watered down in our culture.

You hear people say, “Oh I love that music, or I love food, I love this weather

We love everything apparently

But many times today, the word “love” is used in the context of “acceptance” Sometimes people will even water down the truth in an effort to be loving and accepting and relevant.

Take the topics of sexual orientation, and gender identity for example. According to mainstream thought, the only way to be loving is to just accept people as they are, and to affirm them.

Love is thought of as being nice, while truth is thought to be tough or harsh.

But here’s the thing...If the way we express love to other people downplays the seriousness of sin, or the importance of holiness and obedience, its really not love

Love separated from truth is not love, it’s simply pandering.

You see....Love is not just about being nice to someone else's feelings and desires. much like truth is not just about “being right” or “being factual.” or having the theological knowledge and understanding, and we’ll dive deeper into that.

Truth and Love work together in an incredible way, and to emphasize one over the other is to water down both of them, and to empty them of their power. They work together!

Love and truth look like God loving you just the way you are, all your flaws, sins, and shortcomings, but loving you so much that He won’t leave you that way.

Truth and Love

So let’s look at what the Bible says:

Listen to what Jesus said to one of his disciples.

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Hear Jesus says about himself, that He is the truth

Jesus also said this in John 18:37

John 18:37 ESV

37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

I love how the apologetics ministry “Answers in Genesis” puts this…they say:

“the Bible identifies truth not simply as the absence of lies but as a quality intrinsic to the very nature of God, as was fully manifested in His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus not only spoke true words—He was, and is, the ultimate expression of truth.”

“The reason is simple: authentic, biblical truth is inextricably linked to the dependable, unchanging character of God.”

So Truth at its core includes the concepts of faithfulness and constancy. It implies dependableness, reliableness, and integrity.

Jesus could say, “I am . . . the truth not just because was truthful and taught the way of God in truth, but because His whole character is dependable and reliable.

I heard someone put it this way

Is this a vacuum? Yes

That may be the truth, but it says nothing to me about its dependability, or reliableness

It may truthfully be a vacuum cleaner, but if it breaks in a week what difference would that make, you still wouldn’t be happy.

Does it work properly, is it reliable, is it genuine

That’s the difference between a full and rich definition of “truth” and a partial, shallow one.

Biblical truth is not simply factually based, it’s more than that... it’s person based! Jesus Christ is the measure of truth!

Earlier we read John 18:37

John 18:37 ESV

37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

And in the very next verse look at what Pilate said:

John 18:38 ESV

38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

He asked, “What is truth?” and the incredible thing is that he had truth standing right in front of him!

So what about Love? What does the Bible say about love?

1 John 4:7-9

1 John 4:7–9 ESV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

So simply put, What is love? God is love.

You would think that if you don’t know truth, then you can’t know God....this says that if you don’t love, you don’t know God!

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Eight: Getting to the Bottom of Love (1 John 4:1–16)

love does not define God, but God defines love

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Eight: Getting to the Bottom of Love (1 John 4:1–16)

All that God does expresses all that God is

What is love? God is love. What is truth? God is truth! Jesus is the full expression of both Truth and love.

It is not possible to be devoted to the truth without Jesus Christ. It is also not possible to be devoted to love without Jesus Christ!

Truth that does not lead to love, is not Biblical truth, and love that is not truthful, is not love. They go hand in hand!

John Piper said it this way, “Love shapes how we speak the truth, and truth shapes how we show love.”

Ephesians 4:15 says we are to speak the truth in love

Ephesians 4:15 ESV

15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

And heres what it looks like

1 Corinthians 13…I want us all to see this together, because this is probably one of the most powerful descriptions of love in Scripture

1 Corinthians 13 ESV

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Challenge

So here’s the challenge for all of us

God forbid, that we pursue a cheapened truth and have no love to show for it

Where all we are concerned about is being right, and not really caring for other people

We can come to Summit to better our theological understanding, and be able to better articulate our doctrinal beliefs

Quote the revelations that God gave us in Scripture

We can develop our natural and spiritual gifts

We can learn to speak truth til we are blue in the face, and still not really have a genuine love for people.

