Love and Truth

I read Tom Ascol’s blog on Love and Truth and was convicted that I need to use more love in the leading of others to see the truth, patience would help also. However, there are times where love may not appear as love to the world today. It would seem that the conviction is that all too often I jump straight to the correction and rebuking (which still can be done lovingly, at least in the eyes of God). Then there are those times when the differences on a subject comes to a point where the truth becomes compromised and while we need to be loving it may begin to appear as unloving to some in how the situation is dealt with.

It is when this wall of disagreement is reached that some may forgoe conviction on doctrine and just throws their arms up and gives in to the temptation of minimilizing truth. If we believe there is truth we need to stand up for it but make sure we do so in a God glorifying way, that is the tough part at times. But, we also need to make sure that truth is not compromises in the manner Post-Modernism seem to do. Making truth a relative thing is good for no one as in the end it is what we believe that drives what we do and how we do it.

So the struggle is how to stand for something yet not stand on people. I am not sure I have the answer except I do see that there may be times when it is better to divide over a matter and still keep love in tact than to let things fester to the point that reconciliation becomes even more difficult. When I say divide I am not sure how this works but the main point is that if a point of doctrine comes to a place where there are differences that are irreconcilable and the convictions of both parties are at a point where fellowship is hindered in the context of the local church then I think separation may be best. It is much easier to hold differences with those we do not work side by side with every day than it is for those we are in fellowship with regularly.

So this is all a thought in process and it eventually works itself out in real time as things progress but I do pray that when differences come to a head that we all realize that it is God’s church, God’s Truth and, if we are truly believers, God’s children. We need to gaurd all of these and not just one as they are all intertwined.

Grace and Peace,
Tony