Photo by RedTempa
Is Truth dead?
Let me rewind. I read How To Win Points but Not Influence People yesterday. The writer had me doing a one hundred and eighty degrees spin right after. Some of the writer's points: Why do girl scouts sell cookies? It is because they want to make their quota; they're not in it to make you a better person. Truth is NOT enough. Truth is part of love, but truth by itself is not love. Sharing truth will give you points. But that's as far as it will go...
Fast forward:
Is Truth dead?
Yes, truth is dead!
No, truth will never die. Never! It will live for as long as you and I breathe in oxygen and give out carbon-dioxide to the rest of nature. It will grow grey hairs and transform from smooth to stretchy skin, but just like wisdom it will never die. Truth doesn't die, it gets passed on from one generation to another. Truth is written forever on our foreheads and cannot be permanently erased.
The Way the World Thinks:
I will shout from the rooftops, but I won't go down to the house to ask whether the people heard me right. I will preach from the podium, but I won't ask for the name of the young man who has beaten himself down so much. I will sit in the best spots, but I won't look towards the back of the room to see if a crippled man needs to sit down. I will act a movie, but I don't care about the little children watching- I want to be a Hollywood star. I will write a blog post, but I don't really care about the people reading it, I just want them to comment.
Is this love? No it isn't
Truth + Love:
Truth combined with love is what God has been offering us. We cannot just keep speaking the truth without showing love. There's a way to say the truth and portray love at the same time. Truth without love is as empty as a dark hole. There was a man in a fictional story who got beaten by road-side thieves, until blood oozed out of his skin and he lay there, half dead and half alive. A priest came by. I imagine he must have peeked at the body, but in order not to stain his priestly apparel with the half-dead man's blood, and since no one was looking, he kept walking onwards. I also imagine he was on the way to the temple. Maybe to intercede for the people. Maybe even to share the "truth." But his truth was dead because he had no love.
I want to share the truth, but it is empty without loving. I ache to spill the truth, but it is empty without sympathy. Something rises up in me when I get a revelation, a sort of supernatural high. But it is empty without showing that I know where you're coming from. It is empty without telling you I've been there before. It is empty when it seems like I'm on a pedestal that is untouched by blood. Truth + Love is God's message, not truth alone.
Truth is not dead. She just needs love to hold her hand.
For God so loved the world = Truth
That He gave His only Son = Love
(John 3:16)
Over to you. Do you think truth is the inseparable sister of love?
Have you ever heard the truth, but longed for a deeper personal connection, a loving touch?
Photo Credits: Redbubble
25 comments:
I have never looked at truth and love like this...amazing
how do you write such truth? amazing
They are absolutely inseparable. Great stuff!
Amazing post! Love the truth of it... Even the Bible says we should speak the truth in love. I dislike when people come to tell me their opinion even when it is the truth but they're motives are wrong. It is all about coming across as the "bigger" person. May we learn to speak truth in love...
Oh, I love this post so much!
Truth is a default part of love. If we say we have love in us, then by default, truth will prevail.
Thanks so much for sharing how these two are thoroughly intertwined!!!
@Harry...I hadn't too until I read that post...
@Anthy...don't I just wish it had something to do with me? LOL.
@Michael...so inseparable, but sometimes it looks like love is invisible and truth is the only thing visible.
@Homie...Amen. I also think it is a process...we will get there. Today, I read Matthew 6 where Jesus taught us how to pray, "Give us day to day our daily bread." So for today, Lord teach us how to speak the truth in love. And also tomorrow, and the next...and so on.
@NakedSha..."Truth is a default part of love," I like the way you put it. Thank God for this revelation for today.
Always thought of them separately, however, the breakdown you give has been re-thinking: it definitely is inseparable. lol! No wonder it takes a lot of people to find a church where they can be welcomed: maybe they find truth but not love; maybe they find love but not truth, but then again can u find love without truth? Hard to come across these two together in this world now?
@Mwajim...you just raised something important. I think you can find truth without love, but not love without truth. Love is truth in itself. *lightbulb moment*
The interesting thing is truth and love are the same thing. They come from the same source. Or shall I say, truth is the offspring of Love.
Forgive me, as a professor, I love maths.
Biblically,
God = Love
Jesus = Truth (Jesus, the way, truth and life)
Jesus = son of God
Thus, truth = offspring of Love.
Without Love, there can be no truth.
-LDP
http://dynamiqueprofesseur.blogspot.com
@LDP...you know what? You can't go wrong with the Math you just did. Wow. (gotta share that)
Great post..ive heard great things about this blog, I'm glad they are all true :)
Reminds me of the saying..."people dont care how much you know until they know how much you care".
@Chibaby...nice to meet you Chi! I'm glad about that, thank God for His inspiration. :) :) :)
@Jhazmyn...I think that quote solidifies this post. No one is going to listen to a professor who doesn't care about his students' success. They may listen, but his words will not penetrate into the deepest parts of their beings. Deep!
Word...!
...one can never separate Truth from love... God gave us the truth - Jesus Christ - because of His love for us.
We say, work and act in the truth because of the Love we have for God and for our fellow brothers and sisters.
Truth and Love fit together
like hand and glove
Well done luv, I love the way you bring such important things to light with such illustrations!
Much love & keep dreaming, keep writing :-) x
@Remi...thank you so much. I'd love to highlight something you said that is SOOOO important:
"We say, work and act in the truth because of the Love we have for God..."
What you've just said is a whole post on its own. I once wrote a post titled "Why I Do the Things I do,"( http://www.lightherlamp.com/2009/03/why-i-do-things-i-do.html ) and it resonates with your statement.
The reason we share the truth is because we've found a God who loves us, and because He's done so much for us. We've found a God who isn't dead, but alive. So we love Him with almost the same fire...and because we love Him that much, we tend to share the truth...effortlessly!
I like, I really like! Thanks so much Remi!
Truth and love/
Depends on whether you mean (i)truth/love the way world defines it
(ii)truth/love the way the religious but not godly preachers of today interpret it or
(iii) Truth/love the way Holy Spirit illuminates it from the Bible
If (i) or (ii), i have no say. If (iii), there is no difference. It is one and the same thing.
Sample: "God is love.." and "I am the ..Truth..".
So, You can not have one in exclusion of the other.
we can never live in truth without knowing the love of God... i pray that in these times, we would let our actions of showing God's love to our fellow neighbours speak louder than the mere words of truth that proceeds from our mouth. thanks 4 d post. j'aime
@Kenya.fm...I was writing from the standpoint of (iii). Yet, I think this post could be applied to simple truths in (i). I'll give an example: how to tell your friend that he/she is obese, you can do this with love...not saying it in such a way that will put that person off. Primarily though, this post speaks of (iii), and one of the earlier commenters, Le Dynamique Professeur pointed out the same thing that you've just said...he actually broke it down in this way:
The interesting thing is truth and love are the same thing. They come from the same source. Or shall I say, truth is the offspring of Love.
Biblically,
God = Love
Jesus = Truth (Jesus, the way, truth and life)
Jesus = son of God
Thus, truth = offspring of Love.
I agree with what both of you have said. It is very relevant. Truth cannot exist with love, biblically speaking. And it depends on what "truth" we're talking about here.
@RainyJoy...I say a big Amen to that prayer. I actually think that's the only way the church of our generation can move forward. We need to speak the truth in love. Not merely pointing fingers at the wrong-doings of others (according to the bible), but letting them see God through our lives...and yes, by loving them 100%. By not shying away or distancing ourselves from the world, but by being in their midst (the way Jesus was in the midst of tax collectors).
In my view, truth and love are separate concepts. However both concepts exist in a co-dependent relationship.
Truth on its own can be cold - as in the cold truth. Love is what makes truth relevant. Love is what gives truth its breath to live.
Conversely, love without truth simply does not exist.
Interesting, insightful and thought provoking post, Jaycee.
@Naijalines...thanks for mentioning that co-dependent theme that I think defines truth and love. Again, I really love LDP''s biblical/mathematical compilation:
Biblically,
God = Love
Jesus = Truth (Jesus, the way, truth and life)
Jesus = son of God
Thus, truth = offspring of Love.
I don't know...this Math thing keeps resounding in my head. And it emphasizes the point that you cannot separate the parent from the child, although they are separate people they have the "SAME GENES." Therefore, is it safe to say that LOVE & TRUTH are separate yet the same? I think it is...
We've all said the same thing in our own different ways...thank you so much.
YES O! e don die patapata! Starting from the church to the family & the society! TRUTH is the most priceless gift that can be given to someone! Can you believe it was about 5years ago i knew the forbidden fruit was SEX?! stupid me ehn? It was my hubby who is a Muslim that told me a xtain! Wetin Jehovah witness don cause ehn! When i told my fire-holy-ghost -speaking -in-tongue, younger brother, he said it was a BLATANT LIE! He was the first born-again in our family when he was in secondary school & he is 32 years old now! Yet he refused to believe it! Well, i believed when i heard Pastor Tunde Bakare of latter rain assembly[am a big fan of his!] made a passing comment on it when preaching one day! So sister, truth don YAMUTU!
are we speaking the truth in love?
there is a song written by acappella with this question as the opening lyrics
you can check it out
http://www.lyricsmania.com/teaching_the_truth_in_love_lyrics_acappella.html
i have to admit that truth i have love on the other hand is hard but as you so eloquently pointed out truth without love is meaningless rabble and so i pray for love to accompany the truth of His love.
@Kafo...the issue of saying the truth in love is another area where we need God's grace, so it's not going to be through any "humane" act of ours...because to be honest it's hard to love people sometimes. But God has never for one day stopped loving us. We need His love to overshadow our own love-life :)
Hi,
I took the picture above, I am happy for you to use it if you link back to it. My name is Redtempa, I can be found on Redbubble
www.redbubble.com/people/redtempa
The original picture is here; http://www.redbubble.com/people/redtempa/art/408363-urban-beauty
Thanks
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