Jehovah witness story

You see, I used the truth of Scripture as facts to prove this person wrong, rather than using it to introduce the person to the truth of Jesus Christ

I was concerned about winning an argument, while Christ was concerned about winning a person

Pray that God gives you a love for people!

God help us to love people. Not to see them with our own man-made filters that only work to skew the image of God and value that is found in a person.

But also, God forbid that we pursue a cheap love at the expense of truth

Where we show up in love, but shut up in truth

Where we are so concerned about accommodating, affirming, and accepting people in this life, that we give no concern or thought for their eternal destination.

Stand with me and let’s pray this together!

Born Again

Maybe you would say I’ve been searching all over for truth and I just haven’t found it. Or maybe you would say I’ve been looking everywhere for love, and I’ve come up empty.

How do I find the truth and love, that is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ?

The Bible says that we need to be born again.

What does it mean to be born again?

Its as easy as A, B, C

ADMIT you are a sinner in need of a savior

Have you ever messed up?

I need an intervention

BELIEVE in your heart that Jesus died for your sins and rose again

I believe that God came to earth as a man and paid the penalty for my sin….a penalty I couldn’t pay.

We are placing our trust in Him

CONFESS Jesus as Lord of your life

I don’t just recognize you as my savior, my life belongs to you…you are my Lord.

I am going to surrender my life to your love and truth!

I’m going to say this prayer, and if you want to be born again, wherever you are, just repeat this prayer after me.

Amen, thanks for being with us this morning, lets sings this song together as we close. God bless!

Sources

1. Why It’s Wrong To Keep Truth And Grace In Balance - https://plainsimplefaith.com/why-its-wrong-to-keep-truth-and-grace-in-balance/

If God’s grace is taught in any way that somehow lessens the seriousness of sin, undermines the importance of obedience, or cheapens the necessity of holiness – that isn’t grace; that’s license

You cannot have grace without truth.

The lie that we need to somehow find a balance between grace and truth might sound good to those who don’t know any better, but it is a devastating idea.

Grace and truth are not opposite sides of the coin – they are on the same side!

Grace and truth are synonymous because they are both found in Jesus. Therefore, let us be 100% committed to both.

2. Let’s Stop Trying to Balance Love and Truth - https://gravityleadership.com/stop-love-and-truth/

We have to do both love and truth. We can’t just be loving… we also have to be truthful.” When I hear leaders contrast love and truth like this, the implication seems to be that “love” is the easy thing to do.

Contrasting love and truth implies that “love” is less than truthful. We’re capitulating to a vision of love that falls far short of the New Testament’s vision. Contrasting love and truth cheapens our vision of both love and truth.

It makes love into “niceness” and truth into “toughness,” as if the truth is always negative

love isn’t part of an equation that needs to be balanced by anything else. Rather, love is the whole ball game!

“Love and truth” aren’t the vision for Jesus or the New Testament writers. It’s just love! But it’s love as seen in Jesus, who wasn’t afraid to live in reality and call his disciples to do the same.

Love is full of grace and truth! Which doesn’t mean we try to “balance” grace and truth… no, it’s not about balance at all. It’s about learning to live in the fullness of both grace and truth

3. Love vs. Truth: Who Wins? - https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/asd/2017/09/13/love-vs-truth/

The problem with that is that it puts love and truth as opposites. In other words, if you’re going to preach the truth, you have to be ready to hurt some feelings. And you shouldn’t worry about hurt feelings, because you’ve got the truth on your side.

Why do we do this? Why do we act as though to be truthful, you cannot be loving, or to be loving, you cannot be truthful?

Something’s gotta give, so if we emphasize truth, then love is out. And if we emphasize love, then truth gets shown the door. This is our world now.

Truth is not “being right” or “being correct.” And love is not about feelings or desires, even very deep-seated ones.

In 1 John 4:8 and 4:16, we read these three words together in both verses: “God is love.” And in John’s Gospel, in John 14:6, we read Jesus, Who is God, saying this, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

So what is love? God is love. What is truth? God is truth.

You cannot be dedicated to the truth without Jesus Christ. You cannot be dedicated to love without Jesus Christ.

