When people use the phrase "speaking the truth in love", it seems to me that they are often talking about a way to deliver bad news in a pretty package. The idea being that love somehow acts like the "spoonful of sugar" for the unpleasant medicine. Duly noting Mary Poppins' great wisdom, I think there is a more intimate connection between truth and love than that of packaging and present or between medicine and sweetener. The poet has said that beauty is truth. I think that love is truth. If what we speak does not have at its heart the concern for the person we are addressing and regard for the relationship we have with them then it is not really true. Sometimes what one tries to pass off as truth are sincerely held opinions. Other times it is deep seated emotion.
I once heard a couple of friends of differing philosophical perspectives arrive at the conclusion that the ground of being is love. Truth, I think, must be moored in that ground. What we speak that has lost the connection is no longer truth. Factual accuracy is no substitute for love.
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ReplyDeleteI think Paul uses the belt or girdle to represent truth in the armor of God for good reason (Eph. 6). The belt or girdle is what holds the rest of the armor together and serves often as a place to keep the weapon as well. Similarly, truth holds us together spiritually, both as individuals and in relationship to one another.
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