Devotionals by Dr. M. Craig Barnes
Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. --
It is tempting to divide the world between "truth people" and "love people." Truth people are concerned more with being right than they are with maintaining relationships. So the last thing you want to do is disagree with a truth person, unless you're a truth person yourself, in which case you don't care about losing a relationship over an argument. By contrast, love people just want to know why can't we all get along? They have a few convictions, which they hold tentatively. But the only absolute truth for them is that no truth should be held too absolutely, because it isn't loving to those who disagree.
The Bible breaks apart this false dichotomy between truth people and love people by claiming that pure truth leads to deep love from the heart. If you recklessly alienate people by your convictions, you have not yet discovered the pure, reconciling truth of Jesus Christ. And if you are trying to love people by ignoring the truth of their need for a Savior, your love is nothing more than petty sentimentality.
Jesus wasn't any less loving when he chastised the Pharisees than when he picked up children and placed them on his lap. Who wants a doctor who refuses to tell you the truth about your body out of fear of hurting your feelings? And who wants a Savior who will only tell you what you want to hear? It is neither loving nor the truth.
-- Craig Barnes