Love is obviously not about condemning anyone, but it’s also not about pretending that we don’t need to be saved, to be healed, to be transformed, to be changed. As I like to say sometimes, God loves you so much that He accepts you as you are, but He also loves you so much that He won’t leave you that way. And here also is truth. Truth is not about condemning, either—it is about how we can be saved. Truth is not about rejection, and it is also not about demanding submission.

Christ is the measure of both.

4. What’s More Important: Truth or Love? - https://redeeminggod.com/truth-or-love/

And as I have already argued, truth which does not lead you to love, is not truth at all.

True truth is loving, and real love is truthful.

If you find yourself justifying what you are going to say or do “in the name of truth” or “in the name of love” you are probably being neither truthful nor loving.

5. What does it mean to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15)? - https://www.gotquestions.org/speak-the-truth-in-love.html

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29). Our words should be beneficial to the hearers of those words. We should speak truth in love.

Speaking the truth in love is not as much about having a gentle demeanor as it is about the way truth and love go hand-in-hand.

Because we love one another, we must speak the truth. Because we know the truth, we must be people characterized by love (John 13:34–35; 15:1–17).

6. What Is Truth? Part 1 - https://answersingenesis.org/hermeneutics/what-is-truth/

Jesus tells Pontius Pilate that He has come into the world to “bear witness to the truth ἀλήθεια (alḗtheia)]”3 (John 18:37). Notice that He says, “the truth,” not any old truth. Jesus adds, “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice” (John 18:37). Again, notice it’s “the truth,” something definite—not vague. Jesus has come to proclaim and confirm the truth to those who are seeking for the truth.

Pilate responds with the famous rhetorical words, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). This time, the Greek is indefinite.4 So, there we go again, off into the realms of obscurity.

the Bible identifies truth not simply as the absence of lies but as a quality intrinsic to the very nature of God, as was fully manifested in His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus not only spoke true words—He was, and is, the ultimate expression of truth.

You see, many people today understand “truth” simply as “something declared to be a fact by science.”

The Bible has a better and higher standard. It defines truth as being utterly reliable and enduring. The reason is simple: authentic, biblical truth is inextricably linked to the dependable, unchanging character of God.

7. How Does Biblical Truth Apply to the Character of God? - https://answersingenesis.org/hermeneutics/how-does-biblical-truth-apply-to-the-character-of-god/

8. Truth about Origins and Faith - https://answersingenesis.org/hermeneutics/truth-about-origins-and-faith/

Biblical truth—whether conveyed by ἀλήθεια (alḗtheia) in the New Testament or אֱמֶת (ʾěmeṯ) in the Old Testament—means much more than factual accuracy. Yes, it most certainly incorporates our modern understanding of “truth.” But at its core are the concepts of faithfulness and constancy, implying dependableness, reliableness, and integrity.

Think about appliances. The answer to a simple question such as, “Is it a vacuum cleaner?” may be “Yes, that’s true.” But if you’re going to spend $100 or more, you want to know a bit more than that. (Besides which, if that’s the only question you ask the salesman in the appliance store, he probably won’t be impressed!) You want to know if it will work properly. And, if you’re like me, you’ll be especially keen to know if it will be reliable, and if it’ll last a long time. A disreputable retailer selling inferior-quality vacuums may advertise their products as being genuine, but if they quickly break down or have poor suction, you wouldn’t be pleased. That’s the difference between the real deal and a substandard or counterfeit product. It’s also the difference between a full and rich definition of “truth” and a partial, shallow one.

The true measure of the promised authenticity and genuineness of something is its efficacy and durability. With this in mind, we can see why Jesus said, “I am . . . the truth1” (John 14:6)—not only because He is “true, and teach[es] the way of God in truth” (Matthew 22:16), but because His whole character is utterly dependable and reliable.

9. Truth and Love - https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/truth-and-love

Truth aims at love.

"The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Timothy 1:5). Note: instruction is not the goal, love is. Instruction is the means. It is subordinate. Truth serves love.

Love aims at truth.

"Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth" (1 Corinthians 13:6). Love is glad when truth is spoken. Therefore love aims at truth. It supports truth.

Love shapes how to speak the truth.

"Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ" (Ephesians 4:15). There is an unloving way to speak the truth.

Truth shapes how to show love.

"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome